iZOMBIE:
The Complete First Season (2015/Warner DVD Set)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B- Episodes: B+
When
I first saw the previews for iZOMBIE, I was a bit skeptical
but after giving it a chance, I quickly found myself binge-watching
the whole thing to completion and coming out satisfied. In many ways
this is the anti-Walking Dead and closer akin to Buffy The
Vampire Slayer. Based loosely on a comic book series by
DC/Vertigo, iZOMBIE: The Complete First Season is
funny, a little creepy, and has a mythos that shows us what role a
modern-day zombie may play in our current society.
Much
of the show's charm falls on the shoulders of its lead star, Rose
McIver, who is pretty cute in the way that Sarah Michelle Gellar was
cute in Buffy but at the same time has enough range to make
her character believable, especially in the scenes where she 'rages
out' and shifts from being her spunky self to an aggressive blood
chomping zombie. In many ways, the show is similar to CW's The
Flash and Arrow in terms of screenplay structure (and
voice over through the opening and much of the mid and ending
segments) and a lot of character archetypes (like the cool sidekick,
the angsty villain, etc.) that are explored here as well.
The
show takes place in Seattle, where we meet our hero -
medical resident Olivia (Liv) Moore - who is very good at what she
does. We're talking A+ student, perfect fiancé...
the works. Her only downside is that she feels like a bit of an
outsider when it comes to social events. After saving a patient's
life, Liv is asked to a boat party by a co-worker, which she
hesitantly agrees to go to after some encouragement by her fiancé
(who strangely doesn't go with her). At said boat party, a zombie
outbreak happens and she is left for dead. She awakens in a black
bag with terrible scratches on her arms, pale skin, and bleached
hair. Now that she is of the living dead, she no longer has an
appetite or a normal sleep schedule - all she simply craves is human
brains (which she pre-heats with noodles or sometimes takes raw).
Having
lost her ambition and ultimately becoming a stranger to her family
and friends, Liv takes a job at the King County morgue (where she can
quickly feed her new addiction with the brains of the recently dead)
and unwillingly shares her secret with her boss, Dr. Ravi
Chakrabarti. Whenever she eats a victim's brain, Liv inherits some
of their personality traits temporarily that overcome her own. She
also experiences flashbacks which often give her clues as to the
nature of the murder. Liv uses this new ability to help the Seattle
Police Department solve crimes, passing herself off as a psychic
consultant and finding new meaning in her afterlife. Along the way,
however, she discovers that she isn't the only Zombie and encounters
a new enemy with a connection to her own transformation.
Thirteen
episodes are in this Season One
set, which spans three DVDs and includes the excellent Pilot
episode, plus Brother Can You Spare a Brain?, The
Exterminator, Liv and Let Clive, Flight of the Living Dead, Virtual
Reality Bites, Maternity Liv, Dead Air, Patriot Brains, Mr. Berserk,
Astroburger, Dead Rat Live Rat Brown Rat White Rat, and the
season finale episode Blaine's World.
This
review pertains to the DVD edition, which is presented in standard
definition with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and a
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 track.
Extras
include:
The
2014 comic panel for iZOMBIE and Deleted Scenes.
Approaching
its second season, I am definitely going to keep tuning in to iZOMBIE
and I would suggest it to horror fans and young adults. It's one of
the better new shows that I've seen recently that seems to have
fallen off the radar. Hopefully, this great release will help widen
its audience.
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
