Once Upon a Time: Season 1, Episode 3- Snow Falls

 "There's no such thing as love at first sight..."

This episode gives us, in the fairytale flashback scenes, a fascinating deconstruction of the Snow White story. After offending the Evil Queen, Snow White has been framed and outlawed, which is ho he ends up meting ad connectng with Prince Charming (James!) in an exciting adventure involving a bridge ad some trolls. They ens up parting but clearly like each other; there's more of this story to tell. And I like how Snow White is revealed to be a kick-as hero with loads of agency, not a simpering, passive princess who just stands around looking pretty and incubating babies. That matters.

The present day scenes riff nicely on this, as the Prince Charming figure (David?) is in a coma, thus parted from Mary Margaret. And, despite Henry's plan to bring the lover together, Regina rather cleverly improvises and finds an apparent wife, who may well be the girl he was about to marry in the fairytale scenes. All this is done with the collusion of the local doctor, played by Blaine off of iZombie.

This is clever, both at the level of Storybrooke presumable being intended by the Evil Queen as a hell, and as a nicely meta litte deconstruction both of the Snow White myth and of love and first sight. If only the dialogue was as clever as the plotting. But I'm still very much enjoying this.

iZombie: All's Well That Ends Well

"This is why the time of patty cake is over..."

Last night Mrs Llamastrangler and I bit the bullet. We’d been delaying seeing the last ever iZombie, because then it would be over. And we weren’t disappointed, although there was a lot to cram in. It’s not the creators’ fault, but would it really be too much to extend the running time beyond a paltry forty-two minutes...?

Anyway, we begin with half an hour of narrative in which all the plot threads are concluded and, although there’s a lot of dramatic tension (I love the moment where Liv, Clive and Ravi are caught on the plane- only to find the police officer to be on their side) and drama but things end as happily as the title implies. I love the way both Blaine and Don E end up down the well with Blaine’s sad for all eternity, rushed though the sequence inevitably is, and how we think for w while that Peyton may be dead after her fatal shooting although, of course, that pervert Blaine scratches her. We also have time to see Clive become a dad (aaah!) and Major’s heroic sacrifice to prove in live telly that the cure works; it’s not his fault that Ravi made damn sure he survived. And as for Enzo, his fate is poetic; the ultimate zombie racist dies human. It’s a pity that Durkins seems to survive.

But we then end with the coda, ten years later- a brave choice but one that pretty much works and gives happy endings for our heroes, perhaps a little trite but not unearned. Zombieism can be cured now so zombies are not a threat- is it that simple? At least Liv and Major are together. That kiss...!

Yes, it’s rushed. But within its forty-two minute constraints the episode works well. And I salute the firm decision, heralded by the title, not to go grimdark and have a defiantly happy ending. Wonderful,  and a fitting end to a series I will very much miss.

iZombie: Bye, Zombies

"We are in the South now. You don't put stolen jewellery in a black man's pocket."

The penultimate episode. Nearly there.

Confession time; this is a heist episode (it's too close to the end for murders of the week), and the pop culture references centre around Mission Impossible and Ocean's 11, neither of which I happen to have seen. Still, I'll do my best.

So Ravi sent the tainted Utopium to a scientist at the CDC in the hop of a zombie cure... and the money-grabbing bastard has realised there's more money in palliatives rather than cures. This is why state health services should always be allowed to veto this kind of evil. Anyway, the point is we have a pretext for Liv, Ravi and- after some persuading- a Clive who is touchingly emotional, to carry out said heist in a clever, entertaining and ultimately successful fashion with the help of some appropriate brains from the restaurant of a grieving Don E. It's splendid stuff.

It's the penultimate episode, though, so other arc threads are gently nudged towards their respective conclusions. After all, we have racist extremists for both humankind and zombiekind respectively trying to start a war. The nuclear bomb of Damocles still metaphorically hangs over the city. But not all is bad; Ravi gets to rub in Blaine's face that Peyton is his girl ("That was genuine cockiness!") which is cool and, I think, just on the right side of not being misogynistic.

Blaine reminds us, however, that, despite being the witty villain we love to hate, he is in fact an absolute ***, making Peyton genuinely afraid as he kills one of the Freylich kids and threatens the rest. I predict he's going to die. We also get the most touching grave robbing scene ever as Liv and Major remind each other that they like each other and kiss. Awww. Except... this is near the end and anyone could die. Could they...? Would they...?

