The Perfectly Imperfect Villainy of Blaine in iZombie

Zombies are in a weird spot right now. They’re everywhere—see any recent Friday night on HBO Max for proof—but they never really go out of style. The ‘10s, however, were a golden age for the undead on television. The decade was bookended by AMC’s goliath The Walking Dead (2010–2022) and Netflix’s eclectic horror-comedy The Santa Clarita Diet (2017–2018). In the middle sat one of the medium’s most absurd, unique, and overlooked gems: a zombie crime procedural with a healthy dose of gross-out comedy, supernatural drama, and heart.

iZombie ran on The CW for five seasons (2015–2019) but never found blockbuster-level success. In many ways, it was ahead of its time. It had the heart and cleverness to pick up a cult following over its run, but never quite reached the audience it so desperately needed to. What it lacked in blockbuster numbers, though, it made up for with consistent and distinct charm. Written with wit, imbued with emotion, and, perhaps most of all, blessed with originality, iZombie introduced audiences to an undead woman who wanted more than to simply eat brains.

In the World of iZombie…

Created by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright, and “loosely” based on the Vertigo comic series of the same name by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, iZombie reworked the premise of its graphic novel predecessor but kept the theme of the undead girl at its core. The original comic, which began publication in 2008 and ran for seven issues, followed Gwen Dylan, a zombie living and working as a gravedigger in Eugene, Oregon. A classic zombie trope immediately sets the series apart from others: Gwen needs to eat brains every 30 days to keep her memories and ability to think and communicate.

The television show did the same, but with key differences. Set in Seattle and centered on type-A medical student Liv Moore (Rose McIver, who’s the reason for that name, you guessed it), the series jumps right into the action: a boat party on a local Seattle waterway goes sideways. A new designer drug called Utopium, mixed with an energy drink, Max Rager, leads to a zombie outbreak, and Liv is scratched and killed (dude, we get it, the name), waking up the next day in a body bag as a zombie herself.

Liv dumps her engagement to her human fiancé, Major (Robert Buckley), alienates her best friend and roommate, Peyton (Aly Michalka), and takes a job at the medical examiner’s office to sate her new brain-eating appetite discreetly. Little does she know that her crush on her boss, pathologist Ravi (Rahul Kohli), a former CDC zombie virus expert who’s come to the Seattle office in hopes of finding a cure, will lead to the discovery of her zombie secret.

The brains gave Liv an ability to solve murders, which paired her with Det. Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), who, at least in the early going, is convinced Liv is psychic. Ravi played the straight man, but in the best way possible. Supportive, kind-hearted, and caring about Liv’s well-being, Ravi was a gift of comic relief and science in equal measure, always there for his zombie co-worker, unless, of course, she’s taken the brain of his arch-nemesis, PhD scientist Bruce.

Brains, Brains, and a Villain or Two

Zombies need baddies. In true Blaine DeBeers fashion (David Anders), one of the original partygoers on the ill-fated boat trip made a name for himself. Blaine, who scratched Liv (major plot point, dude), goes from small-time, conscience-ridden dealer of tainted Utopium to bona fide brain trafficker with a network of uptown zombies paying for his costly black market brain needs. With daddy issues, a signature sneer, and an undercurrent of snarky, misogynistic wit, Blaine was an uncanny fit for Anders, an actor best known for his Emmy-winning role as cruel, gleefully sinister General Hale (Trust me, I know) on AMC’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Sand Kingdoms prequel series, A Song of Ice and Fire (known to the layperson as Game of Thrones).

Guest roles like Daran Norris’ sleazy TV weatherman Johnny Frost and Steven Weber’s Max Rager CEO Vaughan Du Clark and his zombie daughter Rita (Leanne Lapp) offered memorable one-offs and more overarching appearances.

Memorable Finales Are Rare, and iZombie Wasn’t the Exception

Despite a strong start and a fanbase built in its first two seasons, the show sputtered a little bit in its final two years, and its finale, while offering an interesting re-shuffling of romantic attachments, also proved a little too rushed for its good and lacking the fan service closure we expected the show to wrap up, even in its swan song. Nevertheless, the mark the show left on its audience was an endearing, rare one: it took the absurd and made it emotional. It was clever, with a soft undercurrent of biting humor. Puns abounded (Major Lillywhite, The Scratching Post bar, and Ravi’s dog “Minor”), and the brain recipes were consistently revolting (see: stir-fry, hush puppies, protein shakes).

If there’s one episode that still resonates for fans of the show, it’s “Flight of the Living Dead,” in which Liv consumes the brain of her free-spirited former sorority sister Holly (Tasya Teles), a college dropout whose death was ruled an “accident” after she died skydiving. Holly’s zest for life temporarily infects Liv’s more conservative mindset, but it also becomes a significant turning point in Liv’s emotional development over the series—one of the many ways iZombie proved itself to be about more than zombies, murder, and gore. It had a heart.