Kyle’s Review

I like the word play iZombie has used for its titular character Liv. The titles that use Liv’s name are cute and reveal what you should expect during the episode. “Liv and let Clive” was fun as is this week’s “Maternity Liv.” The episode itself fell short of its punny title.

As you can guess, Liv eats the brain of a deceased pregnant woman. Fortunately, the baby survives so we don’t have that death on our conscious. Unfortunately, the woman whose brain Liv eats gets reduced to motherhood. iZombie has walked a thin line between deep and stereotypical victim characters but the mother on Liv’s slab this week had only one defining characteristic: she was pregnant. To make matters worse, Liv’s zombie hunk ate the brains of a homosexual male and that caused the zombie hunk to prance around in stereotypical fashion.

Even the weekly mystery was a yawn. iZombie bucked the trend (and reality) of someone close to a murder victim as the culprit for a nonsensical solution. That hurt. Usually, I can count on the mystery to do work if the interpersonal stuff doesn’t. Even worse was that iZombie set up a great who done it that could’ve pinned the murder on a jealous boyfriend or her overbearing parents. Instead, we’re left scratching our heads.

But all wasn’t horrible. The police lieutenant – the one proven zombie at police HQ – might have figured out that Liv’s a zombie too and I liked how Major and Detective Babineaux could be at odds with Major introducing the press to the missing kids case. iZombie has plenty to work with in regards to its ongoing arcs. We’ll have to see which direction they’ll take. Hopefully, they’ll make some wiser choices and get back to some deeper characters and mysteries.

Verdict:

“Maternity Liv” was the weakest episode of iZombie so far but folks who follow the ongoing arcs had something to cheer for.