While the heist is successful the episode ends on a grim note; Major is alone, a fugitive, in a New Seattle where he's been usurped by Enzo and the extremists are merrily warmongering. And he has to get some Max Rager from Fillmore Graves...

What an episode. What a season. What a series. One more to go...

iZombie: Killer Queen

”Jenkins, find me all the Chers."

It's the pen-penultimate episode of iZombie, ever, and by Jove this is bloody good. So much happens, it all drives along the arc splendidly, the characters are a joy- yet this week's murder mystery, this time centring around drag queens, is as splendid as ever, and drag queen brain Liv is naturally enormous fun; the episode finds time for this even though it has so much to do. I'll miss this programme.

But we begin with Liv and Ravi finding out what Martin is up to, a massive blow for her; at this point, it seems as though Liv's dad is going to be the Big Bad. But Ravi now has some original boat party Utopium, a possible source for a cure- and news of the recent murder of a cured zombie proves a cure is out there. We get a splendid little comic sub-plot, too, as Ravi and Major, that great double act, get to be heroes and rescue all Blaine’s Freylich kids. I suspect this will be the last fun sub-plot before the finale so possibly, gulp, ever.

But things soon get intense as Martin’s conspiracy leads to four “sisters” Liv helps out of Seattle turn out to be sleeper agents setting up shop in a Nevada brothel to infect people- and Enzo shows more hardline tendencies. So much so, in fact, that he exposes the operation by killing a hostage and allows Liv to learn the truth. This all feels real and character-led, complex though the plot is, a sign of good writing. The same can be said for the desperate Skype call between Liv and her dad- ultimately leading leading to Enzo shooting him dead. Yes; he’s the Big Bad. And he has the most outrageous French accent since Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

And that’s not all- Blaine finds out Don E is still running brains for Major and, even worse for him, Darcy suddenly dies in her wedding dress shortly before the wedding. Ouch. That was a superb bit of telly.

iZombie: Night and the Zombie City

"This is so noir!"

This episode is exactly as per the quote- Liv is on Sam Spade brain, the whole thing is shot and lit like a film noir, and fourth wall-breaking is apace anywhere you care to look. Ravi.in particular, knows exactly what genre he's in.

And yet, at heart, this episode shows perfectly just how much iZombie has perfected its formula just as it's about to end. Again we have an episode with a solid murder mystery plus related genre; great characterisation; and of course the ever-present arc plot. Here we have Liv learning her father is Beanpole Bob, inventor of Utopium, and thus creator of all zombies. Peyton comes to terms with no longer being mayor and returns to drinking magnificently. And, gloriously, Hi Zombie does actually seem to (just) prevent Seattle from getting nuked, meaning she didn't sacrifice her job for nothing.

We also, sweetly, have Don E proposing to Darcy (she's going to die soon, right?) - and learn that a zombie cure exists, which Liv and Clive just miss out on. We end with Liv and Ravi searching Martin's house, finding drug labs, notes possibly on the tainted Utopium- and cages full of Max Ragered Romeros. I genuinely have no idea where this is going in the last three episodes ever(!) but I'm loving iZombie more than ever.

iZombie: The Fresh Princess

"It's like calling a pine cone 'your majesty'..."

This season, now we’re just a few episodes from the end, is slowly coalescing into the best ever. It’s successfully using the non-diagetic but very present fact that this is the final season to suggest that Seattle society, with its fragile truce between humans and zombies, is on the edge of collapse. But that’s in the background; meanwhile it’s developing all the characters superbly while juggling lots of different arc strands including lots of surprises (although it’s pretty much been obvious for ages that Liv’s dad was Beanpole Bob), and still managing to function as the whodunit its always been.

Liv on ‘90s beauty queen brain is hilarious, although somewhat alienating for me. The ‘90s were my decade, the time of my adolescence. But I’m afraid the pop culture references we see here don’t reflect my personal ‘90s of Grunge, wondering why everyone thought Oasis were so great, Ren and Stimpy, waiting for the Major government to fall and naively assuring I’d never see a worse one, loads of rock festivals, beer, cigarettes (and, er, smoking other things), trying to talk to girls, and Doctor Who novels the New Adventures which I generally read to a soundtrack of Sonic Youth or the Butthole Surfers.

