Rose McIver absolutely shines as the lead in Ghosts. Her portrayal of the quirky main character, Sam, carries the show, and the character’s desperation to make the best out of living in a haunted house and to turn it into a thriving hotel is what propels the sitcom hijinks. It wouldn’t work without McIver’s vulnerable, wide-eyed performance, making viewers root for this underdog character.
But, as good as she is on Ghosts, McIver gave her career-best performance in the 2010s when she led the hilarious horror procedural iZombie on The CW. While iZombie allowed her to show off her comedy chops, it also let her show a badass, action star side as a zombie who fights crime. With its supernatural comedy and strong performance from McIver, iZombie is the perfect show to watch to hold you over until Ghosts returns on October 16.
What Is the Horror Procedural ‘iZombie’ About?
iZombie was created by Veronica Mars co-creators Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggerio-Wright, and stars McIver as Liv Moore, a doctor whose predictable world is turned upside down when she becomes a zombie. She combines her medical expertise with her new gifts as a zombie by taking a job as a medical examiner at a morgue. She then discovers that, when she eats someone’s brain, she gains flashes of their memories. This gift allows her to solve the murders of the bodies that come into her morgue. iZombie is similar to another cult show that combines paranormal elements with the procedural format: Pushing Daisies. Like on Pushing Daisies, every episode of iZombie brilliantly crafts a mystery around how Liv’s gifts give her partial insights into a murder, but never the full picture.
Liv is a strong heroine in the vein of Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Thomas’s previous protagonist, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell). She’s adorable, showing a lot of the same high-strung and “Type A” attributes of Sam on Ghosts, but she’s still a badass all the same. Liv not only stops the bad-guy-of-the-week in each episode, but also has an overarching plot where she takes on Blaine DeBeers (David Anders), a drug dealer turned zombie who serves as the main antagonist. Liv is smart, crafty, and has superhuman strength in the moments when she unleashes her full zombie side. McIver perfectly plays both her strength and vulnerability, making her a well-rounded hero.
‘iZombie’ Lets Rose McIver Show Off Her Different Comedy Skills
The world of iZombie includes a unique piece of lore: the brains Liv eats also make her take on the personality traits of the deceased. This allows McIver to truly flex her comedy chops. Each episode, she takes on the mannerisms and quirks of different murder victims, from a grumpy old man to a phone-addicted teen. In one of the funniest episodes, Liv eats the brains of a frat boy. The episode is such a highlight because of how hard McIver commits to it. When she starts doing bits like constantly quoting the “wassup” from the classic Budweiser commercial, she has such an earnest joy. It’s fun watching the normally clever Liv suddenly be so delighted by frat boy humor. In another episode, she takes on the persona of a dominatrix, which comes out as she interviews a suspect. Again, McIver commits hard and Liv completely transforms in the wild scene.
The supernatural comedy that makes iZombie so fun is similar to the episodes of Ghosts that include possession. For viewers who knew McIver from iZombie, it was no surprise to see how much she excelled at the physical comedy in the Christmas specials. In Season 2, when Sam was possessed by Thor (Devan Chandler Long), McIver hilariously acted like a brutish Viking. In Season 4, McIver gave an even more impressive performance when Sam was possessed by Nancy (Betsy Sodaro). Sodaro is a gifted comedy actress whose signature voice and line deliveries are incredibly distinct, and McIver stepped up and imitated her perfectly. Her work imitating a different person each week on iZombie surely helped prepare McIver for these challenging, hilarious episodes.
But, iZombie goes further in exploring the effects of these constant personality changes with insight and pathos. At times, the allegory for struggling with addiction and mental illness hits hard. In one episode, Liv has a heartbreaking exchange with her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Major Lilywhite (Robert Buckley), in which she tries to explain that her experiences under the influence of different brains are still real and this is a part of who she is. The writing of iZombie explores Liv’s experiences with depth and nuance, which wouldn’t work without McIver bringing it to life.
‘iZombie’ Has a Strong Supporting Cast
iZombie has a great supporting cast that plays off McIver well. Liv solves crimes with her partner, Detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin). Clive is a skeptic about the supernatural, attributing Liv’s strange appearance to being “emo.” The buddy-cop dynamic between McIver and Goodwin is one of the best parts of the show. Rounding out the crime-fighting team is Liv’s fellow medical examiner, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli). He brings out a more goofy side of Liv. The banter between the two of them makes for some of the funniest scenes in the show. Buckley has excellent romantic chemistry with McIver, making Liv and Major’s epic romance into an edge-of-your-seat tearjerker as they go back and forth.
Liv is an incredibly challenging role, and McIver nails it, taking on a different set of personality traits each week while still portraying Liv’s own strong personality with ease. She navigates the drama, comedy, and horror of the show equally well in this truly captivating performance. For fans who love her on Ghosts, iZombie is another must-watch show that wrings comedy out of the supernatural.
iZombie is available for purchase on Prime Video in the U.S.
