iZombie Season 5

[Phoenix219]

The show came back for its fifth and final season Thursday night. some interesting new Dynamics and status quo, although I'm wondering how money has any type of value left. I am also wondering why there is not a underground railroad type coyote helping all the humans left in New Seattle to escape. Blaine is just so much fun to hate and watch chew scenery. Interesting take on suicide bombers.

 

[Christopher]

It's bizarre that in a show whose title is a first-person reference to the lead character, said lead character is barely a presence in its final season's premiere. Liv has been almost extraneous to the storyline since the start of season 4, with the larger worldbuilding overwhelming her and making her "persona of the week" schtick seem like a pointless distraction. It wasn't until she took over the underground-railroad thingy that she became relevant to her own show again, but now she's so settled into that role that the focus was more on Francis Capra's character's role in the operation. You'd think the woman who killed the dictatorial military leader and ushered in the new status quo for this season would have more significance.

And now Ravi's taking over the "persona" gimmick for this week, and they're perpetuating the same probem they've had with Liv for several seasons now -- treating the brain persona as something the zombie is incapable of shaking off even when they have good reason, which doesn't make sense given that Blaine is still perfectly able to retain his own personality while drawing on information from the brains he consumes.

 

[The Wormhole]

Ravi being a tough thug sure was amusing. As was Blaine's YouTube commercial parodying the Matthew McConaughey car commercials.

 

[Phoenix219]

Something feels missing and off about the show this year. Liv's brain of the week was pointless and grating. I forgot she even had visions until Clive asked if she had one. It's hard to care about the characters. The show can't seem to decide whether it is a functional city or apocalyptic wasteland. The new kids are reckless and annoying. I knew dude was going to die the second they gave him so much screen time. Sorely missed Blaine and his antics. At this point I'm rooting for him. At least he's consistent.

 

[Charles Phipps]

Something feels missing and off about the show this year. Liv's brain of the week was pointless and grating. I forgot she even had visions until Clive asked if she had one. It's hard to care about the characters. The show can't seem to decide whether it is a functional city or apocalyptic wasteland. The new kids are reckless and annoying. I knew dude was going to die the second they gave him so much screen time. Sorely missed Blaine and his antics. At this point I'm rooting for him. At least he's consist.

My theory is that the series has shot itself in the foot by forgetting its theme and making changes that prevent from the theme ever being recovered. iZombie is fundamentally an optimistic, breezy, and funny show about the "joke" of a zombie being a sexy perky idealistic crime fighter. Like if you made Supergirl (or more precisely Kara Danvers) a zombie.

The problem is that Fillmore Graves Seattle is a horrible dystopian hellhole where thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people have died. It's a traumatizing and depressing situation that kind of renders all of the previous murder investigations as well as heroic actions by our heroes pointless.

 

[Phoenix219]

It's gotten too political, and I don't mean real life. It's all false flags, suicide bombers, walls, coyotes, Seattle government stuff, Seattle vs Washington and terrorist cells, but it's boring. It doesn't present it in any way that makes a real life point, but it's just there. It's not fun or exciting. The characters are becoming caricatures. It's lost it's charm.

 

[Charles Phipps]

It's gotten too political, and I don't mean real life. It's all false flags, suicide bombers, walls, coyotes, Seattle government stuff, Seattle vs Washington and terrorist cells, but it's boring. It doesn't present it in any way that makes a real life point, but it's just there. It's not fun or exciting. The characters are becoming caricatures. It's lost it's charm.

I'm trying to figure what it reminds me of and then it hit me this feels like someone made an INFAMOUS: SECOND SON series except replaced the Conduits with zombies. Maybe a little DIVISION too. Which isn't good as I wasn't a fan of either.