So I’m afraid all the ‘90s stuff passed me by, but Liv as thick beauty queen is still funny, and the murder mystery is fun. So is Peyton and Ravi's double act as they track down Beanpole Bob, and the revelation that Peyyon's selling the Space Needle has caught up with her and she's been sacked.

But the fact that Durkins has some kidnapped zombies who she's starved into becoming Romeros, and has them massacring people on telly is probably not something that bodes well. Worse, one of the Romeros is our nuke-happy general's daughter, and Major has to shoot her...

iZombie is one of the best things on telly and I can't believe it's ending.

iZombie: Death of a Car Salesman

”Herbie wasn’t evil. He was the Love Bug.”

I can’t believe how close we are to the end; previous seasons have drifted off the format a bit but this episode gives us a wanker of a murdered car salesman with both Liv and Ravi having some of his brain, and it’s all perfect. The fact that we’ve known these characters for so long just adds to it- Clive’s reaction to the two of them is hilarious but would not have been possible seasons ago.

We also have flashbacks with Martin, Liv’s dad, with Blaine, Don E and Scott E (remember him?) and seem to see that Martin is not only “Beanpole Bob” but was the original creator of that tainted utopium that causes the original zombie outbreak on that boat. Meanwhile, in the present, Liv tries to connect with her dad but is exasperated with her co tinging addiction. At the end, though, it’s clear that he fully realised that his daughter is Renegade...

Blaine, meanwhile, has a new business kidnapping teenage kids with Freylich’s Syndrome, walking zombie cures. I prefer Blaine as gangster to Blaine the tycoon; he’s in his element. And one result is the comedy pairing of, er, Don E and the teenage Darcy, who kiss. Urgh. Isn’t she about seventeen?

Still, four episodes to go. And iZombie has never been better.

iZombie: The Scratchmaker

”Let’s face it- we’ve all got a little monster in us.”

It finally happened; a Blaine episode, after his near-absence from the opening episodes. Following his downfall last week we now follow Blaine as he adjusts to his new reality- and survives, as he always does. Oh, there’s a perfunctory murder of the week with a matchmaker being murdered and Liv on match maker brain. But all this happens in the background. Other characters get their moments- now that Dale is off on maternity leave (I know they have shit working conditions in America- do they have that?) it’s fun to see Clive getting to sit in the big chair.

But this is about Blaine, stuck in a cell, forced to answer questions and, worse, his entertainment options limited to the TV edit of Snakes on a Plane in endless loop. He’s an evil, amoral, annoyingly witty man who we all live to hate, and this is probably the right moment to praise David Anderson to the skies for inhabiting this gloriously witty sociopath. iZombie without Blaine is a terrifying thought.

There’s a rather big change to the status quo here as it turns out Al is the niece of none other than Stacey Boss, who is behind all of this and planning to takeover Blaine’s brain business wholesale- successfully, although not without some cleverness from Major forcing him and his new sidekick Don E to lower the price. Interestingly,Blaine is left to think that the brain business has gone elsewhere, effectively coupled by Don E and his shadowy benefactor. I’m sure he’ll take it very well when he finds out.

All this and Major, who is on fire somewhat, has a bit of a mini-showdown with Durkins. Another splendid episode, then, and a final season which is coming along very nicely.

iZombie: Death Moves Pretty Fast

"Can a thing that's known for doing a thing do that very thing?"

As if it were possible for this season of iZombie to ramp things up, well, that's exactly what seems to have happened. There's also a pretty good murder of the week too, although it's a shame the use of Blaine as a suspect doesn't last, and (SPOILERS!) only at the end do we realise that we're getting a prankster killed by his resentful sidekick... again. But there's a lot more going on than that, although I'm a little confused at Clive's injury? He seemed fine last week.

Anyway, the Dead Enders continue to be a menace, this time sneaking Alzheimer's brains into the tubes- and this leads to the culmination of the conflict between Major and Enzo, the hardliner with the outrageous French accent. The zombie cure leaks out, and Ravi is devastated because it's his fault that sufferers of the disease in question now all have targets on their backs. But the main focus of the episode, cleverly done, is how Al slowly uncovers the full truth about Blaine's murderous past, and we see him exposed, turned from hero to public enemy number one... and the supply of brains stops. Worse, Peyon is shown to be either stupid or complicit, her earlier relationship with Blaine revealed. Peyton's position is now imperilled, just when New Seattle needs her to persuade DC not to nuke the place... again. And where are the brains going to come from?

