Season 1 of iZombie recently hit DVD in a Complete First Season 3-disc box set. Here’s how Warner Bros. Home Entertainment describes it, for those of you who are not familiar with the show:
iZOMBIE stars Rose McIver as Olivia “Liv” Moore, a medical resident on the fast track to a perfect life … until she’s turned into a zombie. Now stuck between half-alive and undead, Liv transfers to the city morgue to reluctantly access the only thing that allows her to maintain her humanity — human brains. But there are side effects to Liv’s new diet. With each brain she consumes, she experiences flashes of the corpse’s memories — including, at times, clues as to how they were killed. Her boss, a brilliant but eccentric conspiracy theorist, encourages her to embrace this gift and to work with an unproven homicide detective to help solve these murders … and quiet the voices in her head.
Below, find our review.
The Episodes: Being a viewer of iZombie is kind of like being a zombie. As a zombie keeps eating brains, they want more; that’s also the feeling I got when watching this show. With every successive week the show got better and better, a lot due to the situations Rose McIver’s Liv gets herself into and the different brains that take over her personality. A zombie show involving murders has the potential to be really grim, but under the direction and development of Executive Producers Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright of Veronica Mars fame, it works out and remains fun. Props also go out to the show’s supporting cast, including Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley, Malcolm Goodwin, and David Anders, for making a show that turns out so well.
What I also like about iZombie – that I’ve brought up in reviews in the past – is it is one of those rare TV shows that successfully mixes procedural elements with continued storytelling, and one aspect doesn’t overpower the other. If anything, the zombie factor makes the procedural elements more interesting.
I was a fan of the iZombie comic books and I was initially disappointed that the show wouldn’t star gravedigger Gwen Dylan and feature ghosts and were-terriers; thankfully, as iZombie the show was put together, it’s so good that I just forgot about those things entirely. No disrespect at all to original creators Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, whose comic book series was brilliant; they’re just both brilliant in their own rights.
The Extras: In this department, this set kind of fails a little bit.
I wasn’t able to see the 2014 iZombie Comic-Con panel, and I was glad to be able to see it because I learned a lot about the show that I hadn’t already. But beyond that, all we have are deleted scenes.
The creators of this show have always been so open and communicative with their fans that I’m sure they would have said “yes” to DVD commentaries or something — so, why [I’m assuming] they weren’t approached, I have no idea. It’s bad enough that iZombie is only in the DVD format and not Blu-ray; but to not spend much time on extras was a bit disappointing.
Even a feature on the awesome Michael Allred-inspired opening credits would have been amazing…. or, an interview with the people that make the “brains” for Rose McIver to eat.
Graphics & Sound: The packaging looks nice, as do the episodes, though, again, I would have preferred Blu-ray.
Is It Worth It? If iZombie is on Netflix, you’re basically getting almost everything on the DVD set anyway. If you’re really into the show, of course you’ll want it. I do hope, though, that a Season 2 set has a bit more to bite on.
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