TV Review: iZombie (Season 4, Episode 10)

 

As we approach the final episodes of Season 4 of iZombie, the stakes keep getting higher and higher.

"Yipee Ki Brain, Motherscratcher" is no exception. For the most part it was a relatively pedestrian hour of TV, but once again, iZombie sticks the landing, with a game changing ending that will definitely have repercussions for the last few episodes.

For the most part very little actually happens in this episode. The show attempts to use a lot of meta humour, which can sometimes work well, but in the case of this episode, they are trying so hard to be meta that it's not funny - it's just irksome. Liv's brain this week isn't the most enjoyable or memorable of the brains that she's had this season, she's basically on rage-a-holic brain, and it's not particularly entertaining to watch, the only good things that came out of it were Liv and Ravi's Die Hard puns and the Hamilton reference just before the murder. 

I also wish that they could be more consistent about the effects of brains on Liv, because in previous weeks she has been completely overwhelmed by the brain and yet this week, she seems quite able to switch it off and sit happily with Ravi and Isobel watching TV. I don't mind if she has these complete personality shifts when she's on brains, but they have to be consistent with it. 

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It felt like this episode didn't really know what it was doing. There was no real resolution to the murder of the week, or if there was it was totally brushed over and I missed it. They try to intergrate a story with Liv's Renegade operation, with one of the coyotes being arrested, but it lacks any kind of dramatic impact because it is instantly resolved by Liv scratching him. There's a whole storyline with Isobel and Ravi, that revolves around Ravi trying to stop her from losing her virginity, which is kind of weird. The show was throwing all of its eggs at this episode and yet none of them really seeemed to land very well.

The Isobel/Ravi stuff, despite the slightly weird, bordering on a little creepy storyline about Ravi trying to stop her losing her virginity, is for the most part actually kind of sweet. Ravi's acting as sort of a surrogate father to Isobel, which is really endearing and shows us a side of Ravi we haven't seen before. The scenes with the two of them together were the shining lights for me in an otherwise dull episode.

The brain of the week, for the most part, seems to function to give Clive another opportunity to open up about his doomed relationship with Bozzio and I am SO over this storyline. They are just going in circles over and over again and whilst Malcolm Goodwin puts a good deal of emotion and portrays Clive's torn feelings well, I just can't bring myself to care. I was so hoping that the kiss with Michelle last week was a sign that things would be moving forward, but we are stuck in the same old circle.

The ending is the one redeeming factor of the episode, although it felt like it was somewhat rushed and some of the time that was wasted with Ravi/Liv/Isobel Zombie High montages could have been used here. Major finally finds out that Liv is the new Renegade and in typical Major fashion, flies off the handle. It'll be interesting to see what Major does now that he knows, because he's clearly not happy and I don't think he'll be signing up to join the team like Peyton, but equally I don't think he'd turn Liv in.

The Liv/Major stuff has been kind of stagnating this season, so the end of this episode seems like the kick up the butt they both need, as well as injecting some interest into an otherwise very dull episode.

I was really disappointed in this week's episode, especially since last week's was so good. Hopefully the next few episodes will up the ante a bit, we really need it heading into the season finale!

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