Fine, I’m going to do it. I thought for a long time that I wouldn’t, but every week I think the same thing and it’s come time for me to say it – “iZombie” reminds me of “Veronica Mars.”

Wow, you know, I thought I would feel a lot better getting that off my chest, but I don’t. I feel like I’m being reductive and just saying that because the show centers on a young woman fighting crime and offering a snarky voiceover, I equate the two. I don’t like that being what I’m saying.

Yes, yes, and Rob Thomas along with Diane Ruggiero-Wright brought this to TV and Ruggiero was a producer on “Mars” which Thomas created. So, naturally some tonal similarities can be expected. That doesn’t make it feel like enough either.

Here is the real crux of why I don’t want to say what I am saying, I think that simply describing the series by saying that “iZombie” is “like ‘Veronica Mars’ but with Zombies” doesn’t give the new show its due. It makes it feel as though Thomas, Ruggiero-Wright, and company are just repurposing one great character, tossing some en vogue baddies into the mix and letting it spin out from there.

On the other hand, that is, of course, the easiest the way to describe the series. By far. In fact, if I were trying to convince a fan of the earlier show to watch this one, that’s exactly how I might describe it, “What if Veronica was a zombie.”

Even so, I don’t want to have to describe it that way. I want to be able to say more about it, but so much of what I would say would either revolve around zombies or could be repurposed to describe “Veronica Mars.” Thus, my bind.

I have talked to other people about the new CW series, and they have offered, unprompted, the “Veronica Mars” comparison as well. So, I am not unique, but not being unique and being fair aren’t really the same thing at all. They aren’t even close to the same thing.

Here then is what I’m going to do. I am not going to say anymore about “iZombie” right now. I just don’t feel as though I would be doing it in anything resembling a fair way. Maybe after the first season is done, I’ll revisit “iZombie” and offer some more in detail observations on it, but not now.

I will close by saying that right now, all I know is that I’m liking what I’m watching on a weekly basis. I find the long-term zombie notion interesting and I’m excited to see where it heads. I would love for, one day, Kristen Bell to do a guest spot on “iZombie” or for the series to do an entire episode highlighting the non-zombie differences between it an “Veronica Mars,” but that may be a more down the line thing. Perhaps as a show, it too feels like it needs time to further differentiate itself.

Whatever the case may be, I’m going to keep watching and see what happens next.

 photo credit: Cate Cameron/The CW

Categories: Random Thoughts

Tags: Diane Ruggiero-Wright, iZombie, Rob Thomas, Rose McIver, The CW, Veronica Mars