News & Review: iZombie going from Panel to Screen

http://enewsi.com/television/191-26026.html

God, I hate the CW. Obviously, I'm not their intended audience, and that's fine, but would they stop touching my things? Seriously? All my life, my nerd fascinations have somehow found their way to the popular culture. I was obsessed with the Titanic, so much so that I knew the type of wood in the 1st class dining room, and then BOOM! James Cameron makes the hideous piece of garbage called Titanic. I was in to pirates, so much so that I would read nonfiction pirate history books during Saturday detention and then BOOM! Pirates of the Caribbean. I was into vampires, so much so that I looked into how you'd get your teeth filed into fangs, and then BOOM! Twilight makes the genre into a freaking joke for girly girls. And then one of the great loves of my life, zombies. Sigh. Oh CW. Can't you just make another show about spoiled human girls in an upper middle class suburb who can't seem to stop sleeping with each other's boyfriends?

But I have jumped ahead. This isn't supposed to be a rant. It's supposed to be a review and news piece. Let me refocus.

http://www.biblecomix.com/?p=2253

So about four years ago, my friend was in town and wanted to give me a gift for hosting her. She got me the first trade paperback in the "iZombie" series. Good friends know you well. Anyway, I neglected it and let it sit on my shelf for nearly half a decade until today. Having just read it cover to cover, I can say that I really did enjoy it by the end. It was rough getting started because there are a fair number of characters and it's sometimes difficult to connect the thought and talking bubbles to the correct character. You definitely have to take it slowly and reread in places at first, but it does get easier. It's just that there are a lot of characters of various supernatural afflictions (zombies, ghosts, vampires, and even a "wereterrior"), and it takes you brain a minute to process and categorize all of that.

The story follows the life of a girl who has turned zombie. In order to keep herself from turning into a shambling, rotting mess, she has to eat a brain every month, but doing so floods her with the memories of that dead person. As a gravedigger, the people she eats often have unfinished business, namely their murders, which she is then compelled to solve because their voice is in her head. That's the basic premise, but there's a lot more going on here. We have the normal awkwardness of a bunch of people in the upper teens/young twenties, but we also have the battles between the evil forces of the supernatural, the good forces of the supernatural, and the monster hunters who often can't tell the difference. This story really finds its stride when it moves beyond the CSI plot of Gwen solving murders and attacks more important subject matter like the idea of a soul and the decisions to take a life.

http://io9.com/rob-thomas-explains-why-izombie-is-more-like-buffy-than-1614649263

And that's where I get concerned. iZombie is, ostensibly at least, the source material for CW's new show premiering in 2015 of the same name. CW's iZombie already shows a number of differences, however. First, they feel compelled to change of heroine's name for some reason, calling her Liv rather than Gwen. Next, she's a coroner rather than a gravedigger. I guess they thought that was sexier? I think it changes the tone of the plot though. It makes it more official. It also seems like she's helping the police, which is something that doesn't happen, at least not in the first trade of the four part iZombie series. The preview shows basically no sign of her other supernaturally inclined friends, and has instead replaced them with stock standard Law and Order types. While watching the preview, I just kept thinking of the spoof trailers in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Maybe it will be good, but I have many doubts. I'm not sure how they'll preserve the internal monologue of the protagonist, which is an important element of the comics. Honestly, I'm sure they won't. The preview already seems to suggest that they're honoring the source material in name only. It'll be closer than World War Z was, but not by much I'd guess. I'll read the other three trades first, and then maybe give the show one or two episodes. It's from the people who made Veronica Mars and nerdy people seemed to like that, so maybe there's hope. Read the comic though; it was a good time. And if you want to laugh at how silly the CW is, check out the preview for the iZombie TV show below. Let me know your thoughts!