iZombie Review: "Max Wager"

The main lesson to learn from "Max Wager" is to never lose faith in the writing of Rob Thomas and his staff. Major has been going down a dark path pretty much since he lost his job as a social worker, and it was nice to see just how quickly the writers could redeem so many of those dark aspects of his life in this episode. The major reveal (seriously, no pun intended) came at the end of the episode where it is revealed that Major has only been putting his zombie targets in frozen hibernation, and not killing them. Ever since his first "killing" I thought Major's methods left a lot of room for doubt, but the guilt that he was consumed by was so convincing that I went along with the idea that Major had turned into a killer despite any evidence to the contrary. Yet again, the writers should be praised for how believable they made it all seem.

Showing that Major wasn't a monster capable of killing innocent people was the only logical way to redeem his character, but the show still got some nice mileage off of the concept of how far Major would go to protect Liv. The best part of this episode, however, was being able to see Major resemble his old self a little more. The scene where Peyton and Ravi find out Liv and Major are back together was hilarious. Major's "suffer bitch" line was easily the funniest moment on television all week. Robert Buckley handles comedy well, and so do the show's writers. It was nice to see that utilized where it hasn't been in so long.

Things did happen outside of Major, though. The case of the week was dud, but the show has long since moved past that being the main focus. It did give Liv a mildly entertaining, if not narratively unnecessary personality to play with this week. Blaine had a very morbid, and sure to be emotionally disturbing in the future, plot line involving his serious daddy issues. Lastly Peyton ran into a threat that is sure to come back around in the future. Overall it was decent episode for most characters, but Major's redemption made this episode a bright spot in a slightly dark season.

iZombie Review: "Love and Basketball"

"Love and Basketball" was yet another solid episode from a show that doesn't produce bad episodes. While there were a lot of interesting plot developments here, the episode mostly explored the same themes it has been exploring for the last few episodes. For that reason I'm going to skip the traditional review format I've been using and jump straight to bullet point highlights.

• It's a little odd that Major goes from avoiding Liv at all costs, to wanting to "do sex" with her so bad that he would risk being turned into a zombie. Then again, Major isn't exactly his most rational self these days. 
• The case of the week was a dud, but the personality was another showcase in how great the writers are for this show. Having Liv take on the personality of a motivational speech prone basketball coach was perfectly timed with Major coming to her for help. It was also a lot of fun. 
• Clive's relationship (for now just a work relationship, but maybe someday more than that) with Dale has not only given his character some of the more fun moments in the episode, it also gave new life to his very mediocre side story of investigating the Meat Cute massacre. 
• Speaking of Clive and Meat Cute, figuring out that Suzuki had part of a brain in his freezer means Clive will probably been in on the zombie secret sooner than later. It's a move I think the writers can handle. 
• Ravi is often left out of the more action heavy parts of the show, so it was nice to see him in action during his slightly morbid game of keep away (in this case with a serum that instantly kills zombies) with Blaine. 
• Anyone notice that Hearst College reference thrown out there during the episode? Here's hoping it means Veronica Mars and Liv Moore occupy the same fictional universe, cause I want to see those two solve a crime together.