Unexpected Zombie TV Show Enjoyment

I can be a bit squeamish when it comes to my TV show choices. Medical dramas are not my thing because I don’t like seeing people sliced open.  A two second scene of eyeball gouging (shown on Wil Wheaton’s now-canceled show) solidified in my mind that I’ll never watch Game of Thrones.  And Walking Dead? Definitely not.

So why am I currently loving iZombie on CW?

First of all, the show is not gory. Yes, there are occasional bouts of blood, but they are minimal. In the pilot, a boat party turns zombie feeding frenzy, but there are so many quick cuts that the brain eating and dismemberment is more implied than shown. In the second episode, a zombie kills two people in a car. All you see, though, are the windows suddenly get red.

How do they handle the brain eating? In a very matter of fact manner. Liv, the zombified main character, works at a morgue so she gets her brains from people who are already dead. She doesn’t just munch on whole brains, though. She cooks them in noodles or adds them to pizza pockets. She also adds tons of hot sauce because apparently undead taste buds don’t work well.

The lack of gore wouldn’t be enough to sell me on the show, though, were not for the twist. When our zombie protagonist eats someone’s brains, she takes on some of the memories, talents, and quirks of the people who once possessed said gray matter.

In the first episode, Liv becomes a kleptomaniac – pocketing things because they are there. The second episode shows her getting very "passionate" about many things. (Leading to a very funny "good cop, horny cop" scene.)

Liv winds up using her "skills" to help a police officer solve murders. Eat some brains, see flashes of the person’s life, use them to crack the case. The officer thinks she’s a psychic, but we’ll see how long she can keep that ruse up.

For the most part, Liv keeps her zombie nature suppressed, but when she gets angry, her eyes turn red and she goes "full on zombie." Woe be anyone who gets her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

We’re only two shows in and iZombie is definitely shaping up to be a very fun show, which was a pleasant surprise considering that the main character wants to eat brains.

NOTE: The "Zombie TV" image above is by cliparteles and is available from OpenClipArt.org.