The Movie Journal

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 13 "Blaine's World" June 09, 2015 Spoilers Ahead! “Blaine’s World” is a spectacular, action-packed finale to iZombie’s first season. Some questions have been answered, but even more questions are raised and shall be discussed within the second season. The episode allows both Major and Blaine to shine before the explosion that Lieutenant Suzuki set off at the Meat Cute. We almost got a happy ending for Liv and company…but poor Evan being in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the explosion. Her curse as a zombie came back to haunt her because she could not give out O-blood for obvious reasons. Really sad. But interesting storylines will be abound next season now that Blaine might have been cured from zombieism and Major is a zombie! Also, Major has some weaponry skills despite not being in control of any guns or weapons for long. Hmmmmmm. In this finale, it starts off like any old episode. It involves the Super Max drink at Max Rag...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 12 "Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat" June 02, 2015 Spoiler Alert! And y’all thought that Major would be the first one to discover Liv’s secret! Good job, iZombie ! In “Dead Rat, Live Rat, Brown Rat, White Rat,” someone outside of Ravi and Blaine knows who Liv really is and that person is…Peyton Charles, her roommate. The episode does an amazing job building up for the emotional reveal and its immediate aftermath. Even though Peyton, since she is a recurring character, did not have much to do this season, she was a major part of this episode. She is a genuinely kind person who wants her friend Liv to be okay and is worn down from Liv’s ever-changing personalities and mood swings (brains, duh!). We learned more about their friendship as Liz took on stoner and cheerleader brains. That said, this particular episode was more scary than funny. I loved the I Know What You Did Last Summer references. In this episode, Liz has to deal with Seba...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 11 "Astroburger"  May 26, 2015 In some ways, “Astroburger” was a really funny episode. In other ways, it was also an incredibly painful episode, especially in terms of Liv and Major. As a zombie, Liv has eaten brains from different personalities. This episode, however, gave her a troubling persona and that happens to be paranoia and delusion. Some fun came out of the brain such as the crass Cheeto flame devil coming to life, although I felt like it might have been a tad overdone. However, she spent the episode becoming closer to Major and decided to tell him her secret…but that ended up as a hallucination. I felt so awful for Liz especially now that Liz is aware of Major’s knowledge that zombies exist. Yeah, I do not think their cuddly make-up will last long. In this episode, Major decides to check himself out of rehab. He gets tied into the case of the week when Scott E, the person who told Major about zombies, apparently committed suicide. His...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 10 "Mr. Berserk" May 19, 2015 “Mr. Berserk” is another fun episode of iZombie . This episode gives Rose McIver the chance to show her acting range as it required a good portion of emotions to be used. From grief to drunk physical comedy to being mean, she does it all! This episode’s case of the week is very strong because it ties into the show’s overall mythology. Steven Weber is introduced as this week’s guest star, who plays a CEO of Max Rager (sounds familiar?). His character is such a jerk, but I loved the performance. As we near the season’s conclusion, things keep getting spicier. The only thing I disliked is Liv acting like a mean friend towards Major, which I’ll describe down below. The episode begins with Liv in shock and grief over Lowell’s death. She is questioned by the police. There is a nice moment where Ravi and Liz prove their friendship at the morgue as they say goodbye to Lowell forever. But this also gives her the determinatio...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 9 "Patriot Games" May 12, 2015 Good job, Patriot Brains. Way to break our hearts! It had to happen to give Liv personal stakes, but it was sad regardless. What am I talking about? The fatal ending where Blaine killed Lowell after he attempted to kill him when Liv bailed. Bradley James, as a guest star, created such a fond memory for this show. He made a believable love interest for Liv’s character. As we near the season’s conclusion, the show is picking things up as questions are getting closer to being answered. This episode also makes you aware that Blaine is a music snob or must have been in his past life. But hey, he gets points for being a Nirvana fan.  In this episode, Liv confronts Lowell about buying brains from Blaine. Lowell maintains his innocence and claims he did not know what Blaine was up to. Together, they formulate a plan to kill Blaine. The case of the week is interesting enough. It involves Liz eating a sniper brain which gives ...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 8 "Dead Air" May 05, 2015 “Dead Air” is a better episode than the last episode. While the case of the week falls mostly flat again, this episode succeeds in making lots of stuff happen in such a short span of time. By the time the credits role, you will probably be gripping your seat so hard. I was enamored by the ending! Still there is plenty of amusing things happening. Ravi falling in love with Peyton, Blaine becoming a big part of the episode, Major’s character development, and zombie rats!   In this episode, a radio talk show host whose expertise was on love and sex was murdered. When Liv ate her brains, she became the romantic expert which created some amusing situations between herself and Ravi. Major was snooping around which landed him in jail. Peyton got him released which opened up Ravi’s eyes. He asks Liv to set them up, but Liv believed that Peyton is just too good for him. She is “a lawyer who looks like a Victoria Secret’s model...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 7 "Maternity Liv" April 28, 2015 We are now past the midpoint of iZombie’s excellent first season. The show has gotten into such a groove where even the somewhat mediocre episodes (by iZombie’s standard) are above average. This week’s episode, “Maternity Liv” is one of these so-called mediocre episodes. There is plenty to like, but it is not as strong as previous episodes. Mainly you can blame Liz’s brain and the personality it gives off. The brain, as the title suggests, gives Liv a more maternal personality, which makes her fussy and she makes sure all her coworkers eat their vegetables. Furthermore, her relationship with Lowell is not advanced because he happened to eat a gay brain…but that did allow for some cool interactions with Ravi.   This week’s case focuses on the killing of Emily Sparrow. That was somewhat of a surprise because it had already been believed that she was killed months prior by her boyfriend. Regardless, the case was r...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 6 "Virtual Reality Bites" April 21, 2015 iZombie is on all a roll! It looks like I’m in the series for the long haul after the delightful “Virtual Reality Bites.” Even though I am not familiar with Rob Thomas’s Veronica Mars , I see why that show was so popular. Thomas and Diane Ruggiero plus the writers develop interesting, creative ideas to inject in their characters each episode. This episode, Liv embraces an agoraphobic persona and she allows Ravi to help her with this episode’s case because he is such a gamer. The look on his face as he becomes immersed in the world of gaming, which I do not know much about myself. Also, Blaine! He is prevalent here and if no one caught he is the main evil guy yet…well it becomes public now. His conversations are light but menacing with almost everyone he interacted. Clive almost became Blaine’s next menu item with his poking and prodding. Yeah, things are going well!   In the previous episode, Major was ...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 5 "Flight of the Living Dead" April 14, 2015 While the first four episodes of iZombie’s first season are good, solid fun, the show comes into its own with its fifth episode, “Flight of the Living Dead.” How does it come into its own? Liv is given a personal connection in more ways than one, which ups the stakes. While the cases of the week have been good but nothing fancy, having Liv know this week’s deceased person adds some emotion. There was a nice moment when Liv was holding the victim’s hand as Ravi procured the brain for Liv to eat. Also, Liv is finally given another love interest…and not just any love interest. Lowell Tracey (played by the charismatic Bradley James) is a musician…and a zombie. The first “good-guy” zombie outside of Liv we met! Also, Major is given more to do this episode as he sheds the image of the thankless role that is Liv’s former lover.   In this episode, a former sorority sister of Liv’s dies when her parachute fa...

