S05.E04: Dot Zom

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Liv, Clive, and Ravi investigate the suspicious death of Cornell Piercey (guest star Devin Johnston), the head of Piercey Corp, a successful traffic app company. Melissa Schultz (guest star Stephanie Lemelin), Cornell's ex-girlfriend, is now running the company, makes an interesting reveal to Liv and Clive. Meanwhile, Peyton is focusing on maintaining positive zombie PR in the city. Lastly, Blaine is intrigued when he meets Al Bronson (guest star Gage Golightly "Teen Wolf") of Bluster Magazine, as she is not at all what he was expecting.

Promo:

Original air date: 5/23/19

[Paloma]

Well, that was a letdown after last week's dance episode. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I laughed once during this episode, and my main reaction throughout was boredom. I'll be missing the next 2 episodes due to travel, and I'm not sure I will even bother catching up when I get back.

[Affogato]

I wonder if they have time to follow theough on the nee baddies. This is 13 episodes. Right. I get that there has to be a really visible break, really public, but ir seems like a lot. 

So, Frenchy. What a dick. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Affogato
Clumsy fingers

[AnimeMania]

I was hoping the story line would focus on the citywide zombie human relations, we are getting some of that, but I am thinking we should be getting a lot more. Instead of focusing on 1 teacher and 5 kids, maybe broaden to an entire school for zombies. Maybe show us how the city currently handles zombie/human relations before you introduce all these characters that want to implode/undermine the system.

[possibilities]

We really didn't need yet another faction. They have so many stories already, why are they starting new ones???

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, I didn't hate the episode or anything, but I honestly forgot about most of it already.  The case didn't exactly grab me; nor Liz on the brains (ironically, after praising how they've toned down Liz on brains the past few episodes, I thought they might have underplayed it too much this go around); and I get what they are going for with the whole humans vs. zombies aspect holding a mirror to issues in real life, but there isn't anything too original about it.  And now; along with everything else; we have a fringe section of zombies that are planning to strike against humans and have a mole in Liv's Renegade faction, now?  OK...

All the stuff with the improv troop just made think of the acting gang over on Barry.  If it wasn't for that damn wall (and, err, being on a different show/network), I would love to see how that lot would play a sketch about human/zombie relationships!

Hey, that was Emily form Continuum!  Always love it when someone from that show makes appearances on current shows I watch.

[tennisgurl]

Well crap that took a serious downturn after the last couple of fun episodes. I get what they are doing with the humans vs zombies stuff, but it just makes everyone in Seattle seem like a giant collection of assholes, with a billion factions of dicks who all hate each other for reasons that are all pretty half assed beyond "get it guys? Its commentary!" and usual stuff about humans being losers and zombies being monsters, cant we get something else here? It just saps the fun out of the show and makes everyone super complicated. Major, Ravi, and Peyton were hardly here, we spent so much money with various assholes, as well as King Asshole Blaine, and so much of what made the previous episodes fun was focusing on the characters interacting and having some actual fun times, and this episode had zero fun times. 

The only funny stuff was with the plot with the comedy troupe, which still wasnt super exciting. At least it wasnt boring Renegade/Fillmore Graves crap, and never ending groups of murderous dicks. I sometimes just wish they would get all the zombie and human extremists, stick them all in an arena, and let them all take each other out. 

If they really want to do the whole "everyone knows zombies are real" thing, cant they do something more interesting with it and explore more of how this world works? Anything but "supernatural something as metaphor for racism and everyone is an asshole" but the billionth time. Yeah its a solid metaphor, but its been done so many times now, you need something fresh to make it work, or dont have it take over the show and have it be a recurring issue in the background, not take over the whole show to the point where the show loses what made it work in the first place. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by tennisgurl

[LoneHaranguer]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Anything but "supernatural something as metaphor for racism and everyone is an asshole" but the billionth time. Yeah its a solid metaphor, but its been done so many times now, you need something fresh to make it work, or dont have it take over the show and have it be a recurring issue in the background, not take over the whole show to the point where the show loses what made it work in the first place. 

Zombies are people with a serious, communicable disease, so it's not really analogous to race, so that metaphor isn't working. Last season's wall/Mexican border analogy, focusing on smuggling people in and out, worked better because you do have people with dangerous diseases coming into the U.S.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I understand having longer story arcs, but I feel like this show worked so much better when they had monster of the week episodes rather than these overarching plots about FG and now this new faction.

I'm not saying the show needs to be like The Simpsons where everything stays the same forever, but I do know that I enjoyed the first season a lot more than I'm enjoying the final season and I think it's partly because they're trying to cram in more plot in order to tie everything up rather than focusing on what made the show so great in the first place which is the relationships between the characters.

