iZombie Season Three Premiere REVIEW – All Setup

The real best zombie show on TV is back. This time, things are bigger. This time, there are conspiracy theorists, hairdryers and a Zombie Island (not a reality TV show, but it can only be a matter of time). iZombie’s third season premiere is functional rather than fantastic, but it still manages to drench itself with the heart and charm that’s made it a niche hit.

Heaven Just Got a Bit Smoother is hampered from being great probably by its very purpose. This is a get-your-house-in-order sort of episode. In the full flow of a mid season, unresolved story arcs can be tempered by the show’s gooey procedural centre, or whatever brain Liv happens to be on. The setup and payoff of a mystery of the week means we get at least some story resolution each episode. All the best episodes of iZombie manage this trick. Season three’s premiere does not. Fortunately though, it feels a lot like losing the battle to win the war. Let me explain.

We’ll start with some recapping. Last time we saw Team Z in action, Max Rager had the kind of party that gets reported on the local news. There was an epic showdown with guns, zombie hordes and secret labs, and Liv and Co finally defeated Vaughn Du Clark. Then Liv came across Vivian Stoll and her goons from military contractors Fillmore Graves (geddit?). They had just bought the Super Max formula, and now they were eating the brains of Rob Thomas (the other Rob Thomas). Seattle was going to be a zombie homeland: a city famous for giving us grunge music, amazon.com, and Sasquatch would now give us brain eating warfare. Or so we thought.

Season three’s first episode is a little bit like coming back to a treadmill you forgot to switch off. When you get back on, you’re immediately running to keep up. Liv, Major and Clive are all mired in the consequences of the Max Rager zombie bloodbath, and while the formidable Stoll bails them out she leaves them with more questions than answers. Peyton, Ravi and Blaine are also left spinning from their showdown with Mr Boss (who’s oddly absent from proceedings, but his presence is still felt as the episode rolls on).

Fortunately, iZombie wastes no time in laying the groundwork of a new season. There’s all the Filmore Graves stuff, the fallout of Major being exposed as the Chaos “Killer”, all the googly eyes between Peyton, Ravi and Blaine, plus the team up of Don E and Angus. Oh, and at the end we’re also introduced to Ravi’s old boss at the Centre for Disease Control, who’s coming a little too close to the whole brain-eating-undead thing for my liking.

It’s a lot, and none of it’s really a misfire, but without an old fashioned crime to solve the episode lacks a strong enough glue to hold it all together. It’s the reason Sherlock has melted into hot garbage while Elementary has quietly become one of the best shows on TV. Not that iZombie doesn’t tease us with a new mystery as the episode closes. Whether it takes only one episode to solve or the entire season is another question.

Either way, next week we can probably expect a return to form. iZombie has lost none of the little quirks which make it refreshing during its long absence. The dialogue is still sharp, Blaine feels more like his old self and every time Rob Thomas (still the other Rob Thomas) is mentioned it feels like a running joke the writers are trying to sneak past their network.

Most of all though, iZombie still has its heart.

As we enter season three, Liv is having to deal with being the person who shot her boyfriend in the head. Said boyfriend was a Romero zombie beyond hope at the time, so in many ways it was an act of mercy (Clive even says so). A more self serious show would have laid a morgue blanket over this, but that Liv is able to feel the consequences of it (and everything else) is to iZombie’s credit. As the hard-ass soldier brain she’s on begins to wear off, Liz nearly starts spiraling. The zombie secret is closer to getting out than ever before, and as the episode’s final act plays out all the consequences of the season two finale begin to rear their ugly heads.

Which neatly ties in to the final moments of the episode, and the new mystery I mentioned earlier. If you haven’t yet seen the episode it’s something I won’t bother spoiling, but suffice to say it gives Clive a powerful emotional connection to the zombie cause. I actually didn’t realise how much this was needed until it happened, but it’s a neat touch to a character who could easily have been overlooked this episode.

This isn’t a home run. It’s not even one of iZombie’s better episodes. But it is necessary. It’s been a long time since we last saw Liv Moore and the gang, and it looks like the show’s writers have let their narrative ambitions ferment. Expect a roller coaster season, once iZombie gets back into its groove.

iZombie airs on The CW in the US. Also, for the first time ever it’s airing almost concurrently in the UK thanks to Netflix. Not sure what kind of favours Netflix is going to want from me for fixing that.