iZombie: Flight of the Living Dead

"I'll only hover by the phone for the next 72 hours or so. After that I'm on to the next Zombie girl."

It's fascinating to see how the murder mysteries of the week (another good one here, involving the death by parachute of Liv's old uni friend) dovetail with the gradual zombie subplot, slowly showing us, tantalisingly, what the "rules" are. Here, one of the suspects- Lowell, a professional rock musician- has a good alibi in that he's a zombie. Unsurprisingly, being nice, good-looking and not evil like Blaine, he rapidly becomes Liv's love interest.

Also, in other news, kids known to Major- a social worker- are going missing, a new plot thread. Soft drinks manufacturer Max Rager is shown to be a bit dodgy. Oh, and Clive's boss is a zombie. All this is the ideal mix: we're still getting stories of the week, and good ones, but mixed with a strong arc element; the best of both worlds. 

It's becoming clear that this series is very good indeed.

iZombie: Liv and Let Clive

"You got your ass kicked by a girl. Get over it."

This is an episode which needed to come early in the season; any later and we'd know and trust Clive too well to believe he could have dodgy relations with criminals. Instead we get an episode which deepens his character; he spent a year undercover and was deeply affected by it.

We also have more moustache-twirling by Blaine along the usual lines. His extortion victim, Jackie, actually fancies him. Bastard. Blaine is already a superbly written and acted villain.

The plot is, as ever, a superbly crafted mystery and che character development is proving to be first class; it'll be interesting to see what happens now that Major has moved in with Ravi. 

iZombie: The Exterminator

"Devoid of compassion. Full of factoids."

This episode is interesting as it shows us a traditional, mindless zombie; this is the fate that awaits Liv if her supply of brains dries up. Nice. Meanwhile, Liv experiences the brain of a sociopathic hit man. Not that there's any other kind.

Again, this is a good murder mystery and, it must be said, the third brilliant episode in a row. Liv is fortunate to be devoid of empathy as she witnesses the fate of her friend Marcie, forever a mindless zombie, and has to kill her. It's a brutal reality check for her and for Ravi, tirelessly seeking a cure.

Meanwhile, homeless kids are going missing; it seems that. Rather than weaving a light set of season arcs through stories of the week, the series is rather more heavily arc-based. Good.

iZombie: Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?

"What's more meta than a zombie, the  having a bad zombie dream?"

Time to return to iZombie to complete the first season; then it's True Blood again. I'll then do the second season of iZombie, the final season of True Blood, and then I'll be back to finally finish Buffy and Angel. Promise! Obviously there will also be films.

Anyway... this second episode features an excellent murder mystery which follows all the rules and features her off of Scrubs, but it also develops the characters and format in a way which is extremely promising. 

The conceit of Liv acquiring traits of those whose brains she eats is brilliant and potentially a cause for endless fun; here she becomes artistic and says things like "There was something historic about his chin". I love this series' humour, visual wit and style, characters and brain eating generally but this is a unique selling point.

Interestingly, we meet Blaine, the first other zombie and a somewhat cynical one. I love their conversation about terminology and "full-on zombie mode". Blaine became a zombie that same night and has visions too; interesting. Unfortunately he's a baddie who makes rich people zombie and sells them brains for big money. We'll be seeing more of him then.

Liv's developing relationship with her ex-fiancé, Major (odd first name!) is clearly something to watch; here, her new found artistic enthusiasm helps them to bond over jazz. Other cool things include a dog-friendly Internet cafe called "Mutt Bowl Surfers"; Gibby Haynes would approve. So far I'm really enjoying this series.

iZombie: Pilot

"Why the hot sauce? Is that a zombie thing?"

This series, based on a DC Vertigo miniseries, only has two short seasons on Netflix so far; it should be fairly easy to get up to date with the odd episode while I'm in the middle of my True Blood marathon interspersed with the odd film. After True Blood, incidentally, I will get back to Buffy and Angel. Promise.

I'm loving this so far- the directorial style, the witty dialogue and first person narration, the fact that we get a whodunit story of the week amongst the zombie stuff- but it's all carried by the brilliant Rose McIver as Liv, who unexpectedly finds herself a zombie and is forced to give up her promising medical career to work in a morgue where there are, you know, brains. Fortunately she makes an ally of her boss, Ravi, an eccentric English scientist, and starts working with Clive, a police detective who has no idea what she is or, indeed, that her "psychic" abilities in fact derive from eating the brains of the deceased. Lovely.

It's funny, engaging, promises more zombie lore, has likeable and engaging characters, and seems so far to be a good whodunit. And I hope one day Liv can get over her rather wet fiancé rather than mole all over him. Still, I'm hooked.