Suddenly things look very worrying indeed for our fragile civilisation in the city, and that's before Major learns, once Enzo is on ice, that a full seventeen people have been thawed out... cut to a cage full of Romeros and suddenly we're reminded this is the final season. Could everything end with an actual zombie apocalypse? Another superb bit of telly, although I do worry about this over-the-top comedy treatment of Vampire Steve.

iZombie: Dot Zom

“The future will be obnoxious..."

Another clever episode, at its heart another whodunit of the week, but one through which the arc and its themes are rather interestingly explored- and where a new player unexpectedly emerges. This season so far is going splendidly.

The brain of the week is that of a Steve Jobs/ Mark Zuckerberg/ Elon Musk type dot com "genius", at once deeply fashionable and, while professing noble aims and sinking loads of money into a "bunker" to save a selected few from a vaguely upcoming armageddon, morally blink and unwittingly fomenting genocide. Rose McIver is, of course, superb as ever, but the moral is very much that such people are pretentious wankers.

There's a nice switch at the end; the zombie-hating racist is not, in fact the killer, but the spurned zombie ex-lover. Yet it is the red herring who is unmistakably the most evil, wishing to exterminate all zombies. And Liv's wider aims are thus not in sync with her sleuthing, a nicely made point.

Meanwhile, after a few hiccups, Peyton's and Ravi's sitcom is making progress, and Blaine (where has he been?) seems to have success in pulling a journalist, Al, who is interviewing him in a subplot which serves to illustrate the ongoing danger of the Dead Enders, who are gradually doxxing zombies to a world which hats and fears them. And there's an odd new baddie, in league with French Bloke, who has nebulous aims- and a mole in the camp of "Renegade". A surprising amount of arc stuff is being set up here. And, while yet again we have a top notch episode, it's all very ominous.

iZombie: Dead Lift

”You ever feel like you’re an unwitting tool of the prison industrial complex?”

It’s still all about the arc as we start the episode with last week’s supposed murder victim instead having a druggy affair with “Glenn from accounting”, the three kids being smuggled dodge arrest, and Major continues to receive flak for his hearts and minds approach from hardliners at Chase Graves. But he has a point- they NEED humans to be on side or New Seattle will collapse into anarchy. And, this being the final season, that happening is a very real possibility.

Of course, there’s a lighter sign. Liv on fitness guru brain gives us a splendid example of the usual humour, and if anything the script is even wittier than usual. But there’s a very real sense of doom as Dolly Durkins’ Dead Enders foment outrage for immigrants... er, zombies among the human majority. It turns out that her lot have fakes the viral video of the woman being murdered by zombies but, after a drive-by shooting in a Dead Ender hangout by zombies affiliated by Chase Graves, Major allows fake footage of their “execution” to go viral. Both sides are using fake news already. This feels very much like Trump’s America, complete with the moral dilemmas on how hard to punch a fascist, whether one should act with integrity when the enemy has none.

Peyton is trying to run Seattle in spite of bureaucratic inertia but Ravi provides not only great sex but also a great idea: an online comedy called “Hi, Zombie” to try and improve relations. It’s such a good idea that Peyton commits fraud in order to fund it, something which again muddies the waters and will in no way come back to haunt her. You can see not only the threads but the themes developing.

Of course, all this pales in awesomeness next to the sublime D&D scene. But this season has got off to a very strong start.

iZombie: Thug Death

"This is the spot where lazy murderers who don't want to fight traffic dump their victims.""

So it's the fifth and final season and we're a few months into the new status quo- Peyton is, effectively mayor and Major is the new commander of Fillmore Graves. But lonely is the head that wears a crown and Major is already feeling the tension between his principles and what is likely to help him maintain his position. Meanwhile Liv and Ravi are doing the same job as ever while Liv continues to moonlight as Renegade, and "real" brains are becoming scarce- for all except Blaine, who is incredibly rich from the brain business and has a fridge full of the bloody things.

