Let’s just say Rob Thomas definitely has a type – short, smart, spunky and, of course, blonde. We can’t blame him though; after all, who didn’t fall madly in love with Veronica Mars? Oh how we miss our too-awesome-to-handle crime-sleuthing teenager, whose absence has been felt by the TV collective for years.

And then something amazing happened…. enter iZombie.

That’s right, a new damsel is ready to take up the banner, and I’m getting some serious Ronnie vibes from this literal femme fatale.

iZombie: What It’s All About

iZombie, Rob Thomas’s new show, centers around Liv Moore, an ambitious young woman on the path to become a heart surgeon before she gets zombie-munched and joins the ranks of the undead.

Her zombie-ness becomes a kind of superpower, letting her see memories from the dead brains she eats, leading her to help in at least one (and safe to say, many more) murder investigations.

No one knows Liv is now a zombie (well, almost no one), and her family, friends, and gorgeous ex-fiancé struggle to understand why she’s acting so bizarre (and why she now needs to buy a 12 pack of self-tanner bi-weekly).

Liv acts like a relatively normal person, so long as she gets her daily dose of brains (hence her new occupation working at the morgue). There are physical repercussions (the brain-eating, the near albino appearance), but most of what Liv struggles with are her own feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, with her life in total disarray and her established identity tossed out the window.

It’s actually a bit comical how much Liv mirrors Veronica. She’s smart, resourceful, and extremely autonomous, never waiting in the backseat or calling for boyfriend backup. She throws out one-liners and, of course, inherited that pesky crime-solving gene from her predecessor.

iZombie Premiere Review: The Pilot

The iZombie pilot episode would have locked me in regardless – as soon as I saw The Daily Beast headline, “The Zombie ‘Veronica Mars’”, I ran towards the nearest Hulu-connected device. It’s worth noting that the show also captivated the attention of my much less geek-inclined roommate, so I’m not being a hopeless fangirl here.

Pilots are tricky, as a lot needs to get done in the first episode. Characters and themes need to be introduced, backstories need to be hinted at, and a semi-decent episode plot needs to be developed in order to keep viewers interested. Many a great show have started off with a mediocre pilot, but iZombie has really done an exceptional job right off the bat.

The pilot feels great and gets us up to code on what we need to know about Liv. The first five minutes are a bit rushed, as the show fast-forwards from Liv’s initial perfect life, to the boat party where she got bitten, and then to 5 months later, when Liv has started to come to grips with the every day struggles of being less-than-alive. The show is actually based on a comic book of the same name, which explains the comic book scenes injected here and there.

Fast-forwarding five months in a pilot episode is pretty ballsy if you ask me, but it works well. Actually, that too is reminiscent of Veronica Mars, whose pilot episode showcases a lonely and ostracized Veronica several months after her friend’s death (and her father’s subsequent downfall). Rob Thomas seems to be a fan of working backwards, and with a knack for crafting lovable characters, who am I to argue?

My only minuscule issue is that I don’t love the homicide detective Clive Babineaux. I just don’t feel Malcolm Goodwin is the guy for the part, and I don’t see much chemistry between the two characters, but hey, maybe he’ll grow on me.

Watch iZombie – NOW! You can catch iZombie on the CW, Tuesdays at 9pm. It’s also available on Hulu (hip, hip hurrah)!

Trust me guys, you’re gonna want to watch this one.