Liv Moore Deserved Better: A Deep Dive Into iZombie’s Heroine

If you think about zombies, what comes to mind? Runners on a televised freak-out montage? Vampires with a bad attitude and sun allergies? An undead army straight out of the pages of Japanese folklore? The point is: zombies aren’t going anywhere, but they did peak on TV in the 2010s. The decade saw the rise of a modern classic: AMC’s The Walking Dead (2010–2022) and gave us Netflix’s best comedy-horror in recent memory: The Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2018). Somewhere in the middle of that 2010s zombie boom sits a criminally underrated bloodsucker series: iZombie.

A bizarre cocktail of crime-solving detective work, undead soap opera, and b-movie comedy, iZombie aired on The CW for five seasons. It never had the reach of The Walking Dead (or Santa Clarita Diet, for that matter), but it did have a passionate cult following that stuck with it through a decent run and a sloppy end.

Creator Rob Thomas (longtime writer and producer of Veronica Mars, creator of the Freaks and Geeks spin-off Salvation) and co-creator Diane Ruggiero-Wright adapted the Vertigo comic series of the same name, created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred. They made changes, of course, but the essential undead conceit remained the same.

In the comics, iZombie stars Gwen Dylan (created and drawn as a white woman, but written to be Latina), a gravedigger who happens to be a zombie in Eugene, Oregon. Every 30 days, she needs to eat human brains to sustain her fading memory and abilities. Gwen’s undead support squad includes a ghost, a were-terrier, and a “regular” human. This supernatural blend of characters was key to the book’s meditation on identity and mental health.

In contrast, the show uses the same basic premise (via makeovers, casting, and a new city) to spin a slightly different tale. In the show, the brain-chomping, undead title character was Liv Moore. Yes, this name is on purpose, and Rose McIver—who originated the role on The CW’s @midnight—plays her. A type-A medical school student and owner of a perpetually miffed pet goldfish, Liv is off to the best night of her life when a fatal party on a boat leads to a zombie outbreak, a designer drug called Utopium, and an energy drink appropriately named Max Rager.

Scratched and left for dead in a body bag, Liv rises as an undead serial zombie eater. She dumps her human fiancé, Major (Robert Buckley), for real, has a falling out with her roommate, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and takes a job at the medical examiner’s office to gain legitimate access to brains. Her secret eating disorder is soon uncovered by her boss, Major’s best friend, and newly minted medical examiner at MDX, Ravi (Rahul Kohli). He is not only a fun-loving super-genius gone mad in his quest to cure the zombie virus, but also an India-born former CDC scientist who moved to Seattle to escape his roots.

In a zany development, Liv’s new cannibal eating disorder also makes her a serial murderer, but there’s a devious silver lining: zombies retain all memories and characteristics of whoever’s brains they eat. So Liv gets an endless, brain-consuming stream of new personalities to juggle on top of her murder cover-ups. And if a 12-episode season gave McIver too much time with one brain, the zombie genre would have none of it. Sassy dominatrix? Check. Curmudgeonly (male) grandpa? Check. Romance novelist? Magician? Pub trivia-champion hitman? Ravi notes each brain’s job and health in a log that Liv consults when figuring out clues to murders that accompany the night’s cannibal appetizer and dessert.

Brainy banter and murder-solving lead Liv to Det. Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), who believes—initially at least—that Liv is a psychic helping him investigate new zombie murders. Ravi is more into the comedy of Liv’s sudden shifts, adding his local color to clue interpretations, but, except PhD brain scientist (Liv might as well be eating her brain), his taste buds aren’t offended by Liv’s new abilities. (His dog, appropriately, is named Minor. Yes, this, too, is on purpose.)

Brains, Bad Guys, and a Mournful Misclosure

As with any good crime-solving saga, the show has its bad guys, including its most nefarious big bad: Blaine DeBeers (David Anders), the ultimate scalpel-snatching sociopath. A slimy, droopy-lipped, morally bankrupt junkie with daddy issues, Blaine goes from a low-level dealer of poisoned Utopium to one of the world’s first brain traffickers. He and his wealthy zombie clientele live and breathe through his service, leading to a zombie brain black market worth more than yours, mine, and his house combined.

The show’s best side characters get their due: Jessica Harmon as FBI agent Dale Brazzio (eventually Clive’s partner) and Bryce Hodgson as Scott E., Liv’s first brain who happened to be a pompous, wannabe children’s book author (popular enough with the fanbase that writers brought him back as his long-lost twin brother Don E., Blaine’s good-hearted sidekick). Others got longer guest runs: Daran Norris as sleazy weatherman Johnny Frost, Steven Weber as Max Rager CEO Vaughan Du Clark, and his onscreen zombie daughter Rita, played by Leanne Lapp.

The final seasons sagged, and in the case of the finale, it nosedived. The result was too rushed, with little fan-desired closure. To its credit, iZombie tackled (sometimes awkwardly) some heavy themes while holding on to the comic absurdity. The show’s humor was smart, the puns delightful (Major Lillywhite, a detective’s bar called The Scratching Post, and Ravi’s dog’s name: Minor), and all the brain-cuisine (stir-fry, hush puppies, protein shakes, oh my!) creatively nauseating.

The point is this: yes, there were zombies. Yes, there was blood and gore, and more murder than you can shake a syringe at. But, there was also a soul.