- calendar_today August 21, 2025
iZombie Was a Zombie Show That Was Really About Humanity
Zombies are a time-tested pop culture device, but they had a particular boom in television in the 2010s. During that decade, huge hits like AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010–2022) were joined by more experimental efforts like Netflix’s horror-comedy The Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2018). Somewhere in between these two extremes was iZombie, a supernatural procedural dramedy series that was on the air for five seasons on The CW. It never achieved blockbuster status, but it did build up a very loyal cult following that adored its razor-sharp wit, its likeable cast of characters, and its blend of episodic murder investigations with overarching zombie mythology.
The show was a loose adaptation of the Vertigo comic book of the same name by writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred. In the comic, Gwen Dylan is a zombie gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon, who must eat a brain every 30 days to preserve her memories and sanity. Her best friends are a 1960s ghost and a were-terrier named Scott “Spot,” and the trio encounters a wide range of supernatural trouble, from vampires to mummies. The adaptation from Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright kept the framework of a brain-eating zombie, but changed just about everything else. The most obvious shift was the move in setting from Eugene to Seattle, but Allred’s influence beyond the show’s comic book-style opening credits was limited to the cover of “Stop, I’m Already Dead” by Deadboy & The Elephant Men that accompanied them.
The show’s protagonist, Liv Moore, played by Rose McIver, was a medical student with high career ambitions and a fiancé named Major (Robert Buckley) before her life was shattered during a party on a speedboat that turned into a killing spree. One of the ingredients of the experimental designer drug Utopium, mixed with a can of the energy drink Max Rager to make everyone at the party goers sick and aggressive, but Liv was scratched by a zombie in the process of trying to escape the boat. She woke up in a body bag on a beach, an new zombie who had a voracious appetite for brains. She ended things with Major out of a sense of obligation to keep him safe, turned away from her best friend, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and took a job as a technician in the medical examiner’s office for its consistent and reliable supply of brains.
Her boss, Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), soon figured out that she was a zombie, but rather than being alarmed, Ravi was fascinated (and determined to find a cure), given that he had been fired from the CDC for crying wolf when he’d warned about the virus years earlier. Liv also began working with Detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) on the murder cases the brains helped solve, with Clive taking the mistaken assumption that she was a psychic very seriously. The reveal was that the brain of a recently deceased person would give Liv flashes of their memories when eaten, along with certain personality traits depending on the brain. These could be positive (fluency in a foreign language) or negative (terrible phobias), but helped Liv solve cases like a psychic would.
Brains, Villains, and the Show’s Unforgettable Characters
As with every good drama, there was a memorable villain. In iZombie, the central one was Blaine DeBeers, played by David Anders, the zombie who had bitten and infected Liv on the speedboat. A Utopium dealer during the party, Blaine became a brain trafficker in the show, finding wealthy victims and infecting them to make more brain-deprived zombies that were dependent on him to supply their drug of choice. He was smart, charming, ruthless, and damaged in his way by his family, making him an appealing villain and even an occasional reluctant ally.
Detail-oriented humor ran through the show. Major’s surname was “Lillywhite.” Blaine’s butcher shop in season one was “Meat Cute.” Ravi and Major named the dog they adopted from an animal shelter “Minor,” and a zombie bar was called “The Scratching Post.” Fans also revelled in the show’s brain dishes, from Liv’s inspired brain stir-fries, pizza roll concoctions, and hush puppies to Blaine’s upscale medulla oblongata-stuffed gnocchi.
Romantic entanglements also ran through the show. Although Liv’s on-again, off-again relationship with Major was the presumed central one, many fans found her first-season romance with Lowell Tracey (Bradley James) more compelling. Lowell was a British musician whose zombie state ended his career, but his friendship with Ravi and his bond with Liv (both had secret identities as zombies) made him a favorite, especially after he was killed while trying to bring down Blaine, outraging many viewers.
Seasons two through five introduced a variety of recurring characters, each with a unique color. Jessica Harmon played Dale Bozzio, who developed from an FBI investigator to Clive’s partner. Bryce Hodgson had a memorable guest arc as Scott E., a patient in a mental hospital, before returning to play his twin brother Don E., one of Blaine’s lackeys. Celebrity guests included Daran Norris as sleazy weatherman Johnny Frost and Steven Weber as Max Rager CEO Vaughan du Clark. Rita (Leanne Lapp), Vaughan’s daughter, went “full Romero” and ate his brains before being killed herself in the season two finale.
The show got a bit off its narrative tracks in seasons three through five and was given a compressed, unsatisfying finale, but its charms, creativity, and affection for its characters made it a cut above its peers. It was a show that proved that even in the increasingly crowded zombie entertainment landscape, there was room for a series that combined murder mystery and punny humor with genuine heart, all in one brain at a time.