[The Wild Sow]

4 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

Zombies are people with a serious, communicable disease, so it's not really analogous to race, so that metaphor isn't working. Last season's wall/Mexican border analogy, focusing on smuggling people in and out, worked better because you do have people with dangerous diseases coming into the U.S.

More analogous to AIDS/HIV in the early to mid 80's, I think.  I lived through that time as a young adult and I remember the stigma and the fear very, very well.

Speaking of everyone knowing now that Zombies are real -- didn't Liv have a Mom & brother at the beginning of the show?  Eva Moore and Evan Moore?  (Live more, ever more, even more!)  So, they were pissed at Liv because she wouldn't donate blood to Evan when he was injured (in the Meat-Cute massacre??)  And I don't think they were ever seen again.  Well, presumably they know NOW why Liv couldn't donate* -- have they made any effort to reconcile?  Are they still in Seattle?  Do they still exist?  Have they been retconned out of existence a la Judy Winslow and Bobby Martin (still waxing his skis in the attic in Pine Valley!)?  I for one would kinda like to know.

* I always wondered why Liv didn't just tell them that she couldn't donate because she'd been exposed to HIV or Hep C or some other blood-borne bug!  Does HIV exist in the iZombie universe?  I'm pretty sure I've heard it mentioned.

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

So true, I remember in the 80's when the  Aids/HIV threat hit, people freaked out and many started taking more precautions ,using condoms ,abstaining etc.... I think before Aids  we had already dealt with the beginning of the mass herpes outbreak, that got a lot of people into using precautions too.

[JamieLynn832002]

2 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

More analogous to AIDS/HIV in the early to mid 80's, I think.  I lived through that time as a young adult and I remember the stigma and the fear very, very well.

Speaking of everyone knowing now that Zombies are real -- didn't Liv have a Mom & brother at the beginning of the show?  Eva Moore and Evan Moore?  (Live more, ever more, even more!)  So, they were pissed at Liv because she wouldn't donate blood to Evan when he was injured (in the Meat-Cute massacre??)  And I don't think they were ever seen again.  Well, presumably they know NOW why Liv couldn't donate* -- have they made any effort to reconcile?  Are they still in Seattle?  Do they still exist?  Have they been retconned out of existence a la Judy Winslow and Bobby Martin (still waxing his skis in the attic in Pine Valley!)?  I for one would kinda like to know.

* I always wondered why Liv didn't just tell them that she couldn't donate because she'd been exposed to HIV or Hep C or some other blood-borne bug!  Does HIV exist in the iZombie universe?  I'm pretty sure I've heard it mentioned.

About the first 

Spoiler

I think they've said we will see or hear from her family this season so they do plan to address it

If I remember correctly, Liv's mom was some sort of adminstrator at the hospital so Liv may have thought she'd find out that Liv didn't have whatever too easily. Although, I'd still think that would have been a better risk than what amounted to "nope, don't want to."

[AudienceofOne]

6 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Speaking of everyone knowing now that Zombies are real -- didn't Liv have a Mom & brother at the beginning of the show?  Eva Moore and Evan Moore?  (Live more, ever more, even more!)  So, they were pissed at Liv because she wouldn't donate blood to Evan when he was injured (in the Meat-Cute massacre??)  And I don't think they were ever seen again.  Well, presumably they know NOW why Liv couldn't donate* -- have they made any effort to reconcile?  Are they still in Seattle?  Do they still exist?  Have they been retconned out of existence a la Judy Winslow and Bobby Martin (still waxing his skis in the attic in Pine Valley!)?  I for one would kinda like to know.

Oh, me too! This is more to do with how TV works I suspect. They decided her family didn't work so they wrote them out. Which is fine, but I for one could use at least a cameo or a throwaway line to explain what happened. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

1 hour ago, AudienceofOne said:

Oh, me too! This is more to do with how TV works I suspect. They decided her family didn't work so they wrote them out. Which is fine, but I for one could use at least a cameo or a throwaway line to explain what happened. 

I agree. ONE LINE would be enough for me. Just have her mention that her mom and brother moved out of Seattle and I'd be fine with it. Or have Ravi ask about them and have Liv say, "They still aren't speaking to me." ANYTHING. It would take all of five seconds to address it and then we wouldn't have to keep speculating about why they haven't mentioned her family members for years.

[AngelKitty]

On 5/24/2019 at 5:20 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Emily form Continuum

I remember her from Caprica...man, I loved that show.

