iZombie and Not Following Instructions

Zombies and me, we have a thing.

Last year I became supremely interested in zombies having had no prior interest in them before. (Heck, worse than no prior interest … I despised zombies because blood and gore. Yech!) What turned me into a zombie-lover?

An idea. I wanted to use zombies to create a role-playing conference session to teach museum people about disaster planning. What better emergency can there be but the chaos caused by the living dead trying to eat the living?

Which meant I had some research to do. I had to start watching zombie movies and reading zombie novels. I began with “Night of the Living Dead,” the classic 1968 black and white zombie movie by George Romero that kicked off the modern zombie genre. Hubby and another friend gave me suggestions on other movies to check out. There are so many that it’s difficult to catch them all, but Hubby and I are game when we find a new zombie flick.

Recently, Erik recently discovered iZombie, which is a TV series that features a zombie coroner named Liv Moore (yep, the pun is not lost on me) who eats the brains of the recently dead and then has visions from their lives. She uses these visions to solve the crimes behind their deaths.

It’s interesting to see how far the zombie genre can be pushed. The zombies in iZombie (there are more zombies than Liv) are not the shambling, rotted corpses seen in most zombie movies. They look pretty normal, except they have a deathly pallor (unless they get a fake tan and hair coloring) and have a propensity to eat brains with hot sauce in order to taste something. Brains keep them looking like the living, until they get a shot of adrenaline from stress. Then their eyes glow red and they start attacking. If they don’t get a regular helping of brains, they turn into the shambling zombies of old. There are good zombies and bad, with the good zombies attempting to get brains in the most ethical ways they can (Liv is one of the good zombies) and the bad ones being irredeemable bastards.

iZombie is a fun series. Like most zombie movies and shows, it makes you ask questions, like “Would you help your friend get brains if she needed them to survive?” and “Why do zombies eat other types of food in the series if brains are what they need?” and “Why is Liv’s haircut so uneven? If the other zombies can go for spray tans and hair coloring, can’t she head to a stylist?”

I spoke to my brother about zombie movies the other day and he told me I have to watch “The Walking Dead.” It’s in our Netflix queue, but I haven’t found the time. He said it’s an addictive show and I’ll like it and I better watch an episode before he calls again because he’s expecting a report.  So, what do I do? I don’t follow instructions and get caught up in iZombie instead. Ha!

Once we finish with iZombie, I’ll give “The Walking Dead” a go. Because zombies and me, we have a thing.