What iZombie Says About Living (and Dying) Authentically

The zombie has had a long and storied place in pop culture, but it certainly hit a creative peak of popularity on TV in the 2010s. To one end of the spectrum, we have juggernaut hits such as The Walking Dead (2010–2022), but to the other, more bizarre corners, there are experiments such as Netflix’s charming horror-comedy about a realtor and her undead husband, The Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2018). Somewhere in the middle was iZombie, a supernatural procedural dramedy that ran for five seasons on The CW. The show never quite became a bona fide breakout hit, but it did find an enthusiastic audience among viewers who appreciated its snappy wit, charming characters, and the combination of episodic crime-solving with a long-term arc that explored zombie mythology.

The show was a loose adaptation of the Vertigo comic by writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred. In the comic, a zombie named Gwen Dylan works as a gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon, where eating a brain every 30 days keeps her memories and mental acuity intact. Her two best friends are a 1960s ghost and a were-terrier named Scott “Spot.” Gwen and Spot deal with all kinds of monsters and paranormal activity, including vampires, mummies, a demon, the gateway to hell, and even the afterlife’s version of Groundhog Day. The TV adaptation, which was created by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright, kept the core conceit but changed almost everything else. The city of Seattle became the stand-in for Eugene, and the only real trace of Allred’s style was in the show’s comic book-style opening credits and a rendition of the song “Stop, I’m Already Dead” by Deadboy & The Elephant Men.

Liv Moore (Rose McIver), the show’s heroine, was an overachieving medical student on her way to becoming a surgeon when her life was derailed after a boat party went up in a massacre of bodies. A combination of the energy drink Max Rager and a bad batch of the designer drug Utopium had caused the outbreak. Liv was scratched by a zombie and escaped, but by the time Liv came to on the beach in a body bag she had been dragged out to, she was already undead and desperately hungry for brains. She broke up with her fiancé, Major (Robert Buckley), in order to keep him safe, grew apart from her best friend, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and took a job at the medical examiner’s office in order to be near a constant supply of brains.

Brains, Villains, and the Cast We All Remembered

Of course, every good show needs a villain, and iZombie found one in Blaine DeBeers (David Anders), the zombie who bit Liv on the boat during the attack. After becoming an unwitting dealer of the tainted Utopium, Blaine turned to human brain trafficking to infect his wealthy clients and turn them into new zombies, essentially creating a self-sustaining group of paying customers dependent on him. Blaine’s powerful combination of charisma, viciousness, and personal tragedy made him an audience favorite as both an antagonist and a potential ally.

One of the cleverer running jokes of the show was the many puns in the names and details sprinkled throughout. Major’s surname, “Lillywhite,” Blaine’s butcher shop in season one, “Meat Cute,” Ravi and Major’s dog they adopted, “Minor,” or a zombie bar called “The Scratching Post.” The show also got a lot of mileage out of fans getting to see Liv’s food creations based on the ingredients of the brains she ate, from stir-fries to pizza roll mixes to hushpuppies. Blaine, as a wealthy gourmet chef, specialized in dishes such as gnocchi stuffed with medulla oblongata.

Romance was another prominent feature of the show. While Liv and Major were conceived to be the main couple on the show, many fans preferred her season one love interest, Lowell Tracey (Bradley James), a British musician whose zombie status had ended his career. The two found kinship in having the same secret, and he and Ravi had a great rapport. Sadly, Lowell’s story came to an end when he died in a confrontation with Blaine while trying to take him down, much to the fans’ fury.

Over the show’s five seasons, a notable and colorful supporting cast was introduced. Jessica Harmon’s Dale Bozzio, an FBI investigator on an early case, would later become Clive’s partner. Bryce Hodgson would first be the charming patient known as Scott E. in a mental hospital before returning as his evil twin, Don E., in Blaine’s brain-trafficking business. Some fun cameos helped with the flavor, from sleazy weatherman Johnny Frost (Daran Norris) to Max Rager CEO Vaughan du Clark (Steven Weber). Rita (Leanne Lapp), Vaughan’s daughter, is killed in the season two finale in the grimly ironic fashion of the show, devouring her father’s brains after going “full Romero” before being put down herself.

The show’s most consistent running gag was Liv’s personalities that she took on from the brains she ate. From a dominatrix to an old, grouchy man, a kids’ basketball coach to an A/V professor who dabbled in LARPing, McIver had to switch up multiple accents and mannerisms each episode, and frequently delivered memorable comedic and dramatic performances. Some of the brain-specific effects were also played strictly for laughs, such as Lowell eating a gay man’s brain before a date with Liv or Liv, Blaine, and Don E. sharing conspiracy theories after all eating paranoia-inducing brains.

One memorable episode titled “Flight of the Living Dead” follows Liv eating the brain of her free-spirited former sorority sister Holly (Tasya Teles), who died in a skydiving accident after an apparent murder-suicide. Experiencing Holly’s enthusiasm for life for just a moment causes Liv to reexamine her play-it-safe existence in the aftermath of becoming a zombie.