This episode has two main strands. The first is that this time it's Ravi, not Liv, who's on the brain of a thug, and bloody hilarious, showing us that Rahul Kohli is every bit as good at this sort of thing. But the other strand is, of course, that the zombies of New Seattle rely entirely on the goodwill of humans, and things are precarious beneath the surface. One viral video of a woman being ripped the shreds by a zombie has led to the end of the brain supply and, while Blaine can solve this problem with threats, the potential remains. Worse, we have a new anti-zombie demagogue, Dolly Durkins(!), who is also running an anti-zombie suicide bomber network which is sure to keep Major stressed. And, as we find out, her first volunteer is the eviscerated woman's husband.

Elsewhere we have Clive being as deadpan witty as ever, a new scientist character in Dr Collier who, to Ravi's relief, turns out to have ethics, and three abused ill kids who Liv's network are trying to smuggle in. Already there are a lot of balls in the air and the fact that this is the final season suggests to me that this feeling of precariousness will grow and grow. But this pisode on its own is as fun and witty as ever. More please.

iZombie: And He Shall be a Good Man

"I'll let you spank me from time to time."

THIS IS THE SEASON FINALE. HERE BE SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Well, that was very good indeed. It was obvious, i think, that Zevon and Chase Graves were going to die; Graves because he's committed too many unforgiveable acts to be allowed to live and Zevon because we already knew he was to be executed first and television drama law dictates that Liv be saved only in the nick of time.

But Peyton surviving was unexpected, especially after all that deliberate foreshadowing in the last few episodes. Certainly the opening scene continues this foreshadowing, with Ravi hearing about Washington pulling the plug on brains coming into a suddenly unsafe Seattle, and firmly insisting that she stay where she is. So back she comes, they kiss, and the next time we see them they look quite post-coital. Er, less than ten minutes later.

But we're left in no doubt that the whole episode is about saving Liv from judicial killing. Oh, and Zevon, if people fancy it; we all know the poor chap's going to die.

The plot's a little complicated- both Jordan and Comedy French Bloke are acting as double agents but, given the stakes, the tension never relents. Johnny Frost is back. Clive and Dale are rudely interrupted before they have sex which, given what later happens, is probably just as well.

The minutes before the execution are incredibly tense. For Liv, that isl Levon's certain death is, I'm sure Levon's death has already been factored in by every single viewer at this point. And then chaos ensues as Major, in full-on zombie mode, leads a crowd of humans and zombies through the doors. Said chaos is superbly depicted in the directorial choice to show a series of short scenes fading to black, until Liv has guillotined Graves and we all punch the air.

So life goes on, Major now runs Fillmore-Graves and thus, sort of, the city. Meanwhile reality catches up with the quixotic Angus, leading his followers in a Waco-like last stand as manipulated by the son he at last disowns again. It's a dramatic but cruelly pointless end.

Liv is, of course. devastated to lose another boyfriend in yet another brutal way. o she resolves to eat Isobel's brain, the last cure. But there is at least a bit of happiness with an ad hoc wedding between Dale and Clive, and Liv is able go give Clive a rather nice wedding gift by making children a possibility. Er, do we know that Dale even wants kids...?

We end, after Liv's devastating yet inevitable bereavement, with Liv seemingly still Renegade, this time with friendly leadership of a New Seattle that, increasingly, sees itself as an independent city state...

IZombie: You’ve Got to Hide Your Liv Away

“Enjoy handcuffs, Whitey!”

Is it the penultimate episode already?

I think it’s been enough superb episodes in a row now to come out and say this season has recovered amazingly from a very poor start; possibly the biggest comeback in television history, as it really was a very poor start.

The whole thing hinges on a simply evil ultimatum by Chase Graves- Curtis is to be judicially killed unless "Renegade" hands herself in. Naturally, it's obvious that Liv is going to do this so, equally naturally, Major (having finally retrieved his head from Graves' smelly arse) kidnaps her, relocates them both to a house in Oregon and feeds them both a dose of 1950s domestic bliss brain. As you do. Still, at least Liv got a last night with Levon, claiming to have flown to Majorca via Barcelona, as apparently Palma doesn't have an airport. Hmm.

So this week's murder- a self-centred, narcissistic valley girl- must be investigated by Clive with Ravi (it's that time of the month) on narcissist brain, hence scenes reminding us yet again how bloody good Rahul Kohli is.

Meanwhile, we discover that the comedy French bloke at Fillmore Graves has sympathies with Brother love, and Blaine convinces his father that God wants him to send zombies out beyond Seattle by means of, er, brain rain. I suspect that the spread of zombieism beyond Seattle is for next season, as there are only so many minutes of this one.