  iZombie: Season 1, Episode 4 "Live and Let Clive" April 07, 2015 “Live and Let Clive” is a solid episode. iZombie is about to get pretty complicated in a hurry. The episode moves at a brisk pace but keep in mind that this episode is jam-packed with some goodies. The episode turns its gears and pays more attention to Blaine and his schemes of extortion. It is made clear that Blaine is definitely evil despite his charm. The episode starts off with a riveting sequence where we see how zombies hide themselves; spray tans, hair dye, and brain smoothies (bleh). Blaine has a zombie army in charge of his business which is selling brains for more money; he even has a restaurant to use as a store front. This is all very interesting and descriptive. This moves Liv to the back, where she has some interesting moments herself.   Of course, we finally see the extent of Blaine’s business. We also learn that zombie henchmen need to be wary of him because they can easily be replaced. For...

iZombie "Season 1, Episode 3 "The Exterminator" March 31, 2015 “The Exterminator” continues iZombie’s strong first season in an emotionally-layered episode that gives us more insight on who these characters are and how they are connected to one another. With Liv eating the brain of a cold-blooded contract killer, her personality becomes emotionally numb which is helpful to have when she learns that Major is seeing someone else. Major continues to play the “typical hunk” dude, but his charisma is earning him points and I feel like he may be a major player in episodes to come. We get to learn more about Blaine and see what his evil plans are. We see more insight in Liv’s relationship with her roommate, ADA Peyton Charles (played by the wonderful Aly Michalka). The case of the week is interesting, but the characterization is more interesting.   In this week’s episode, Liv eats the brain of an emotionless sociopath which dulls her senses of humanistic feelings. He was al...

iZombie: Season 1, Episode 2 "Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?" March 24, 2015 In “Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?,” we finally get to meet Liv’s antagonist and the dude who turned her into a zombie, Blaine DeBeers. On the outside, Blaine seems like a pleasant enough person. Do not be fooled. Blaine is gonna be hard work for episodes and seasons to come. David Anders truly knocked it out of the park. Playing a bad person can be so much fun! I loved the introduction where he comes to the morgue and silently lies on the table hoping to catch Liv off guard. This episode expands on the pilot and explains everything in more detail. Watching Liv as a zombie in a human world is so much fun.   In this episode, Liv finally meets Blaine but there is more than what meets the eye. He may be involved with the drug Utopium which may be why Liv is now a zombie rather than a human. He also seduced a woman across town, turned her into a zombie, and now is blackmailing her for brains. Ravi ...

iZombie Season 1, Episode 1 "Pilot" March 17, 2015 If you believe that iZombie is the next Walking Dead , guess again! The show is basically a police procedural with the spiciness of zombies….and I am all here for it. The series was created by Diane Ruggiero-Wright and Rob Thomas whom created the very popular Veronica Mars . The show has a nice blend of humor, action, and drama. I really enjoy the dialogue. It seems like the head of the morgue department, Ravi will be given some juicy lines over the course of the show. The pilot episode, although it packs a lot of information, is a blast ands the proper introduction of this CW series. Zombies in the media was a mania, so I am not exactly sure if it was needed. Well, I changed my tune based on this wonderful, fun episode.   Olivia Moore (Rose McIver) had the perfect life. She was a driven doctor-to-be with the perfect boyfriend, Major Lilywhite (yes, real name and played by Robert Buckley). Everything was sailing smoothly…...