Kyle’s Review

iZombie finds a way to meld humor with the strange and morbid, and “Abra Cadaver” is no different. There were more yucks in this week’s episode than in most others as the gang investigates the murder of Sid Wicked, a magician in the vein of Criss Angel, at Presto-Fest, a magic convention. We found plenty of red herrings—some literal, others figurative—for the weekly mystery, the relationship story arcs were handled in a subtle and artful way, Liv and Blaine make a strange dynamic duo, magic—okay, it’s more prestidigitation—was on display at every available turn, and to paraphrase Ravi, the brains Liv was on this week were the best brains ever.

I may argue Liv has had better side-effects from the brains she’s eaten but the morose Sid Wicked played off of Major’s doubts about his and Liv’s relationship. Liv’s like Britney (Spears) only sometimes she’s “Hit Me, Baby, One More Time” with certain brains, and others she’s shaved head Britney. Sid may be more shaved head Britney and the results lead to Major questioning who he’s dating: Liv or the brains she eats. But Liv’s open about her flaws; Major isn’t. I don’t know whether or not Major’s drug problem is still an issue. If I had one small gripe with iZombie, it would be that Major’s drug addiction seems to come and go. As far as Ravi’s love life is concerned, he dumps his anglophile girlfriend. Even though he loves his native country, there is a thing as too much England, and Ravi’s ex gets almost everything wrong; they celebrated Guy Fawkes Day almost two weeks late. This breakup frees up Ravi to date Peyton. I think the two will get together eventually but iZombie’s pumping the breaks, for now. For being a show that was supposed to be about relationships, iZombie does a much better job than other CW shows of integrating romance into other story elements.

There was one element missing: Stacey Boss. iZombie did a great job of setting up this menacing human antagonist and was conspicuously absent during “Abra Cadaver. Even so, I didn’t miss Stacey Boss that much. I don’t think iZombie can omit him for too many weeks, it has other story threads to tackle, but Blaine and Liv working together to unearth Seattle’s zombie killer (Major) was satisfyingly awkward and tied several threads.

iZombie is working toward a strong mid-season finale and “Abra Cadaver” took several steps in the right direction.