It's a dramatic last few scenes for this incident-fuelled and rather superb episode; we end with both Liv and Levon in the hands of Graves, who plans to murder them next episode. Oh, and Isobel's brain may have given Ravi an actual cure for zombieism. Has any iZombie season finale been more hotly awaited...?

iZombie: Yipee Ki Brain, Motherscratcher!

"The show ran out of money, so everything cool happens off-screen and the characters just talk about it afterwards."

This season as been pants-to-average most of the way through. So how come this is the second sublime episode in a row? We really seem to have hit a hot spot.

We start by establishing that Isobel is staying, in desperate hope for a cure, but she's so cool and adorable that I fear we have to die. Dale is investigating Baracus' murder and has a fair idea where to look, and Liv is on don't-play-by-the-rules cop brain and, for once, doesn't feel like cooking..

But life goes on between the coyotes, who are expanding and bonding; there's even a montage to replace the usual culinary one. There are some cool action movie puns. And an awful lot of stuff happens as it becomes clear that the end of the season is not too far away. Angus declares himself just "the Baptist John" and is really pushing for Blaine to be the zombie Jesus, silly though that sounds. Clive wants kid and is brooding over dumping Dale for Michelle and her fully functioning womb.

Te big moment is the cliffhanger, though, with Major finally clicking what Liv is up to. What happens now? It's very notable, though, that this episode is all arc, arc, arc and nevertheless manages to excel. I hope the rest of the season is as good.

IZombie: Mac-Liv-Moore

“Maybe you should just lie back in your chair and do the Mr Burns thing with your hands."

Brilliant. This is a very arc episode, with very little happening with the rapper-themed murder of the week and Liv's rapper brain turning out to be less amusing than usual. It's all the things I've been criticising this season for. And yet, through excellent wit and character development from a sparking script of the kind that used to be typical iZombie but has been as rare as rocking horse dung this season, we have an episode that's a real joy. This knocks every other episode of the season so far into a cocked hat.

The young girl who has the unfortunate combination of being young, dying and immune to zombie scratches is called Isobel, and she's brave and awesome. We end the episode with her being caught by Ravi, Peyton finally admitting to him what she and Liv have been up to, and we're left to wonder, like Ravi himself, why he wasn't told earlier. It's wonderful to see how eager Isobel is to be used as a guinea pig for a zombie cure so her brief life will have meaning.

Meanwhile, Zombie Killer Cain is on the loose and manages to get at Chase Graves, shooting and nearly killing him until Chase's increasingly dependable right hand man Major (who else?) saves him. And then Chase shows what a hypocrite he is by ordering Major to scratch the zombie-hating Cain. The sooner Chase faces justice the better, and Major isn't making himself very likeable these days; he and Liv have another row here. A thought occurs to me, though; could Major have a secret agenda?

In other news, I still love the French bloke with the outrageous accent. And Blaine is devilishly clever here, plotting to turn all of America into zombies purely so he can make a lot of money from property. It's all good fun as he makes Don E. eat computer genius brain in order to make sure they can't be traced as they upload on YouTube some footage of Mayor Baracus being turned back into a human... and then shot by the unseen hand of Blaine. We end with this murder being investigated and, bizarrely, Peyton is now Deputy Mayor.

That's not the coolest thing, though. The coolest thing is the D&D game with Ravi and the geeks at the police station, DM'd by Clive, seguing neatly into a kiss between Clive and that girl he fancies. Where is this going...? So many plot threads now and I'm beginning to enjoy it.

IZombie: Chivalry Is Dead

“What the Hell is a TARDIS?”

iZombie has done tabletop role-playing; now it’s time for LARP. It’s all very fun, and Rose McIver is as awesome as ever. Mind you, I may be a latent tabletop guy myself but I suspect that LARPers in real life probably speak in a less annoying way.

It’s all good fun, though, and another good episode that harks back to seasons of yore. I love RVi’s indulging of Peyton’s knight in armour fetish, and the dialogue just sings. Interesting, too, that we find the killer (nice whodunit, incidentally) but not a confession, and a conviction seems unlikely. Where’s Columbo when we need him?

It’s onteresting to see Blaine and his duped dad working for Stacey Boss (him again!) in attacking a prison bus to find a large widget of money- money which has in fact been found by Peyton and given to Liv for railroad purposes. Peyton is now involved, and taking one hell of a risk.

