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: Insane in the Germ Brain

"I love you guys..."

SPOILERS ABOUND. BIG ONES. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Ouch. That his Mrs Llamastranger and myself hard, you evil writers you. We both suspected that Isobel being so extremely likeable and cool was because she was going to die, and crush our hearts in the process. Damn you, Rob Thomas and co. This is the most evil thing since Joss Whedon killed Tara in Buffy. It's that bad..

Other interesting things involve Ravi meeting Peyton's parents, and seemingly earning her Dad's respect by telling him not to be a dick. On that note, though, both her parents and Ravi don't want her to return from Washington DC after her visit, as there are plans afoot in said city to perhaps nuke Seattle, which would be bad. But the parting scene where Peyton says goodbye to Ravi and Liv is suspiciously scripted; she's going to die there, isn't she?

Oh, and there's a murder, which is pretty ho-hum, including the germaphobe brain that Liv eats. But it's interesting that the killer proves to be a zombie accomplice of Blaine and Don E- who, incidentally, is great on director brain while directing a sermon of Angus'. And Dale accidentally overhears Clive's chat to Liv last episode about how he can have kids with Michelle, but not her. So she dumps him, and is kind enough to lie about seeing someone else. But he's still heartbroken. Michelle likes him a lot, but is he really happy with her?

We also have Major's mission coming to a successful conclusion, and a celebration- but one of Major's two proteges ends up shot by Chase Graves, leading to a mini-shootout in which both proteges are shot dead and Graves injured. Surely now he has to get what's coming to him?

But the episode is all about Isobel, her awesomeness, and how much it hurts that she's gone. Damn you, writers, and thank you Izabela Vidovic for making us love your character so much. Outstanding episode, obviously.

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: Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Brain

“You’re printing fake news...”

Another good episode, this, reminiscent of earlier seasons in its humour and fun, but also showing us how very, very wrong things are in New Seattle under Chase Graves’ tyranny. And tyranny it is; that's made clear by his shutting down, with violence, of a local newspaper for criticising his "judicial" murder of the good Mama. So far, so appalling but expected, and we duly hope for justice and for Graves to get his comeuppance.

However, what's truly disturbing is just how complicit Major is becoming; he seems to enjoy his violent exercising of authority and ends the episode as Graves' right hand man. This is how tyranny happens,of course- a genuine problem, in this case a shortage of brains exacerbated by the black market, leads to universal rights and liberties seeming inconvenient to those in power. Suddenly they are no longer universal, and therefore no longer exist. But it's doubly shocking to see a character we know and like dipping his hands in the blood. It it bitterness, his break-up with Liv, having to put up with all those accusations of being the Chaos Killer, as the dialogue implies? Either way, he seems to be an analogue, for this liberal American  show, of those friends and families of the crew and viewers who have voted for Trump and for the apparent normalisation of behaviour that used to be shocking so very recently.

In other, less tangential plot threads, Liv is throwing herself into her role as the new Mama with gusto and acquiring a new, more ethical boyfriend into the bargain. Clive is having difficulty adjusting to an open relationship, unable to hide his situation from any prospective date. Eventually he resorts to visiting an escort (illegal use of a prostitute in America, I believe; Clive is potentially open to kompromat). Only after this do we get the cruel twist that Dale has never gone as far as sleeping with anyone and it is he who has fully made the relationship an open one. Ouch, but clever writing. At least Ravi and Peyton continue to be a sweet couple.

Anyway, the plot; this week's murder victim is one of those loathsome pick-up artists, Rose McIver is brilliant as ever as Liv with douchebag brain, and a poisoned condom is an inspired murder weapon. All this combines to make an episode sufficiently fine that it could even have graced an earlier season. Finally!

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.

IZombie: Brainless in Seattle, Part 1

”And she gets to live another day!”

This season of iZombie has been a bit rubbish so far, and frankly I’m starting to get worried. Especially as this episode is somewhat meh and it’s the first of a two parter.

