TV Review: iZombie (Season 4 Episode 2)

After last week's impressive season premiere, iZombie's second outing this season falls a little flatter; the novelty of New Seattle is starting to wear off a little, and while some things have changed, fundamentally, it's back to business as usual for all of our characters.

After the novelty of seeing the new world of Seattle following the zombie takeover at the end of last season, it's back to business as usual this week, with another case of the week for Liv and Clive and whilst I do enjoy the ridiculous crimes that face our intrepid team on iZombie, it feels like the show is avoiding some of the tougher questions that come both from its general premise and from the new situations our characters find themselves in.

For instance, Liv. Whilst I adore Rose McIver and getting to see her try on all this different personas each week depending on which brain she has consumed (and this week's one is quite the doozy, Rose McIver is at her acting best, playing a stuffy socialite, who is murdered by a golf ball to the brain), we are four seasons in, and I still don't feel like I know LIV as a person very well. We know all her different personas, but we never really get to see the person (well, zombie) behind the brains.

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The show has touched on the fact that when she eats someone's brains, she is taken over by their personality and does and says things she would not usually do/say, but we never really get to see Liv's perspective on this and how she feels about it. It would be nice if at some point IZombie delves into this in more depth and we finally get to see more of Liv beyond whatever particular brain she is on that week. I also think that given the rise of the #metoo movement recently, the show desperately needs to address the issue of sexual consent whilst on brains, as this week's episode shows Liv sleeping with Major whilst on dowager brain, and it's not addressed whether it is Liv or the brain that she is on influencing that decision. 

Still, I can't deny, that this week's case of the week was entertaining and Rose McIver fully threw herself into the role of posh, twatty, old lady. At first it felt like the case of the week and what was happening in New Seattle were weirdly disjointed, but in the end, everything came together in a very pleasing way. No one can get out of New Seattle because of the wall, and one of the suspects in Liv and Clive's case of the week, has a desperately sick son who needs to get out in order to get treatment. This alllowed us to meet Renegade, the leader of a smuggling group who get people out of New Seattle, which was probably the most interesting new development in this week's episode. I look forward to seeing how this moves forward in future episodes and hopefully delving into this Renegade character more as she seems very interesting. 

I may be alone here, but I tire of Liv and Major's relationship. They are too fundamentally different, they don't work together well at all and whilst I did agree somewhat with Major's speech to Liv about her being self-righteous and thinking she's the only good zombie, it's not like Major is much better, he has always been incredibly self righteous as well. It was only a matter of time before this relationship imploded, and I for one, hope that it stays broken this time.

On a lighter note, we get to see Clive and Ravi interact a little more this episode and I implore the writers that we get more of this, because their discussions about Clive's sex issues (his girlfriend is a zombie, so they can't have sex), were hands down the funniest parts of this episode. 

The one part of the episode that confused me and didn't really seem to fit, in what was, for the most part, a tightly plotted hour, was this subplot with Angus and his cult following. It just felt very out of place and not totally necessary (though the use of Take Me To Church in his sermon was sublime!), although I am sure iZombie has a plan for this and it will all come together in the end, but in this particular instance, it didn't quite fit.

This was a decent episode, but there are many issues that iZombie desperately needs to address surrounding Liv and the zombie brains and I for one, hope that this season is the season to do so.

iZombie is available to watch on Netflix, with new episodes arriving every Tuesday.