Rob Thomas – iZombie

By: Anna Ruth Ramos

Q) That was a great Season Two finale!

A) We were really proud of that. That’s about as big as our budget will allow it to be and it was great. The crew – those were some long shooting days to get that in so they were heroic in that.

Q) The finale introduced us to this whole world of zombies. What can you tease about zombies that we will learn?

A) I’s still largely Seattle based, although these new zombies do travel around the world. Max Rager was pretty much wiped out at the end of Season Two. As Season Three begins, the new institution that all of our characters are involved in is Philmore Graves. It’s a Blackwater, military style contractor that is operated by zombies. In Season Two with Philmore Graves there is the morally unambiguous choice because Vaughn (Steven Weber) was bad because he was doing bad things with zombies. In Season Three, what Philmore Graves is saying is, “A day will come when humans will discover we are out there and they will try to exterminate us. We are preparing ourselves for that day, arming ourselves, training ourselves and we’re going to be ready for it.” The crux for Liv (Rose McIver) and Major (Robert Buckley) is that when that day comes whose side are you on? It’s not an easy answer. As Season Three progresses, the secret of zombies existence is going to spring some leaks and it is going to appear that the day is coming and Liv has to make a decision.

Q) When you are writing for Liv, what comes first – the episode arc or what you want her to be for the episode?

A) It is a combination of the two. At the beginning of the year, we put together a master list of brains where every writer is supposed to bring in five brain ideas. We have this master list and some of them keep popping up. At that point, with each episode it follows a story of the week and we try to find a brain that feels the most organic for the situation, something that provides a theme or comic opportunity. This year, one of the brains Liv is going to eat is a dominatrix brain and it is going to be an episode where she is going to be butting heads with some top flight powerful men and this will be a funny week for her to be a dominatrix. One thing that our show has built really well is grief. In the Season Two finale, Liv shoots her boyfriend in the head. We’re like a fun, funny, frolicking popcorn show and for Liv to wallow in grief is not exactly what we do well or not exactly what our audience wants to spend a lot of time on. So, when Lowell died we had her eat the brain of an alcoholic and see something through a bottle. This year, she is still on the brain of a mercenary and trying not to eat another brain because she’s on a hard, tough guy brain and she knows when it wears off she is going to get hit with a a flood of emotion. So, we try to make the brain work for us each week.