Welcome to Zombie High.
By Eric Goldman
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Hey guys, first off, hello, as I take over weekly iZombie reviews! And secondly, my apologies for how late this is going up, as I’m in the midst of covering the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour.
Going into an episode about a TV show called Zombie High, it was safe to expect things would get pretty meta and “Method Head” did not disappoint. From Clive calling the idea of a zombie show where the zombie’s the star “dumb” to learning Zombie High, despite being set in Portland, films in Seattle (the Seattle-set iZombie films in Vancouver) for tax breaks, the iZombie team clearly had a ball winking at themselves and their fans. And we can only guess there were plenty of private in-jokes too, such as when Liv said things like, “I love the cute little names the crew have for the actors!”
The only thing that felt notably off was the first few minutes, with the Christmas setting and Liv eating the Santa brain. The idea of showing a bit of a passage of time was interesting, as we went into the new year, but it still left that opening feeling disconnected – and even Major finding out that, in theory, he will eventually become a zombie again, was somewhat put to the side for the remainder of the episode (though obviously that’s going to be a continuing issue).
However, once the episode really got going, all of the Zombie High material was extremely funny, and I loved that the show sort of got every in-joke they could out of the way, by also bringing up the new Power Rangers movie multiple times, as a nod to Rose McIver’s Ranger past – and Ravi’s line, “If I’m hearing you right, there’s going to be another Power Rangers movie!” was so great, I’ll overlook that, honestly, Ravi would already know that, right?
But what was gratifying was the episode didn’t only rest on the meta jokes, and in fact, one of the funniest moments, when Liv had to help an actor who claimed to have a photographic memory remember the term photographic memory, had nothing to do with this being a zombie show doing an episode about a zombie show.
Oh, and lest I forget, how about the amazing visual of Vaughn Du Clark dancing/working out/doing whatever he was doing with that little robot!
Du Clark’s ruse, having Dr. Lockett tell Major he was betraying Du Clark, was one you could guess, but I liked how it worked on multiple levels, with Du Clark than testing Major even further by making it seem as though he was going to let Lockett die in front of him. And Major is now more in than ever (though really, you’d think Du Clark might check that fitbit-type device Major gave him, given his nature), even as he continues to put himself in danger.
The first iZombie of 2016 was a highly entertaining one, as the show managed to have fun with itself in a big way. Meanwhile, Major is going in even deeper with Max Rager, even as we learn he’s being sought as the “Chaos Killer”, adding yet another obstacle to overcome.
