Take Three: iZombie

iZombie: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Exterminator” (B+)

Just three episodes in, I feel like this show has both already achieved a good sense of itself and is also open to new exploration of its characters and their motivations. Liv taking on the personality traits of the murder victims whose brains she eats is extremely interesting, and in this case becoming more like the unfeeling hitman was definitely problematic and disconcerting. Her discovery of Marcy and her pause in jumping in to save Ravi from certain zombification was troubling, and it’s good to see that she forced herself to eat a fresh set of brains so that she wouldn’t hang on to what it’s like not to have emotions. Clive and Liv’s dynamic is great, as he trusts her alleged psychic abilities implicitly but isn’t content to rely on them for proof in a case, pushing her to help him get to a concrete point that is irrefutable and can be used in court. I like that he had Ravi come to the station dressed in a sanitation worker’s uniform and positioned in just the right place so that he couldn’t be identified as a fraud and the guilty party would confess to the murder Liv was certain he had committed. Incorporating Peyton into the storyline worked well too, as she interacted professionally with Liv and threatened to have her biggest case sidelined by Liv’s visions. It’s a good thing that they were able to figure out a way for her to still win and put the right man in jail. Left to his own devices, Blair continues to be creepy, and it seems like he’s going to create as many zombies as he can if only for the profit potential.