What makes iZombie worth watching?

iZombie blends a weekly murder investigation format with zombie comedy and character-driven drama. This overview explains how Liv Moore’s brain-eating ability shapes the show and why viewers can compare it with Lucifer and Santa Clarita Diet.

iZombie uses Liv’s borrowed memories and personalities to give its supernatural police procedural a distinctive case-of-the-week structure.

• Story premise: Medical resident Liv Moore eats brains to stay in control after becoming a zombie.
• Case-solving twist: Each brain gives Liv memories and personality traits that can help with a murder investigation.
• Series details: The CW show ran for five seasons, from 2015 to 2019.
• Where to watch: All seasons of iZombie are available to stream on Prime Video.

Lucifer‘s storytelling format meets the hilarious zombie shenanigans of Santa Clarita Diet in the CW’s innovative 71-episode series. Though Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore’s Santa Clarita Diet was canceled after three seasons, it offered a refreshing take on the zombie horror genre. Rather than a dark, post-apocalyptic nightmare, the show followed suburban married couple Joel and Sheila, whose lives changed when Sheila inexplicably became a cannibalistic zombie. Desperate for human flesh, Joel and Sheila tried to find non-murderous ways to satisfy her needs, though they were not always successful.

Santa Clarita Diet offered a subversive, comedic take on a familiar genre, but another horror show had already introduced a similarly gory and funny story about the walking dead. The CW series iZombie premiered in 2015 and ran for five seasons, through 2019. It follows medical resident Olivia “Liv” Moore (Rose McIver), who makes a major career change after waking up following a party with an intense craving for one thing: people’s brains.

Eating brains keeps Liv in control and prevents her from becoming a frenzied, homicidal zombie. Each brain also temporarily gives Liv the person’s memories and personality. The unusual ability becomes useful to the police, so Liv takes a job in a Seattle morgue, where she can feed without killing anyone and find a new purpose.

iZombie was not the first police procedural to give a detective a supernatural ability. Fox debuted Lucifer a year after iZombie premiered; the show follows the actual devil as he consults for the LAPD and uses his compulsive powers to make suspects reveal their deepest desires. Both Lucifer and iZombie draw loosely on DC Comics source material, adapting their characters and lore for an episodic, case-of-the-week format.

That procedural structure made both shows accessible to viewers familiar with network crime dramas, while still allowing them to embrace their supernatural origins. iZombie stands out as a distinctive, rewatchable blend of supernatural storytelling and police investigations.

Why does iZombie stand out among network procedurals?

iZombie makes its weekly murder cases feel different by using Liv’s changing personality and memories as part of each investigation. The combination of a police procedural, supernatural premise and character drama gives episodes more than a single mystery to resolve.

Liv’s brain-derived memories and personalities make each iZombie investigation distinct.

Although procedural series can continue through cast changes, not every episode remains equally engaging on a rewatch. A murder mystery may lose its suspense once viewers know the killer, but iZombie adds a changing character performance to its weekly cases. Liv and her eventual partners, medical examiner Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) and Seattle PD detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), investigate murders while Liv’s unusual role keeps each story fresh.

Rose McIver does more than play Liv’s usual character: she also portrays the murder victims whose brains Liv eats. Across episodes, Liv takes on traits including kleptomania, compulsive lying, pretentious artistry, grumpiness, social media addiction, frat-boy behavior, sniper training and dominatrix mannerisms. The brain-of-the-week premise changes both the investigations and Liv’s experience of them.

Some personalities Liv adopts are harmless, while others disrupt her already fragile personal life and affect how she treats the people she loves. The show balances its supernatural police stories with Liv’s relationships, giving her best friend Peyton (Aly Michalka), her ex-fiancé Major (Robert Buckley) and other characters room to change, particularly after they learn that Liv is undead.

iZombie also develops a continuing story as a zombie conspiracy spreads through the city. Like Lucifer and earlier genre series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the larger arc becomes more prominent in later seasons. The ongoing storyline complements rather than replaces the show’s case-of-the-week format.

At its heart, Liv’s journey in iZombie is about reclaiming her humanity after a traumatic transformation. Her ability to absorb other people’s memories and personalities raises questions about identity and self-worth, while the homicide investigations give that character story an episodic framework.

All seasons of iZombie are available to stream on Prime Video.