by Catherine Wignall
Tatiana Maslany has been highly praised for her impressive performance on Orphan Black as she mercurially and easily slips between characters. It’s (very, very) early days for iZombie, but it’s easy to see how the show could give Rose McIver a similar showcase in her acting range. Each new brain brings along brand new characteristics for Liv to tackle, essentially presenting us with a new Liv at least once a week.
Tatiana Maslany has been highly praised for her impressive performance on Orphan Black as she mercurially and easily slips between characters. It’s (very, very) early days for iZombie, but it’s easy to see how the show could give Rose McIver a similar showcase in her acting range. Each new brain brings along brand new characteristics for Liv to tackle, essentially presenting us with a new Liv at least once a week.
This week sees Liv eat the brain of a sociopathic hitman, leaving her detached from the world around her. Unable to care or fully engage with the world has its benefits as well as its severe downsides, and McIver delivers an impressive performance as she battles with the new brain inside her. Becoming a new version of herself each week could leave us reeling and unable to fully connect or know Liv as a character, but iZombie handles this by allowing us to still see enough of Liv to understand how she’s coping with the interloping traits of the recently deceased. It’s a needed element of the show, and allows us to remain engaged with Liv each episode.
We’re only a few episodes in, but we had yet to see any compelling evidence that Major was in danger from Liv. Her decision to break off their engagement was understandable but her tight control of her zombie personality failed to show us any risk. That changed this week with the discovery of Marcy, a colleague of Liv’s who had also been at the fateful boat party. Liv and Ravi find her as a rabid zombie stuck down a hole, and Ravi’s attempts to feed her a brain soon show us that there is a point of no return for the zombies. While it’s unlikely that Liv would allow herself to starve to the extent that Marcy has, it’s a new element to this show’s zombie lore that now justifies Liv’s decision to distance herself from her loved ones.
We see the sociopathic brain elements at work when Ravi accidentally falls while trying to take samples from Marcy. Originally unmoved by his cries for help, Liv is eventually able to break through the dead man’s brain and help Ravi. However, this help comes in the form of Liv going ‘full zombie’ in order to kill Marcy, and she struggles to snap out of it as quickly as she has done in the past. Is this another route that could lead to Liv turning into a rabid zombie like Marcy?
We’re only a few episodes in, but we had yet to see any compelling evidence that Major was in danger from Liv. Her decision to break off their engagement was understandable but her tight control of her zombie personality failed to show us any risk. That changed this week with the discovery of Marcy, a colleague of Liv’s who had also been at the fateful boat party. Liv and Ravi find her as a rabid zombie stuck down a hole, and Ravi’s attempts to feed her a brain soon show us that there is a point of no return for the zombies. While it’s unlikely that Liv would allow herself to starve to the extent that Marcy has, it’s a new element to this show’s zombie lore that now justifies Liv’s decision to distance herself from her loved ones.
We see the sociopathic brain elements at work when Ravi accidentally falls while trying to take samples from Marcy. Originally unmoved by his cries for help, Liv is eventually able to break through the dead man’s brain and help Ravi. However, this help comes in the form of Liv going ‘full zombie’ in order to kill Marcy, and she struggles to snap out of it as quickly as she has done in the past. Is this another route that could lead to Liv turning into a rabid zombie like Marcy?
The murder case this week was the weak element, but that’s also been true in the previous two episodes. With such a vibrant world surrounding them, the old procedural formula has a tough fight ahead of it if it doesn’t want to remain the weak link. Babinaux’s relationship with Liv allows for some nice repartee, but it would be gratifying to see him start to question her psychic gig as the series progresses.
While the dead hitman’s brain allows Liv to solve the murders this week, it also has the added bonus of allowing Liv to remain unmoved and detached when her roommate shows her a facebook video of Major kissing his new girlfriend. However, is this really a good thing? Remaining numb to the world simply makes Liv more of a traditional zombie. She has to decide whether to keep eating the brain and allow herself to hide from the pain of Major moving on, or if she should throw the brain away and embrace the pain. It’s an important decision, and one that Liv has to make herself in order to continue on her journey of self-discovery. She has essentially embarked on a quest to live the full life she never had while she was alive, and in order to do this she has to experience the full range of human emotion – no matter how terrible. It’s only the third episode, but Liv’s choice to feel the pain shows she’s already growing substantially.
Sinister Blaine didn’t get much of a showing this week, although as he lead Jerome off it raised the question of whether he was an addition to Blaine’s zombie army or if he was destined to become an essential ingredient in Blaine’s brain pushing business. Next week will probably reveal more of Blaine’s plans, though if he’s already lurking around the halfway home where Major mentors (seriously, could Major be any more perfect?) you start to wonder if he’s going to set his sights on Major any time soon . . .
While the dead hitman’s brain allows Liv to solve the murders this week, it also has the added bonus of allowing Liv to remain unmoved and detached when her roommate shows her a facebook video of Major kissing his new girlfriend. However, is this really a good thing? Remaining numb to the world simply makes Liv more of a traditional zombie. She has to decide whether to keep eating the brain and allow herself to hide from the pain of Major moving on, or if she should throw the brain away and embrace the pain. It’s an important decision, and one that Liv has to make herself in order to continue on her journey of self-discovery. She has essentially embarked on a quest to live the full life she never had while she was alive, and in order to do this she has to experience the full range of human emotion – no matter how terrible. It’s only the third episode, but Liv’s choice to feel the pain shows she’s already growing substantially.
Sinister Blaine didn’t get much of a showing this week, although as he lead Jerome off it raised the question of whether he was an addition to Blaine’s zombie army or if he was destined to become an essential ingredient in Blaine’s brain pushing business. Next week will probably reveal more of Blaine’s plans, though if he’s already lurking around the halfway home where Major mentors (seriously, could Major be any more perfect?) you start to wonder if he’s going to set his sights on Major any time soon . . .
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