After a very long wait and a lukewarm season 3, iZombie has finally returned and has much to deliver/improve on for this viewer. In case you were under a rock, the secret of zombies is out, there may be a cure fro zombies and lots of people have been infected with the zombie virus. How would the world react to zombies, how will things have changed, what will Liv's place in the world be now, and what will Ravi become? Those were some of the lingering questions fans were left to ponder while we waited for the CW to announce the return of TeamZ. Luckily for us we got an earlier return than last year (on Mondays) and it turns out the premiere did a nice job of getting us acquainted with how things are currently looking in Seattle.
What Ravi says about this new world taking some getting used to, seems like it could be spoken from the point of the viewer of the viewers. It's been 3 months since the world learned about zombies and boy how things have changed! Since the crazies at Fillmore Graves who were bent on destroying humanity have infected most of the population with the zombie virus, it's strange to see that Fillmore Graves is now essentially responsible for keeping things in Seattle in check. Fillmore is responsible for enforcing the curfew, keeping zombies in line, manufacturing brain tubes for zombies all the while still trying to build up their own ranks. Chase Graves is really close to becoming a militant dictator and I'm worried, are you? It's interesting that the show chose to skip showing the transition of their power here, and we get plopped right in to the aftermath, but it's not something I wouldn't be opposed to seeing at some point. The complete and utter muckiness of this situation is what makes the political commentary of it all so interesting. The show does an excellent job of really putting us into "New Seattle" by not giving us the time to really sweat the details. We learn as we go and that's such a great thing for a show like iZombie.
Liv's case of the week is another great example of why this show has such a devout following despite having procedural aspects. Sure, on the surface we get to see Liv act obnoxious as a Seahawk's fan, but we also get to see not just how the investigations have changed, but also how the zombie outbreak has been effecting the local economy, the culture and the family dynamics. There was a lot to unpack with this case and I couldn't be more happy. We got to learn how being walled in tarnished the victim's dream job, led him to a life of factory work packing brains and ultimately helped fuel his intense hatred of zombies. This hate made him incapable of accepting his son once he found out he was a zombie which in turn made his wife kill him as she was fed up.I loved the whole in the closet/coming out as a zombie angle to the case, because it drew the right amount of tension and was pretty believable as a motive. Maybe it was because of who I am personally that I was able to just understand how being something you never asked for can really break a family. This never came off as an after school special to me and I think that 4 seasons in, a story like this felt earned for iZombie and it definitely worked given the state of Seattle and the world we actually live in today. We learn that the whole zombies eat brains, get visions and help solve murders seems to be being seen as beneficial to the force as there appear to be multiple zombies working on the force and doing what Liv does. (Which begs the question, why is Liv still doing it? Wouldn't be easier to just have the cops do it now? Nothing to against Liv as this is the entire point of the show, but wouldn't it be easier to have an actual cop assist on investigations to avoid any hiccups that can occur form just having a citizen who happens to work with the cops do it? No one is questioning that now and I'm bugged) Lt. Bozzio(!!!!!) is even in on the investigative fun. Liv can openly admit to eating brains, seeing visions and actually explain why she's acting so out-of-pocket which means it'll be interesting how the show adjusts to play for laughs as everyone else not knowing the truth and their reaction to it made it more special.(People are also aware of full-own zombie mode as well) My only real complaint about the Liv stuff this week, is one I had for most of the season last year, Liv is just set fodder. She's there to help solve cases, but there's nothing interesting for her character's growth, nothing that makes her stand out other than the brain of the week. Peyton's story, while minimal, seemed to provide a bit more character depth than Liv got and it sucks as Liv built this show. I can accept that this show has morphed into more of ensemble, I just hate that Liv has been pretty sidelined. As a non-sports fan, I didn't find the brain that amusing, but I did find the use of it very important for the show to use in order to help ease us into what Seattle has become.
This episode was so great because it really just provided us with pieces of how the world has adjusted to the knowledge of zombies throughout the epsilon. The wall went up in three days, visions are not admissible in court, Seattle's stadium is no longer being used, potential zombies are getting their homes tagged and there are kids who have to sell there bodies for black-market brain tubes that aren't even good. iZombie was always so smart in how it approached the idea of a zombie apocalypse and when the show started it offered a different take on zombies and that's why it stood out. It's a tall order to take on a full scale zombie apocalypse, but the show has smartly taken on the task on a much smaller scale by regulating the outbreak to Seattle. We don't get all the answers to how the world responds, and the show treats the viewers introduction to the world as business as usual, but it works. I didn't have the most fun watching this episode, but I did find it engaging and that seems way more important that this point in the show's run. We've got 12 more episodes to go and I'm sure the fun will come but right now this episode has to set the stage of season and it did. Am I ready for some zombies? Yes, Yes I am. B
What did you think of the premiere? What are your theories going forward? Sound off below!
The next episode of iZombie, Blue Bloody, airs 3/5 on The CW!
Source: Myfilmscity
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