iZombie Review: "Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues"

I'm doing a short review of "Even Cowgirls Get the Black and Blues," since it focused more on character development than plot development. As I mentioned in my review of last week's episode, the show often switches between episodes about the greater zombie issue, and episodes that focus on developing Liv's personal relationships. This episode was definitely the latter; with the reference to Max Rager being a quick acknowledgment of Major's affair with Gilda/Rita (Liv calls her Gilda, but in the scene Major called her Rita). 

Major continued his downward spiral in the episode, with each of his actions making him disconnect with himself more and more. All of the people close to Major have taken note of how strange he's acting. Peyton mentions it to Liv (more on that later), and the scene where Ravi yells at Major over his recent behavior was one of the episodes more powerful moments. Ravi has always been the show's most level headed character, so having him lose his temper with Major was the perfect way to show just how bad Major's situation has gotten. 

Speaking of people yelling at Major, Liv lays into him pretty hard in this episode. This felt like a more mature continuation of the slap that she gave him under the influence of "real housewife" brains last week. It was nice to finally hear Liv defend herself. She has spent the whole show punishing herself for hurting Major when in reality, she only ever did so to protect him. Maybe that was the tipping point that Major needed to be able to come back to Liv for help with all of his problems. 

Peyton was back in the action this episode, and the episode actually made her presence on the show feel more important than it has in the past. Her reconciliation with Liv was sweet. Her work has brought her into direct contact with Blaine, as I thought it might. The possibility of her seeking out a relationship with him might be a little too much for the show, but Thomas and company have handled things well so far. The episode even found time to have her barge in on Ravi's date, which only highlighted the fact that he still has feelings for her. Overall, she was more effective here than in any previous episode. 

Observations:
-This week's case/brain of the week did little for the development of the show, but giving Rose McIver a chance to show off her singing skills and getting to hear all of her odd folksy sayings was a fun enough use of the brain to make up for it. 

-I'm guessing Major doesn't know that Liv's roommate is one of his blackmailers, if he showed up at their apartment asking for help. Peyton saying she wanted to run a background check on Gilda further supported my believe that Peyton will be the one to take Gilda/Rita down.

-Clive is left out of most of the fun in any given episode, but his back and forth with agent Bozzio, and the scene in the morgue where he was reading the victim's letters to Liv and Ravi made for some of the more funny and charming moments in the episode. 

iZombie Review: "Real Dead Housewife of Seattle"

One of the things that iZombie has managed to do well is balance. It can spend one episode dealing with the zombie mythology, and the next focusing solely on the case of the week and Liv's personal relationships. "Real Dead Housewife of Seattle" put the case on the back burner, while finding a nice balance between exploring what's going on at Max Rager, and how Liv's zombie-ism has isolated her.

With the focus of the episode, and even the case of the week, being centered around Max Rager, a lot was revealed about what is still a fairly mysterious enemy to Liv. Not only did the show reveal that Liv's roommate (I had to look up that her name is Gilda because it has been used so little on the show) is Vaughn Du Clark's daughter, but that both of them are still very in the dark about how being a zombie works. With all of their spying and research it was somewhat surprising that neither of them could figure out Liv knew information about the murder victim from eating her brains, but I guess even evil corporations have their limitations.

Major's story in the episode was mostly tied to Max Rager and his blackmail driven quest to kill zombies. It's apparent that Major's story arch this season will just get darker and darker until he has reached his breaking point. His zombie kill in the episode was much more dark and disturbing than the first time, and under the influence of utopium, he slept with Gilda, who put him in this horrible position in the first place. I imagine times will only get rougher for Major in future episodes.

Liv's case was mostly a dud, but the personality she took on brought about some great character development. How better to highlight Liv's isolation than to have her consume the brain of someone whose relationships are all superficial. The brain also allowed Liv to vent some frustrations. Liv has made some bad decision over the course of the show, but the scene where she slapped Major was somewhat cathartic. Not only because somebody needs to smack some sense into him, but because Major has spent the whole season blaming Liv for being something that is completely out of her control.

Peyton's return was a small, but nice, diversion for the episode to take. I expected her return to be dramatic and for her to still push Ravi and Liv away, but the show handled it much better than that. The scene between Peyton and Ravi was a nice reminder of the chemistry between those characters. Peyton being the one person to remember or care about Liv's birthday was the perfect emotional touch that such a dark episode needed. With isolation being such a strong theme on the show for Liv, it was important for her to be reminded that there are people who will never give up on her.

Observations:
-I noted that the first two cases of the season were both murders based on mistaken information. This episode definitely ended that pattern with the murder being carried out by a hired hitman.
-If Peyton works for the D.A. who is essentially working for Blaine, then a Peyton and Blaine encounter seems like a likely occurrence in a future episode.

iZombie Review: "Zombie Bro"

After a solid season opener last week, "Zombie Bro" was driven by a well utilized brain, even if it was light on the zombie mythology that has been the more interesting part of the series as of late. The one thing that I didn't like about last week's episode was that the personality Liv took on was inconsequential (to the point that it seemed to disappear completely when Liv needed to have a serious conversation), and way too broad to be interesting (for me, the racist old man jokes all fell flat). Liv could have eaten anybody's brain and it wouldn't have mattered. Frat boy brains are no less broad than old man brains, but the episode was written in a way that allowed them to matter. Liv's frat mentality led to some very funny moments (both Liv's morgue pranks and the way her behavior was freaking out Babineaux, were hilarious), but also stuck around through important moments, like when Liv talked to Major in person for the first time since curing him of being a zombie.

