iZombie Review: Night and the Zombie City (Season 5 Episode 10)
iZombie Season 5 Episode 10, “Night and the Zombie City,” throws all caution to the wind to go full noir film — and the risk pays off big time.
Liv as a private-eye investigator that can’t make eye contact with people when speaking in long and confusing monologues is another brilliant addition to iZombie’s roster of brain personas this season.
Her trenchcoat attire and ability to piss Clive off to no end is somewhat admirable and the gritty vibes that come with her newest look are a valuable bonus.
But with a rogue investigator and a complicated murder case, iZombie deals with several bumps along the road as it stumbles into a darker storyline.
iZombie — “Night and the Zombie City” — Pictured: David Anders as Blaine — Photo Credit: Diyah Pera/The CW — © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
iZombie really goes for it with darker lighting and washed out cinematography that would rival the likes of Game of Thrones and Teen Wolf’s notoriously dark sets.
However, iZombie manages to use these darker tones and lighting to its advantage in big ways. Instead of diverging from the season’s building plot, the show uses Liv’s heightened crime-solving abilities to pull back the sheet on any remaining secrets this season had been hiding from our protagonist.
And with the darker tone and lighting comes the chaos of a murder case that has more dead bodies, more confrontation, and more violence than we are used to seeing from these tame investigations.
“Night and the Zombie City” really does gives viewers the grittier undead drama we deserve with a race against our ever so faithful antagonist, Blaine, to find a stolen cure and an ending for Candy’s character that is both unexpected and endearing.
However, there are moments during this episode where my trust in the narrative does waver.
That has to do largely with the fact that this episode is far out there in terms of scope and tone, that at times, it doesn’t feel like iZombie’s style at all.
There is a particular moment spent with one of the DC government officials in her grandson’s bedroom that feels so out of place amongst the rest of the episode that the actual purpose of the scene is lost in translation.
Liv’s private-eye persona, while wonderfully weird, causes confusion in scenes where the persona itself is stiff and distant. These types of polarizing personas are great, but when they completely take over Liv’s own character it can be confusing to follow her train of thought properly.
While this grittier tone encourages these characters to lash out more, all the violent hits that do take place within this episode either have no sound, a delayed reaction, or happen so quickly you aren’t really sure what happened.
iZombie’s story has never been one to shy away from violence but it’s visuals have and that’s something that ultimately hurts this show when the plot moves in more intense directions.
That doesn’t mean that the show can’t allude to violent acts though. When Blaine raises his gun to Lowell’s head and Liv hears the gunshot, there’s nothing to misinterpret.
With the Meat Cute Massacre, however, we end up seeing more of the subway tiled walls than Major kicking ass. With this latest episode, it’s no different as iZombie is forced to find new ways to shy away from the violence they have created — ways that are not always flattering to the darker plot.
That being said, I am willing to overlook all these inconveniences the moment Liv and Blaine decide they are going to throw down in the middle of the Scratching Post’s kitchen.
The momentous decision comes after years of Liv looking the other way while Blaine murders half of Seattle. Whether she actually intends to kill Blaine or it’s just the brain talking is still unclear, but the fight between the two is clearly awesome — so that’s all that matters.
When I say iZombie really goes for it with “Night and the Zombie City,” this entire fight sequence is exactly what I am referring to. It’s no Blaine and Ravi lab fight, but there is enough passion and underlining grief from Liv that it feels like a proper emotional release for these characters.
One can only hope this fight is the start of an epic showdown between the OG zombies before their scabble ends for good in 3 episodes.
“Night and the Zombie City” may lose touch with the most open-minded of viewers with its take on thinking outside the box, but this undead twist on a classic noir film is ultimately worth the risk.
This episode works as the perfect catalyst to bridge the gap between everything that come before and those final 3 episodes that now loom over us.
iZombie continues to live up to the expectations it set for itself at the beginning of the series with more out of the box concepts and zany characters with each passing episode. And it’s nice to know an episode as polarizing as “Night and the Zombie City” can still live up to the legacy.
And if the zombie apocalypse really does destroy Seattle, at least Candy got to be happy!
What did you think of this episode of iZombie? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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iZombie airs Thursdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Alicia Gilstorf
Alicia is a Rotten Tomatoes Certified Critic and a Critics Choice Association member. She credits her passion for TV to workplace sitcoms, paranormal dramedies, and coming-of-age stories. In her free time, Alicia loves to curl up with a good book and lose herself in a cozy game. Keep a lookout for her coverage of Ghosts. You can also find her work on Eulalie Magazine and Cool Girl Critiques. Follow Alicia on social media: @aliciagilstorf