Rose McIver is of course fabulous as Liv on Bridget Jones’ Diary brain, but the murder plot- about “bad” people smugglers who promise to get people into Seattle but then kill and harvest their brains for, among others, Don E’s restaurant- is dull. Yes, it’s the harbinger of a crisis as zombies are facing a shortage of brains that is bound to lead to chaos, but the plot is dull.

The season arc continues to get into gear as Chase Graves sends Blaine to locate Renegade, while Peyton and aravi show signs of warming to one another again- and Liv sees that Dale is cheating on a live, no doubt for the sex. To tell or not to tell? But, regardless, this is awfully dull. What is happening to iZombie?

iZombie: Are You Ready for Some Zombies?

"All bulls' pizzles hit the road..."

Before I get started... fear not, iZombie is current. I'm still very much committed to finishing Buffy and Angel aside from current TV such as this, plus films. I still may do stuff that's currently on my Sky Plus in addition, and will probably slot in finishing a season of Game of Thrones between seasons of Buffy/Angel, but fear not!

Anyway... this opening episode isn't that good, is it? The wit doesn't sparkle like it usually does in spite of the funny scene with Shakespeare luvvie brain, the post-zombie apocalypse setting leads to a lot of exposition, and the trinity of Liv, Ravi and Clive don't even get much screen time what with how much of an ensemble cast this show has slowly developed.

Anyway, four months have passed. Seattle is all walled off, so MAGA and all that bollocks. Everyone knows about zombies, although there is much seething resentment, and "Z"'s painted on the doors of households known to hold zombies. There's a nice scene, though, as Ravi and Clive exchange a brief acknowledgement of the irony when Liv, the only white person present, has to deal with the social awkwardness of casual racism. Brains are rationed, but Chase Graves are more equal than others. Blaine is an informer to Chase Graves, and there's the spectre of a zombie guillotine. Oh, and there's a token murder and a token quirky brain, but the whodunit really doesn't feel very important here.

Ravi is getting zombie "periods" once a month, which will be interesting, and Major is now going back to his roots and counselling teen zombie delinquents, except it seems to be for the purpose of recruiting more soldiers. Worryingly, we seem to have two extra young members of an already-large cast at the end of the episode. Weirdly, Clive can now be open about the way Liv gets visions from eating the victim's brain.

But it's all rather over-complicated, with two many characters, too much exposition and too many plotlines. Here's hoping things improve.

iZombie: Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2

"Well, at least it's not just us with our wangs hanging out..."

Oooh boy. This is quite the eventful finale. Hard to believe this all managed to fit within 41 minutes. Where to start...?

It's a downbeat beginning as Major and Justin briefly (41 minutes!) mourn their dead friends and Liv's confession to Justin about sleeping with Chase Graves leads to him, quite reasonably, being very upset and dumping her, knowing full well that resisting the urges of a particular brain is far from impossible.

But there's scarcely time to breathe before we get straight on to the web of intrigue and revelations that pretty much defines this episode and which I'm certainly not going to summarise; this is not a synopsis.Suffice to say there's been skulduggery within the ranks of Graves' underlings, Baracus was always a red herring and what seemed to be a nefarious genocidal plot turns out in fact to be a plot to seize control of Discovery Day so that humans and zombies can live together in (theoretical) harmony; scenes towards the end indicate that reality is not quite so idyllic.

The role of Johnny Frost in all this is both hilarious and inspired- I love how he uses the fact he's reporting on live television to jump the queue and get vaccinated- and it's heartwarming that Clive is finally able to be fully truthful to Dale, and equally heartbreaking that he's just too late to stop her being infected. But a short, silent scene shows that they're together, and he's staying with her, even though sex is now seemingly out of the question.

