Kyle’s Review

iZombie’s mid-season finale had some fun. A zombie solving crimes is already a ridiculous premise, but “Cape Town” made plenty of tongue-in-cheek references to the CW’s other DC Comics TV shows when Liv dons a mask and spandex to fight crime. That’s right, iZombie presented Liv with the brains of a shop class, high school teacher by day, caped vigilante by night brain. The show could’ve gone the way of Liv building spice racks, but the obvious choice was Liv spouting justice one-liners and delivering monologues about Seattle’s dark underbelly. Seriously, I almost soiled myself with some of the one-liners. Per usual, the brains Liv is on for “Cape Town” worked, but I didn’t care for the expositional dialogue.

I’m not sure what iZombie’s viewership numbers look like, but the show must be getting a lot of newbies, since “Cape Town” hit pause two or three times to slather some backstory. Blaine introduced himself, which was odd, and then he spent five minutes recapping what happened to him in the first season. As if that wasn’t enough, Major did a similar thing with his would be zombie victim. He decides not to kill her and then vents his spleen for about five minutes, bemoaning his lousy year (everything that happened to him this season). What makes Major’s scene even more problematic is that he chose to spare a zombie call girl, who had no family and was willing to take her own unlife, rather than saving the horde of loving zombie dads with young children he offed earlier this season. For those not in the know, in iZombie’s world, zombies are humans who just happen to like the taste of human brains. Somehow Major not giving two shakes about fathers with children who will miss them made him more of a monster. Still, I’m writing off these two exposition hangovers as the show gaining new viewers and giving those viewers context, but there had to be a better way to do this.

Despite hitting rewind a few times, “Cape Town” made plenty of strides forward. I liked how Blaine is working behind the scenes in both the zombie world, which puts him at odds with Max Rager’s CEO, and that he has a man on the inside of Seattle’s largest organized crime syndicate, which gets his grubby fingers in Mr. Boss’s pie. I wasn’t sure how the show would stitch these characters together but I’m glad Blaine, a character who is trying to become a big bad, is the show’s touchstone between two current big bads. iZombie could have a large falling out at the end of this season and still have enough threads for next season, while developing a through line for the entire series. Even with all this going on in the background, we saw plenty of change with iZombie’s various interpersonal relationships.

I still don’t know if Major and Liv are supposed to end up together. Romance may be in iZombie’s air but the show does a decent job of not gagging its viewers with it. Major and Liv aren’t Ross and Rachel (Friends) or Penny and Leonard (Big Bang Theory). You didn’t see Major and Liv for the first time and know they were going to be together for a significant period of time. This separates iZombie from many other shows that hook up two of its main characters. Liv and Major keep things from one another, so their history of deception also leads to the conclusion they can’t end up together, but the best thing iZombie added was Liv questioning how much the brains she eats affect her personality. She knew Major was lying to her and the suspicious brains she ate last week gave her a push in not trusting him, and the only thing she likes about being a zombie is that she can help people and solve crimes, and this week’s vigilante brains had her taking a more active role in crime fighting.

I won’t say any more and risk giving away spoilers, but let’s just say iZombie continues to trend in the right direction, and the bombshells dropped at the end of “Cape Town” should keep interest high during the holidays.

Thanks for reading.