iZombie & Euphemisms for Oppression
Please note, the below contains spoilers for all five seasons of iZombie.
iZombie, a show about a young woman with a bright, perfect future ahead of her who gets that all ripped away when she is turned into a zombie, was recommended to me a long time ago. I put it off for a while due to lack of time, but with a global pandemic, I found myself with time, and read the first graphic novel before binging the show.
The show is completely different from the graphic novel, with the only real ‘creatures’ being the zombies, rather than introducing ghosts and were-terriers like we see in the book. But the show is a hell of a lot of fun. In order to keep her mind intact, Liv has to eat a brain at least once a month. The first episode introduces us to her perfect life – fantastic job as a doctor, a wonderful, handsome fiancé, and everything to live for. But when she’s turned into a zombie, Liv takes a job at the morgue, giving her easy access to brains. It doesn’t take long for her boss, Ravi, to catch her eating one, and he quickly becomes her only ally, the one person who knows what she really is.
Liv starts off the series as resigned and numb, convinced she will never have happiness, breaking up with Major for fear of passing on the virus to him, unable to help people as she did in her former life. But she discovers a new calling: the brains give her visions, and she helps policeman Clive in solving homicide murders.
It doesn’t take long for the world to expand, with Liv discovering other zombies, including Blaine, the one who turned her, and Lowell, who disguises himself in order to blend in. As the story progresses, the characters face the threat of a zombie apocalypse, discover what happens when a zombie is unable to feed and retain their humanity, and some characters get turned into zombies, cured, become zombies once a month, etc. What starts as a murder of the week type show, with some season long plot threads, expands as military contractors Filmore Graves reveal to Liv they are a company of zombies, the majority of staff turned while on a mission.
Unable to feed their people, Filmore Graves – and Commander Chase Graves – comes up with an interesting solution. As a strange flu infects more and more people, Filmore Graves use the vaccine to infect the population of Seattle with the zombie virus. The consequences are far reaching. They want to use the living as hostages, holding them in exchange for a regular supply of brains. They wall off the city, and as humans and zombies struggle to live together, the ideas of oppression emerge.
The problem lies in the fact it is zombies ruling the city. The Dead Enders – a group dedicated to eradicating zombies – are headed up by a very Karen-like woman. Other humans act out of a place of ignorance. The term ‘whiteface’ is used to describe humans who in Seattle’s comedy scene, perform sketches as zombies. There’s an interrogation where one young man reveals he hasn’t told people he was a zombie, that he is ‘in the closet’. And there are also parallels with the AIDs crisis running throughout the show.
As much as I personally loved the series, some of these moments are a little uncomfortable. The X-Men as allegory has been discussed over and over, and some of the same applies here. The thing is, the zombies could be used well to hold a mirror up to society – they have always been used for this purpose. And in iZombie, the zombies are normal human beings who happen to have a strange, hard to get diet. They are only really a threat if they are starved and tortured and turn into what the show calls ‘Romeros’. Essentially, like humans, they are a threat when they have a bad day. Even the ‘bad’ zombies who hunt and kill are less dangerous than the rich white man running the big energy drink company.
Zombies can loose control and injure others. But the murders the show focuses on are those committed by humans, often solved by Liv’s unique zombie ability. The message is constantly reinforced – zombies are not dominant, zombies can live alongside humans, zombies are, well, ‘just like you and me’.
But in later seasons, it is zombies who take over. Zombies who become the dominant force, taking over the city and putting up a wall, to prevent humans escaping, and stop those flocking to Seattle to be scratched when they are terminally ill. Kids are threatened by their parents and kicked out for being zombies. Zombie children are left on the street because they have nowhere to go. Bars are set up specifically for zombies, and even some high-end restaurants spring up.
It's an interesting set up, as Seattle takes on a more dystopian feel. But the ‘rulers’, the armed men and women patrolling the streets, are zombies. There are attempts to portray humans as ‘the real monsters’ with the Dead Enders, but in any other tale, a group of people going against the dominant force who have taken over their city would be seen as the heroes, they would be the rebellion. Liv, while tackling murders, also takes over as the city’s ‘Renegade’, with a network of coyotes who help some people leave the city, but mostly assist the terminally ill in getting to her so she can scratch them.
But at this point, the city is constantly on the verge of running out of brains. And if they run out of brains, Seattle would be overrun with rabid zombies desperate to eat. The zombies are often shown as a threat, especially a religious group run by a zealot who believe zombies are the next step of evolution. Any addition to the city’s zombies is dangerous. Although it’s in some ways admirable, it’s hard to forget the fact these zombies are facing a life where they are hated and hunted and risk starvation. Not to mention there are very few zombies who can eat more than the ration of brain mush doled out by Filmore Graves.
Although these people are saved from the brink of death, and Liv and the others put themselves in danger to protect them, it is actively contributing to the problems, as well as adding more zombies who could possibly go over the edge.
It’s complicated, and at times the show does well in dealing with complicated issues. The best character arc is possibly Major’s, who goes from Liv’s well meaning social worker fiancé to the head of Filmore Graves, contending with zombies who no longer want peace between them and the humans. The cast are all well rounded, and there’s some level of diversity in terms of race, but the core cast and even the supporting cast are all straight.
The problem emerges when the social commentary rises to the top. The zombies could well be a good ‘stand in’ – for issues surrounding race, LGBTQIA+, immigration, and many others. But the show lacks in actually portraying people who deal with these issues, and the comparisons become almost overly obvious. The core issue remains in the power zombies have, the threat they pose, and the fact the show never can make up its mind on what it wants the zombies to represent.
The show itself is good and enjoyable, and actually has a really satisfying ending. But it slips up and trips over its own feet when trying to make ‘a point’, when using the terminology usually related to marginalised communities to explain how zombies are mistreated, and in not simply allowing the audience to understand that this show’s particular zombies are not the brainless, ravaging monsters we’re used to seeing, but are instead compassionate, ambitious, flawed, with the selfless and selfish among their number, who deserve to be treated with respect – just like humans. It’s the key to the whole show, really – it explores the mistreatment we inflict on one another, and both zombies and humans are guilty of judging people they don’t even know. But the message comes through more clearly when it trusts in the audience and doesn’t mix metaphors and terminology to hammer the point home.
Article by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @ElleTurpitt
Website: www.elleturpitt.com