But nothing is more moving than the final scene, as Liv sees the final stages of Ravi's truly splendid lab experiment with many vials of bubbling liquid all connected intricately. It seems Ravi has concocted a vaccine and is testing it on himself. Liv is quite moved by this and the two of them have a deeply moving conversation in which they each declare their (platonic) love for each other. And Liv scratches him...

Wow. THAT'S how to do a finale. And tonight it's Doctor Who's turn...

iZombie: Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 1

"It was a grudge boink."

Into the two-part season finale, then. We begin with Ravi admitting to Liv that he's the source for the story with the big front cover photo of her in full-on zombie mode on the cover and getting away lightly. He gets less lenience from his old boss Katty Kupps. That's his last ever such bollocking, though, as Katty is promptly murdered and Liv spends the episode on what turns out to be her rather promiscuous brain. For this late in the season the form of the episode, at least, is closer to story-of-the-week than one might expect.

It's bizarre to see Liv made up to look human, at last worried about her anonymity; she looks so unlike herself. But the investigation proceeds as usual, with a nicely written scene where Ravi discreetly calls out a witness for her racism. Liv's flirtiness is anything but, though, and we're left feeling a little uncomfortable about what this means for her relationship with Justin.

Most tragic, though, is Major's rekindled relationship with a besotted Natalie, who invites him to Italy to live happily ever after. This automatically means that everything has to end in tears, and the episode ends with an explosive finale as the zombie Harley Johns kills everyone at Major's goodbye party except for Justin and Major himself. Dramatic stuff, and there's still the finale to go...

IZombie: Conspiracy Weary

"Did we just have a three-way?"

It's a dramatic opening, as both Liv and Blaine rescue Ravi and Don E from the zombie truthers while Fillmore Graves clear up; that's one problem that seems to be well and truly solved. This leads to a hilarious scene with Liv, Blaine and Don E all munching on truther brain and proceeding to spend the rest of the episode as wild conspiracy theorists.

Meanwhile, Peyton continues to investigate the dominatrix killer's death and makes some interesting deductions, not least that his daughter Tatum is a zombie. And what's up with Shawna, putting her sex life with Major all over social media?

The episode climaxes with Liv and Clive investigating Harley John's cabin where they find a secret underground hideaway- and the deep irony of a zombified Harley. But worst of all is that Ravi's apparent friend from the zombie triggers turns out to be a reporter and she has a full expose, and the photo is Liv in full-on zombie mode. Is the secret out?

This is, again, superb. At this stage of the season it's all arc, arc, arc but the show is never too busy for wit and fun.

iZombie: Twenty-Sided, Die

"That's from an impotent proctologist, by the way. Enjoy it."

So iZombie does a D&D episode and, while not so chock full of geeky in-jokes as you might expect, still manages to be fun, engaging and give a fairly accurate (and hopefully attractive to potential newbies) impression of that splendid hobby. Mind you, not that I'm at all current, but the game they're playing seems to be using the old pre-AD&D that I, Rules Cyclopedia aficionado that I am, tend to use whenever I have a rare chance to game. Interestingly, though, the case is left unconcluded (hints of Russian cyber stuff- very topical!) and is handed over to the FBI- and, inevitably, a certain individual. Meanwhile, Peyton continues to remind us of that dominatrix case bubbling under. I'm sure both of these cases are going to lead somewhere big.

But we start with  Ravi undercover with the zombie truthers, forced to out himself and pretend to be working on a cure to prevent them kidnapping zombies, starving them and turning them full on Romero, which is, er, nice. This is obviously going to lead somewhere unpleasant.

Curiously, Baracus tries to persuade Peyton to drop the dominatrix case just before someone tries to assassinate him at his fundraiser; I suspect it's deeper than we know. Liv and Justin continue to be a sweet yet doomed couple, and we end with truther bloke showing Ravi a full-on Romero zombie- Don E, whos been on drugged WWII air ace brain. Just say no, kids.

But nothing- nothing- in even this splendid episode can top Clive and his dwarf PC, Earl. Please can we see more of this D&D campaign?