'iZombie' Season 4 is Moving at the Pace of an Old-School Zombie

In iZombie, the zombies move fast. They’re not the shambling, old-school zombies from Night of the Living Dead. But the same cannot be said about the show’s pace. In the second episode of the fourth season, the story is dragging its feet like a zombie from another era, which is unfortunate given how the show set up this season to be a very different iZombie.

Spoilers ahead for iZombie Season 4, “ Blue Bloody.”

On Monday, the second episode of iZombie Season 4 changed a lot for Liv and Major, but little for anyone else.

Here’s what happened: A rich woman is killed on a golf course by homemade gun shooting golf ball and Liv takes on the persona of the disrespectful socialite. Clive tries and fails, to avoid his issues with being in a relationship with a zombie. Meanwhile, Major’s new zombie peacekeeper recruits get themselves into trouble.

It all sounds great, but sadly, iZombie again misses an opportunity to really delve into what is a very different Seattle in Season 4. The small forward movement on “Blue Bloody” is an improvement from the static premiere, but that isn’t saying much. You can feel the episode gearing up for something, but how long will we have to wait for the payoff? And will it be worth it?

Clive and Dale, a newly turned zombie, have been in a relationship for months when the season premieres yet they are now addressing the problems in their relationship. The zombie rules in the series, include zombies turning humans through sexual intercourse, were established earlier on in the show’s run, so everyone is aware that the couple cannot have sex. Still, the issue is only addressed in “Blue Bloody.” The benefit of a huge finale paired with a time jump is the ability to find characters in the midst of their new normal. Still, because this story doesn’t involve Liv, it’s hard to know how much the show will really follow-through with this arc.

The lack of Peyton in the first two episodes also speaks to the show’s snail-like pace. We saw her in a few scenes in the premiere and she didn’t appear on “Blue Bloody.” Zombies are no longer a secret and humans are walled into Seattle along with zombies, which makes Peyton, one of the humans living in the city viewers know, a great source for storytelling. Clive has his function solving cases with Liv, but Peyton could help tell a part of the story iZombie seems to be ignoring. The size of the human population in Seattle would be nice for starts. Viewers have only seen the angry humans who are attacking zombies, but Peyton is working to help the city and we aren’t seeing it.

“Blue Bloody” ends with battle lines being drawn between Liv and Major. It’s a dramatic scene, but we saw this coming because in the last season’s finale Major became a zombie again and sided with Fillmore-Graves, putting them on opposite sides of the issue. The upcoming conflict was an exciting new development ahead of the season premiere yet the former couple has pleasant conversation on Episode 1 and still sleeping together on Episode 2. The odd pacing is an unnecessary retread and feels like the series is binding its time.

Right now, iZombie’s slow burn doesn’t work because it set up a new and interesting season and has yet to deliver. The Season 3 finale changed the show at its core and Season 4 began with a time jump, but it feels like time is moving slowly.

Because this season of iZombie only has 13 episodes, it feels like the show needs to pick up the pace. If these zombies don’t get their lives moving, the audience is going to start feeling like we’re dead on our feet.

iZombie airs Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern on The CW.