17 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

o much of what made the previous episodes fun was focusing on the characters interacting and having some actual fun times,

That's what's wrong with this show now. It used to be a fun show and now it's so angry.

[mxc90]

Liv saw Melissa slap Piercy and that resulted in knowing she lied about Sheldon. But that didn't prove she killed Piercy. It's like the writers realized time was running out and needed a quick confession before the end credits roll.

Blaine will probably end up killing the reporter if she digs too close.

Liv eating brains doesn't bother Clive but the Kombucha does?

How much "detail" did Melissa reveal about their romantic relationship? 

Edited May 25, 2019 by mxc90

[possibilities]

On 5/24/2019 at 5:25 PM, LoneHaranguer said:

you do have people with dangerous diseases coming into the U.S.

The parallel I see is in the stories I've seen about people being banned from entering the USA, who were scheduled to come here for medical care, mostly things like complicated surgeries.

And then, on the show, people want to come to zombie-Seattle to get scratched so they will turn into zombies and won't die of whatever ailment they have that would otherwise kill them.

I agree there is a metaphor for HiV, which is not easily transmitted by casual contact (like the show's zombie-ism). There were people who wanted HiV+ people quarantined, and there was a stigma attached to being HiV+, and for a long time people with AIDS were denied medical care, allowed to die, fired from jobs or evicted from housing, for no reason other than prejudice and fear.

But whatever the parallels are to particular real life situations, I think the show's general attitude that prejudice and hate are bad, and that people have trouble behaving rationally and managing complex situations, is a point worth dramatizing, but the writing doesn't always hit the target, because they tend to get distracted and start up new factions without actually dealing with the presence of old ones, and there doesn't seem to be any actual suggestions on offer for how to handle any of this. The show itself is becoming chaotic and haphazad, which is not the best way to make a point. It's just a general "bummer, eh?" kind of commentary so far-- and I think that's especially unfortunate.

[Affogato]

On 5/24/2019 at 10:00 PM, The Wild Sow said:

Speaking of everyone knowing now that Zombies are real -- didn't Liv have a Mom & brother at the beginning of the show?  Eva Moore and Evan Moore? 

Liv’s family will reappear, the actress rose mcgyver said in some interview. 

[CletusMusashi]

Not as good as the dancing episode. And I agree we don't need even more antagonist factions sucking up screentime this close to the end. However, I do enjoy Blaine. Peyton and Major usually get stuck with boring scenes. The fun writing always goes to Liv, Ravi, Clive, and Blaine/ Don E. Oh, and because it can not possibly be asked enough: Who the fuck keeps writing that stupid Inspector Clousseau character into the show? Nobody has ever .liked him. Ever. Just stop.

Edited May 29, 2019 by CletusMusashi

[One4Sorrow2TooBad]

Totally agree Cletus, that character adds nothing to the show. Love the snarkiness of Blaine and Don E.  I missed the first 3? episodes of this season due to forgetting it's on Thurs. nights now.

[AngelKitty]

On 5/29/2019 at 3:34 PM, CletusMusashi said:

However, I do enjoy Blaine.

Yes, I do too. He really is horrible and I should hate him but he makes me smile.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

Yeah definitely did not like the introduction of a new zombie extremist group and Frenchy has changed sides so many times I can't keep track if he is really an extremist or doing more undercover work like it turned out he was doing with Papa DeBeers church?  And who is the new guy, is he someone we should recognize?

I agree, I am surprised that they had the partner confess.  She said herself she wouldn't have lost sleep over the human extremist guy going to prison.  She should have lawyered up ASAP.  Only thing they had showing she lied was a vision, which is supposedly inadmissible.  And she liked.  Big deal.  Still no proof.

[morakot]

This new big bad talking about how the zombie is the next evolutionary stage of humanity -- has he remembered that the only ways zombies can reproduce is by infecting a human? The new race doesn't have much of a future, does it? Or have I missed something and there is a hidden nursery of new born zombie babies?

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 9/2/2019 at 10:05 PM, morakot said:

This new big bad talking about how the zombie is the next evolutionary stage of humanity -- has he remembered that the only ways zombies can reproduce is by infecting a human? The new race doesn't have much of a future, does it? Or have I missed something and there is a hidden nursery of new born zombie babies?

I don't think the show established one way or another whether zombies could have biological children the same way humans do. 

People are acting under the presumption that zombies will live forever if properly fed. So it could be that the new big bad wouldn't care about reproduction. Or it could be that he envisions enough humans continuing to exist to not just feed zombies but to have some periodically elevated to zombiedom.