In season one, the personalities that Liv took on altered her relationships with the people she was closest to. Underneath all of the zombie mythology and crime solving, this is a show about how one event changed all of Liv's personal relationships. These brains can be fun, but if they don't affect that one central theme, then they aren't' worth much to the show. The beauty of having Liv stay in character with each new personality is that when her true self breaks through all of that, it has a much greater impact than if the personalities just come and go when they are convenient. Liv's scene in the bathroom with Major was one of the show's most sincere scenes so far. Liv's joke about not shaving off Major's eyebrows was also her way of saying that no personality she takes on could prevent her from being there for him.

While Major's new unwanted quested to hunt Seattle's zombies wasn't featured in this episode, it was always looming in the background. The show has put itself in a try position with this plot line. A wrong step could make Major's motivations seem too flimsy, or could make his actions irredeemable. This episode did a good job of balancing all of those elements. Starting with Major's guilt stricken reaction to his first zombie killing, and ending with his fall into drug addiction highlighted just how much the situation is destroying Major inside. The show also sprinkled in little reminders of why he's so motivated to comply with being blackmailed too. Throwing Liv's phone into the street and the bathroom scene where he tells her that he won't let anything happen to her are good reminders of why a good character is doing such a bad thing. This doesn't necessarily redeem Major, but the constant reminders of his humanity are going to be pivotal in keeping him from being a character beyond saving.

The third story line mostly just involved Blaine doing all of his usual scheming. The episode just showed the beginnings of whatever it is Blaine has planned for the season, so it was by far the least interesting part of the episode.

Potentially insignificant observation: This is the second case in a row where the killer was motivated by false information when they killed the victim. Maybe it's coincidence, maybe it's on purpose. Time will tell, I guess.

iZombie Review: "Grumpy Old Liv"

"Grumpy Old Liv," the season opener of iZombie, answered some lingering questions from season one, brought about some unlikely alliances, and even had time to work in a new case for Liv to solve. That's a lot to tackle in one episode, but for the most part the show is able to handle all of the moving parts. 

Things start out a short period of time after the events of the season one finale. Instead of seeing the immediate reactions to all of those loose threads, we see how the characters are or are not beginning to move on. Evan won't talk to Liv, because she refused to donate blood to him after his injuries. Liv's family fell out of focus pretty early on in season one, so this is an interesting way to bring them back into the story. In season one, Liv made a lot of mistakes, but she seems to have learned from some of them. Not turning her brother into a zombie may make him mad at her, but she's mature enough to realize she can't make that decision for him like she did for Major. She's also mature enough not to lie to her mother about why she refused to give her brother a blood transfusion. In the greater zombie mythology, Liv and Ravi are mostly acting in the dark about a lot of things, but these small choices about how to treat the people she loves, make Liv a stronger character.

The episode also brought about a lot of unlikely pairs working together. Major being blackmailed into working with Max Rager to hunt zombies, is a dark path to have that character go down. I'm all for creating interesting situations on the show, and this is definitely that, but this is a plot twist that could have some very interesting implications for Major's ability to live with himself, or maintain relationships with Liv and Ravi. Major, unlike Liv, seems to be falling back into his old habit of acting first and thinking later. Realistically, his first reaction to being blackmailed should have been to tell Liv and Ravi about the entire situation, especially given the fact that Max Rager will eventually want to kill Liv, but having him keep it a secret creates more narrative drama.

I found the alliance-by-necessity of Liv and Blaine to be the much more interesting plot development in the episode. Blaine's acidic wit and Liv's no-nonsense attitude made for a great juxtaposition and some of the episode's funniest scenes. The Jimmy Stewart impression Blaine did was spot on, and one of the series' funniest moments. Show creator Rob Thomas is at his best when writing witty banter, and when Liv and Blaine share a scene together, the show feel a lot like Veronica Mars at its best.

The weakest part of the episode was the "case of the week." At this point, the only reason the show continues to use this format is so that Liv has context for the new brains she consumes. Giving Liv a new personality each week tends to add a fun element to the show, and it's always fun to see what Rose McIver try out a new personality, but the cases have consistently become the least interesting part of a show that has plenty of strong plot lines in motion. The grumpy old man personality Liv adopted this week was too broad to do the episode any favors. It was one of the least believable personalities so far, and unlike past episodes where the personality drives the direction of the plot, this personality seemed to go away whenever Liv needed to have a serious conversation with another character. I'm still a big fan of the concept, but if the show is going to stick with a case of the week, the accompanying brain needs to be more interesting than this week's brain. Other than that, this episode was a great start to a new season of one of the year's best new shows.