The big twist comes at the end though- Liv scratches the latest terminally ill arrival only to find that, cruelly, it doesn’t work. Does this mean some people are immune to zombies in? And why does it have to be that poor girl? It’s quite the twist and a rather good episode.

iZombie: My Really Fair Lady

"Mama was the railroad."

Thankfully it's a less intense and funnier episode this week as Liv, on luvvie brain, uses her acting skills, including an... interesting stab at a Kiwi accent- to pretty much take over from Mama as boss of the benevolent people smugglers, right up to the point of getting filmed committing a capital crime. There's no turning back now, and the stakes for her could not be higher.

Other stuff happens, mind; Ravi, it being that time of the month, survives a few days of junkie brain to reunite a kid with a dog and impress Peyton- and is rewarded with a snog. Is this them back together for good? Clive asks out the rookie cop girl without Liv's influence, only to have to explain to her his situation. Johnny Frost is back, and is hilarious. And Blaine finally finds out, dramatically, that this new zombie cult he's hearing more and more about is led by his own estranged dad, with whom he still has so many unresolved issues.

This is a fairly "meh" episode, I suppose; not as worryingly bad as the earlier episodes of the season, and no more than quite good. This season continues to be far poorer than any of its predecessors. But at least the recent upswing in quality is just about continuing. Let's hope we get an episode soon that's more than just adequate and perhaps a good run that can save this underwhelming season. We can only hope.

IZombie: Goon Struck

”Chinatown. The line speaks of the futility of obtaining justice in an inherently corrupt system.”

Wow. No episode of iZombie has packed an emotional heft like this one. Suddenly the season isn’t looking so bad. The episode is pretty much summed up by the line above, where Clive analyses Chinatown, as our friends discover that New Seattle is now fun by what has developed into a rather corrupt dictatorship where the crimes of Fillmore Graves are covered up and there is no justice- hence the barbaric judicial killing of Mama Leone. Chase Graves knows how evil this is, judging by all the drinking he does the night before and, like anyone who facilitated capital punishment, he is now no better than any common murderer.

Suddenly, New Seattle seems a deeply uncomfortable place where all sorts of riffs on contemporary demagoguery and paranoid style politics are possible. Especially as we hear more and more of this General Mills, in the “real” America outside of Seattle which is obviously not keen on zombies, who proposes to nuke Seattle.

So it’s a little awkward that, while Major and the ever-trustworthy Don E are escorting said general’s addict daughter out of Seattle, not only does Don E get caught on camera being naughty in full on zombie mode, but Major is forced to scratch her after an overdose to save her life.  Oops. The ultimate anti-zombie, it seems, has a zombie daughter. As Mrs Llamastrangler remarked, this is very reminiscent of a storyline on True Blood. And Major

On a less serious note, I love the Chase Graves Inspector Clouseau with the outrageous French accent, and the exchange between him and Ravi. But for once this isn’t an episode for so much humour, and for once that’s no bad thing.

IZombie: Brainless in Seattle, Part 2

“This place makes Freddie Krueger’s basement look like the Wonka factory.”

Now that’s a bit better.

This doesn’t really feel like a two parter, as time has passed between episodes, but it’s satisfying to see Liv and Clive painstakingly nail their perp with enough evidence. Ravi’s pretending to be a wealthy Etonian as bait is a highlight. But what’s truly significant is elsewhere.

Angus’ rabble rousing is truly bearing fruit at this point, and the whole plot line with Major and his protégés looking for the video footage takes an unexpected turn when the now zombified anti-zombie racist seems to take a 100 degree turn and start listening to Angus. Either humans hate zombies or vice versa; even Liv’s prospective boyfriend has been convinced by Angus that humans are just food.

Meanwhile, after much failing to tell him about Dale apparently cheating on him with another man, Liv learns that Clive, out of pure desperation, has accepted being in an open relationship. Ouch. This is only going to redouble Bridget Jones Liv’s attempts to set him up with that rookie cop.

More ominously, Blaine (loving his loose lips brain) captures poor Renegade and delivers her to Chase Graves. But we end with a heartwarming tribute to friendship as true love, and more hints that Peyton and Ravi are getting on rather well.

More like this please, and perhaps we can salvage the season.