iZombie: The Cult Classic That Mixed Brains With Heart

Humans may never tire of zombies, but undead souls found their 2010s-era pop-cultural heyday on TV. We got AMC’s juggernaut The Walking Dead (2010–2022) and Netflix’s offbeat horror-comedy The Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2018). Nestled in the middle of them both was iZombie, a curious mix of crime-solving, undead soap opera, and absurdist humor that aired on The CW for five seasons.

While never breaking out into blockbuster territory, it built a cult following with fans who adored its clever writing, sincere performances, and an approach to zombie storytelling that felt fresh even within the context of a much bigger trend. Written and produced by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright, iZombie was loosely based on the Vertigo comic series from Chris Roberson and Michael Allred.

The series took some deviations from the book, but it did keep its undead heart. The original comic centered on Gwen Dylan, a zombie gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon. As in the show, Gwen must consume human brains within 30 days of death to maintain her memory. She is also accompanied by a ghost and a were-terrier, which are the closest things the comic series offers to friends or confidants, supernatural or otherwise. But the series takes the premise in another direction. Set in Seattle, the series’ eponymous hero is a type-A medical student named Liv Moore—yes, the writers named her Liv Moore—and was played by Rose McIver.

Liv’s life takes a turn after she attends a boat party that spirals into chaos. In the after-hours of the party, a new designer drug called Utopium gets mixed with an energy drink called Max Rager and leads to disaster. Liv is scratched by a zombie, awakens in a body bag, and slowly comes to realize that she’s also dead. She quickly ends her engagement with her human fiancé, Major (Robert Buckley), pushes away her roommate Peyton (Aly Michalka), and gets a job at the medical examiner’s office to feed undetected and get to all the brains. She is eventually discovered by her wacky, kind-hearted boss, Ravi (Rahul Kohli), a CDC scientist turned ME’s office zombie hunter who is obsessed with the idea of a zombie cure.

But the best twist the show gave was that when Liv ate someone’s brain, she would also inherit their memories and personality traits. The result was an almost endless procession of characters for McIver to play. Whether it was a kinkily defensive dominatrix, an aggrieved New York cabbie, a grumpy old man, a romance novelist, a magician, a whiskey-drinking pub trivia whiz hitman, or a cartoony cop’s sidekick, Liv’s range was constantly on display, and every brain was treated with sincerity.

The brains would also offer clues to help Liv solve the day’s murder, which matched her up with Det. Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), who—at least at first—suspected she was psychic. Ravi provided both a comic foil and a scientific counterpart to Liv, supporting her while simultaneously geeking out (except maybe when Liv has the brain of a PhD scientist, which annoys Ravi) over her transformations.

Brains, Bad Guys, and Bittersweet Goodbyes

Of course, no show is complete without a villain, and iZombie had a wonderful one to anchor some of its more dastardly plots: Blaine DeBeers (David Anders). The smarmy rich kid who scratched Liv at that ill-fated boat party transforms from a small-time Utopium dealer to a full-blown brain trafficker, serving as the linchpin of an entire (woolly) underground economy of upscale zombies hooked on his brains. With an aristocratic sneer, daddy issues, and a perverse sense of charm, Blaine had himself an unforgettable arc.

Not to mention the show’s beloved side characters. Jessica Harmon had such fun as FBI agent Dale Brazzio that she eventually became Clive’s partner, and Bryce Hodgson’s comedic turn as season one’s Scott E. was so beloved that the writers brought him back as season two’s twin brother Don E., a sycophantic sidekick to Blaine. Guest characters like Daran Norris’ sleazy weatherman Johnny Frost, and Steven Weber’s Max Rager CEO Vaughan Du Clark and his zombie daughter Rita (Leanne Lapp) served up memorable one-off appearances, as well as season-spanning stakes.

The show had a pretty strong first half, but the last couple of seasons didn’t have quite the same energy, and its finale was particularly divisive. For all of the fans who loved its frenetic final episodes, many more were underwhelmed by what they felt was a rushed conclusion that offered neither a proper sense of closure nor the series’ usual earnestness. But for all of its failings, it was still able to achieve something special: a series that leaned so hard into the absurd that it became genuinely affecting. The humor was on-point, the puns (Major Lillywhite, The Scratching Post, and Ravi’s dog “Minor”) were abundant, and Liv’s brain-based gastronomy (stir-fry, hush puppies, protein shakes) was wonderfully gross.

Liv’s most important brain-eating guest star may have been Tasya Teles’ free-spirited former sorority sister Holly, who she ingests in the ever-beloved “Flight of the Living Dead” and dies in a skydiving “accident.” Holly is just the sort of former Live livewire that Liv must keep hidden and dimmed down, and Holly’s personality sticks with her after she ingests her brain, in ways both good and bad. Liv’s bolder approach to living after eating Holly, with all of its risks and freedoms, is a true turning point in her journey—one of many reminders that iZombie, while about zombies, was really about finding one’s humanity again in the strangest circumstances possible.

The series indeed had zombies, gore, and murder. But it also had soul.