I love a good story, and if you’re here chances are pretty good that you do, too. And if you’re here because you like my books, chances are also pretty good that you and I share similar sensibilities and tastes. With that in mind, I’ve decided to start a new (semi-)regular feature here at the un-blog in which I geek out and tell you about stuff I like in various media, from books to TV and movies to podcasts and video series and blogs, all of which I believe there’s a good chance you’ll like, too.
These won’t be reviews, and they won’t be in-depth analysis. They’ll just be quick (more or less, depending on excited I am or how much I have to say about any given thing) recommendations telling you what the thing is and why I like it, and why I think you might like it, too.
And I’m going to kick off the whole shebang by telling you about my current favorite TV show, a quirky little zombie dramedy on the CW called iZombie:
Liv Moore, a young medical intern, decides to attend a party to blow off steam after a long hospital shift. At the party, all hell breaks loose as people inexplicably start killing and eating each other. Liv miraculously manages to escape with nothing more than a scratched arm–or so she thinks.
It quickly becomes clear that scratches weren’t her only party souvenir as Liv’s hair and skin turn white and she develops an insatiable craving for human brains. She tries to hide it, but she can’t deny the truth to herself — she’s a zombie.
But she’s not a killer, and so she quits her hospital job and goes to work at the medical examiner’s office, where she has an all-access pass to fresh brains from the recently deceased. It seems like the perfect zombie life, except for one catch: she takes on the personality traits of the people whose brains she eats, and experiences their memories in the form of uncontrollable visions — a minor little inconvenience that she parlays into good by posing as a psychic and partnering with a homicide detective to solve her donors’ murders.
Oh, and if she doesn’t eat brains on the regular, she devolves into a mindless, feral, Walking Dead-style animated corpse.
And that’s the premise of the latest show from Rob Thomas, best known as the creator of Veronica Mars. Liv’s life is further helped and complicated by a delightful cast that includes her clueless ex-fiance, her best friend who’s also clueless, her not-so-clueless boss, and Blaine, the douchey zombie patient zero who’s responsible for infecting Liv and profiting off his victims’ unique dietary requirements, perfectly played by David Anders.
If you’ve been avoiding this show because you hate zombies–whether you’re afraid of them or you’re just sick and tired of them–I’m here to tell you that you’re making a mistake. It’s resemblance to the rest of the zombie genre is purely superficial. iZombie is like Gilmore Girls had a baby with The Walking Dead and then ran away with the baby to raise it on her own and instill it with important values such as a quirky sense of humor, fast-paced witty banter, loads of sass and good fashion sense. It’s light on the horror and zombie gore and heavy on the relationship angst and hilarious dialogue. Although on the surface it’s a procedural, murder-of-the-week show, it has villains and season-long arcs that make it truly binge-worthy and addictive.
You’ll like iZombie if you like: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars or anything else in Rob Thomas’s ouvre, movies like Shawn of the Dead or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.
And you probably think I’ll say you’ll like it if you like Dominion of the Damned, which is true, but you’ll also enjoy it if you like Restless Spirits–especially if you’re a fan of Ron.
Season 3 just got underway a few weeks ago on the CW, but you can catch up with the first two seasons on Netflix. So go watch it, y’all!