 

[Christopher]

I long ago got tired of the "brain of the week" stuff and enjoyed the large-scale worldbuilding when they finally outed zombies. It's far more interesting science fiction when you let the speculative ideas have a real impact on the world than when you hide them to maintain a "real world" status quo. The problem is that Liv no longer serves a real purpose in that storyline. Which isn't the fault of the storyline. The problem is that they decided years ago that her brain personas would take her over completely rather than just modulating her personality as they did initially, and at that point Liv basically stopped existing as a character, becoming little more than a gimmick. So there wasn't really anything left of her for them to use in the bigger story they'd begun to tell.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I long ago got tired of the "brain of the week" stuff and enjoyed the large-scale worldbuilding when they finally outed zombies. It's far more interesting science fiction when you let the speculative ideas have a real impact on the world than when you hide them to maintain a "real world" status quo. The problem is that Liv no longer serves a real purpose in that storyline. Which isn't the fault of the storyline. The problem is that they decided years ago that her brain personas would take her over completely rather than just modulating her personality as they did initially, and at that point Liv basically stopped existing as a character, becoming little more than a gimmick. So there wasn't really anything left of her for them to use in the bigger story they'd begun to tell.

I watched iZombie primarily as comfort food and a silly supernatural show to refuge from the darker days. Liv being a chameleon doing a wide variety of impersonations didn't change she always the caring, sweet, and fun character she was before. Bluntly, I just don't think the characters mix well to the new dark environment they're in except for maybe Peyton and Blaine who work well as overlords.

 

[Christopher]

I watched iZombie primarily as comfort food and a silly supernatural show to refuge from the darker days. Liv being a chameleon doing a wide variety of impersonations didn't change she always the caring, sweet, and fun character she was before.

It got to the point where "Liv on brain" was shown to lack basic knowledge that regular Liv would have, and where she was incapable of turning it off when it got in the way (as also seen with Ravi last week). That's not how it was shown in the early seasons, and it contradicts how other zombies like Blaine are portrayed. And it used to be that Liv had character arcs of her own that drove the narrative. Now she has nothing to offer but antics that distract from the narrative. Like I said this time last season, she's become extraneous to her own show. I like the daring of the show's willingness to evolve and change its world so radically, but I wish it had found a way for its lead character to keep up with that evolution.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I think they even lampshaded it when Livs' boyfriend died that Liv went 100% more into character than most people would as a way of grieving.

 

[Christopher]

I think they even lampshaded it when Livs' boyfriend died that Liv went 100% more into character than most people would as a way of grieving.

Yeah, but by now she should've stopped doing that. And it doesn't make sense that the exact same thing happens to Ravi.

 

[StCoop]

I gave it two episodes but I've finally given up on watching this now. There's nothing left of the series I loved for it's first three seasons at this point.

The world's such a shitty place it would be nice to have some escapism left somewhere.

 

[The Wormhole]

I still find the show as amusing as ever. I especially like how they continue using zombie relations as an allegory for race relations in the real world. I like the jokes about humans dressing up in "white face" scattered throughout the episode, not to mention the amusingly ironic moment of a black zombie declaring "white lives matter."

 

[Christopher]

^I loved the moment where Clive and Ravi bonded over the "So you paint your faces and appropriate another culture" thing.

Aside from the obvious immigration allegory, I was unclear on why the militants were hunting and killing normal humans trying to get into Seattle. I guess it was because they came to get turned into zombies? Still, it's a confusing idea. Or maybe that's the point -- that their violence is arbitrary and illogically justified, and that it spreads to victims beyond those it's "supposed" to be directed against.

 

[The Wormhole]

I guess they assume anyone trying to get through by means other than an official checkpoint is a zombie supporter and will be dealt with accordingly.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I think using zombies as a metaphor for immigration is one of those well-intended things that conservatives rightly would make fun of liberals for.

 

[Christopher]

I think using zombies as a metaphor for immigration is one of those well-intended things that conservatives rightly would make fun of liberals for.

"Rightly?" By no means. I can see how it could be problematical, but just because a vulnerability exists does not make it "right" to attack it. That's the thinking of a bully.

 

[Charles Phipps]

"Rightly?" By no means. I can see how it could be problematical, but just because a vulnerability exists does not make it "right" to attack it. That's the thinking of a bully.

No, the situation in Seattle is just flat out wrong because there's not enough food in the city and they're bringing in more zombies.

That's a bad metaphor for immigration even if zombies are all cute Livmoores.

 

[Christopher]

No, the situation in Seattle is just flat out wrong because there's not enough food in the city and they're bringing in more zombies.

That's a bad metaphor for immigration even if zombies are all cute Livmoores.

Which has nothing to do with whether it would be right for conservatives to make fun of liberals, which is what you said before.