More catching up post Holidays: so there will be one more Clone Wars Season! On the one Hand, I'm pleased. This is my era of Star Wars; not the OT, not the sequels, though I am fond of both, but for me, the prequel era is the one that touched my heart most, and The Clone Wars is my favourite incarnation of it. Incidentally, note to the sequel creators: the way The Clone Wars managed to individualize the Clones and make them sympathetic hammers home that what will happen is their tragedy as well, with the added outrage that their entire existence from artificial creation to death is basically glorified slavery. ( Slightly spoilery comparison between clones and stormtroopers and the narrative treatment in CW vs the sequels ensues. ) Now I know that Rex makes it into Star Wars: Rebels, but hooray one more outing for the other clones before Order 66 strikes!

On the other hand: the s5 finale in terms of Ahsoka as an individual, Ahsoka and the Jedi, as well as Ahsoka and Anakin, can hardly be topped dramatically. So I'm afraid that whatever Ahsoka's s6 story will turn out to be, it will feel anticlimactic by comparison. What I do hope for is that Filoni will put Padme's cut subplot from Revenge of the Sith about organizing parliamentary resistance against Palpatine together with Bail Organa into this last season, and maybe Ahsoka's story could interweave with this?

Also recently watched, due to it being on Netflix: season 3 of I, Zombie. Which was as entertaining as ever, though I do have some serious and not so serious complaints. Early in the season, Ravi continued the unfortunate late s2 trend of making me forget why I liked him so much by displaying an irritating case of Nice Guy Syndrome vis a vis Peyton. Thankfully, by mid season this was over with, and he got back to being an endearing character. The very last scene of the season between him and Liv was one of the show's most emotional and best and earned by three seasons of friendship and trust. This also was the first season where all of Liv's nearest and dearest ( did something spoilery )

Speaking of alterations of the status quo, the s3 finale actually went through with the major game changer foreshadowed since the s2 finale. Which makes sense in terms of all the preceding events, though less in terms of having to suspend disbelief as to the reaction such an event would cause in anything resembling the current day US. Which reminds me: I'm usually not a "but think of the children" type of viewer, but Rob Thomas, did you have to use a nefarious scheme for your big evil finale revealed plot that could have been dreamt of by an anti vaccination nut? In the current climate?


And one more thing about the finale: ( which is too spoilery to mention above cut. )


On to the good stuff: other than my complaint about Ravi, I felt on board with how ( a spoilery triangle resolved. )

Clive had a good season, to the point where at times he felt like the co-lead. Given the finale's events, though, I wonder whether the show's case of the week format won't be gone or at least radically altered next season, which makes me wonder about which role he'll have then. Anyway, while we got Ravi's early season romantic woes and Major's long term social angst due to the s2 events, it's noticable that Clive, who in late s2 sacrificed a major relationship (as far as he knew forever) for friendship and the greater good, never spent much time navel-gazing but focused on the job throughout, without this feeling like he'd just forgotten what he'd lost.


Whereas with Liv it felt like the season wanted to avoid letting her react in anything other than a short scene at the end of the season opener to something enormous she had to do in the s2 finale, and that this got lampshaded in a later episode which told us she threw herself into her vision-caused alternate personalities to avoid processing might have been a rueful acknowledgment of this. If you think about how the first season took its time letting her process her zombiedom and used this as a depression metaphor, the contrast is pretty startling. Incidentally, I am relieved her third non-Major love interest ( did not do something spoilery )


All in all: nitpicks aside, I do like this show a lot, and am very curious indeed about season 4.

Watched this on Netflix, because Zombies seemed like a good alterntive to news featuring the horror clown. (TM our tabloids. For once, I like a phrase they coined.) Also because I heard good things from this effort by Rob Thomas, he who produced Veronica Mars.

So, my impressions: there are some VM parallels - our heroine transformed, in backstory revealed in pilot, from popular member of (her) society with bright future ahead into misfit due to traumatic event. Her new existence at the periphery/the underbelly gives her a new perspective and a snarky attitude. She's broken up with her earlier love but he's not gone from her life completely, and in the course of the pilot, she bonds with new allies. And of course, there's the case of the week format with an ongoing narrative arc underneath. Only where Veronica Mars went for noir tropes and structures, IZombie uses that of a procedural.

This being said, iZombie stands on its own legs, so to speak. It quickly establishes its core ensemble of characters, and uses the zombie Macguffin in an inventive way to justify the "solves murder of the week" format - turns out consuming someone's brain gives you some of the deceased person's memories and personality traits, until you move on to the next brain. Liv taking a job at the morgue to have access to the brains of the deceased solves her personal nourishment problem, but the show makes the obvious next question - what about zombies who don't have that possibility to get at brains from already dead people? - trigger for the long term arc and etablishing of our seasonal antagonist, Blaine, played by David Anders enjoying himself as an amoral villain with great capitalist gifts - creating a market takes on a new meaning with him. ( Getting a bit more spoilery about that. )

(Speaking of actors I know from other shows, there's also Bradley James, aka Arthur from Merlin, as Lowell Tracey, British guitarist/singer and temporary alternate love interest of our heroine. I'm usually touchy re: the treatment alternate love interests get when it's obvious from the start they're not meant to be end game but a temporary distraction for our central character, but "who will Liv choose?" Is actually not a question the show asks (at least in season 1 it doesn't), and I thought it played fair by Lowell, making him into a character, not just a plot device. Also Bradley James is pretty charming as Not!Arthur.)

Liv, our heroine, who gets jolted out of her post-zombiefication malaise in the pilot when she realises she can use this dreadful thing that happened to her in constructive ways that give her hope, makes for an endearing central character, though I have to say I didn't really buy the plot's justification for her withholding crucial information from her former fiance after a certain point. That the show itself lampshaded this by letting Ravi, Liv's boss at the morgue and bff throughout, raise all the good arguments why she should share, didn't help. Like I said, I didn't really buy her counter argument, though to its credit, her emotional state in that particular scene WAS believable.

Ravi (her boss at the morgue) and Clive (the cop whom she becomes a crime-solving duo with) are both poc, and develop a delightful raport with Liv, which hits my soft spot for male & female friendship. Yes, they're male, if you're keeping score, and if there's a nitpick, then it's that Liv's sole female friend, her roommate Peyton, in the first season at least doesn't get nearly as much presence and personality as either. But of course that could change in later seasons; as a district attorney, the show can use her more in the crimes of the week than it did here.

Major, Liv's ex whom she broke up solely due to zombiefication pre pilot, is almost too good to be true (sense of humor, social worker who cares passionately, hunk) but gets put through the wringer in the course of the season as he tries to find out what happened to some of the kids he attempted to help. What eventually happens is another case of "well, I saw that coming, but the denouement afterwards elevates it to "well played, show, well played".

In conclusion: witty dialogue, morbid humor (obviously), yet also treats its dead as people not canon fodder. Excellent distraction, if you're in need. The first season had 13 episodes.