The word of the day is: controversy. The Veronica Mars revival ends with a literal bang & our twitter feed has not been the same since. The final 10-15 min of the ep overshadows the rest of what we feel was a solid season & brings up several big questions: what do creators owe to fans? Is this more pronounced in television? How effective are revivals, overall? We spend the first half going over positive impressions of the show & the second half negative. Grab a drink & get into it with us! Cheers.
Veronica Mars is back: back with Logan, back in Neptune, back working with Keith, back putting the sass in sassypants. Alli & Mary are happy to join her in these first revival four episodes: we talk about Veronica's bad behavior, all our new friends & suspects, Dick's inexplicable presence and make some predictions for the end of season four. Some are good, right on the money. Others are... Alli's crackpot theories. But hey, some of you may have wished she was right! Grab a beer and speculate with us. Cheers!
Alli and Mary return to Neptune to discuss a bit of the second book and what we think might happen in the Veronica Mars Revival. Some predictions are more on point than others. To paraphrase Weevil, though, there are some big "I told you so"s a-comin'. Next week we'll be releasing the an ep covering the first four episodes of the season and then the following week will be rounding out through the finale. Grab a drink and join in: Veronica Mars is coming to 2019. Cheers!
Well, season 3 of iZombie was certainly a season of television that happened. Why it happened the way it did remains a bit of a mystery for your intrepid MBT podcaster. Major continues his heroic effort to actually have a character arc, while everyone else languishes in an unchanging haze. Seattle is officially Zombieville, y'all, and that should be way more exciting than it is. We're taking a brief three week iZombie break to get into the new season of Veronica Mars; hopefully to return refreshed. Cheers!
Alright folks, buckle in because this week we're talking FOUR episodes of iZombie. To try to keep the negativity to, well, at least a low burn we've decided to look at larger chunks of the show. This way, we can focus on season and character arcs, such as they are. This week, we discuss primarily how easily the first six to seven episodes could have been culled, how we're happy to have Ravi and Peyton returned as great characters, and Blaine's return to frenemy. Also, welcome back Mr. Boss and Logan from Veronica Mars!
This week on Must Be Tuesday, Alli and Mary discuss a question we have't faced before: what to do when a show drops in quality and you don't know if it will get better. As our listeners have surely noted, we are not loving the direction of iZombie this season: characters are swinging wildly through inconsistent arcs that circle around and lead exactly nowhere. Mysteries of the week aren't improving. The season lacks a cohesive theme. The answer, much like our soon-to-record foray back into Veronica Mars, might be a switch up in style: binging. Grab a beer and gear up, because it's a bitch session.
This week on iZombie, the Peyton and Blaine train keeps rolling, much to the chagrin of your hosts. No explanation for Peyton's behavior or the group's willingness to trust Blaine's perspective is forthcoming, so we're forced to assume everyone on the show got hit with the stupid stick. Meanwhile, Major is slowly dying and Fillmore Graves remains sketchy. Liv is there too, but you would hardly know it despite being the main character. Season three, man. Oof.
On this week's episode, Alli and Mary discuss Clive, Liv and Major and how they're dealing with the potential new zombie hometown... wait, just kidding, it's hard to focus on anything that isn't the TERRIBLE and CRINGEWORTHY Blaine/Peyton/Ravi love triangle. You guys ready for an old fashioned Must Be Tuesday "What the Fuck Are They Thinking?" rant? Because your'e going to get one. Pour yourself a tall glass of something for this one, folks.
Season three begins as we've never known iZombie before: with Clive climbing the character power rankings to #1 and Ravi falling to dead ass last. For some reason, we've piled on the CW Drama (tm) and added a full blown love triangle that torpedos Peyton and Ravi's personalities. In other news, Team Z has grown mercenary-size, and Clive is conflicted. Liv is also there, mostly being cool, good for her. Cheers!
On iZombie's season 2 finale, we finally get a full on zombie fight and a ton of potentially cool setup for next season. Ravi, Peyton and Blaine spend their time setting up a love triangle while dealing with Mr. Boss. Meanwhile, Major, Liv and Clive deal with Max Rager and an imminent possible zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately, while they do take out that particular threat, we get the onset of Fillmore Graves (geddit?) and Seattle as a full-on Zombie State. Dun dun dun!!
Alli and Mary get into a little old-school top of show booze-fueled ranting that our Buffy and Veronica Mars listeners will remember. If you'd like to skip right to the iZombie episode discussion, please head to 22:30. In our episodes this week, we're all-in on our season arcs: Major is having his traditional tough time, zombie-d out in jail. Ravi is helping as usual, Liv is going for justice, and Clive is finally, finally in the know. Grab a beer and join us. Cheers!
Everyone is changing their status this week, as Blaine cures himself but gives himself amnesia (or does he?), Rita turns into a zombie, and Major turns back into a zombie. Ravi gets a great scene of figuring out the whole Major is a now a two-time almost serial killer, and gives a lovely WTF dude speech. Liv, meanwhile, has some bonding time with Peyton and then discovers that Drake is not missing and sketchy, he's missing and a cop. Grab a beer and join!
Liv comes into her own this week and she clocks Rita/Gilda a good one. Meanwhile, Major and Blaine reluctantly team up for a little Major torture followed by some dad torture. Things finally catch up with Blaine in the next ep, though, when Mr. Boss brings the fear of god into us all, and slits Blaine's throat. A-men. Super Ravi comes to the rescue again as he continues his work on the cure and Drake reveals he has yet another employer. So many layers on our boy Drake, but ultimately: we miss Lowell.
Alli and Mary spend the top of showing trying to figure out who knows what about which plotline in iZombie at this point. It's like a riddle: No one knows everything, but everyone knows something. Liv continues to not come to easy conclusions: give Drake brains! Blaine is the Utopium guy! We also discuss what happens when someone doesn't have a strong personality trait for Liv to become? Surely some people are even keeled? Meanwhile, Ravi spends time mooning over Peyton and drinking (relatable). Cheers!
The continued issue of every other zombie (and character?) being more interesting and sympathetic than Liv comes to a head as Major learns some hard truths from a zombie hooker. Meanwhile, Alli and Mary discuss how it feels like we're watching two iZombies: Liv's Campy Personality Changes and Everyone Else Deals with Zombie-ism. Either could be a great show, but combined it's an oil and water issue. Pick a side, y'all!
This week, Alli and Mary discuss the merits of rigorous scientific testing when if comes to the zombie situation. If you were turned into a zombie, wouldn't you want to know how long you could go without brains? Your pain tolerance? How far you can run without tiring? Well, Liv doesn't seem that curious, which is a mistake as she ends up hungry in the slammer in these eps. Meanwhile, Clive has a stalker, Liv & Major continue their half-assed relationship and Ravi loves magic. Cheers!
Alli and Mary discuss the nature of set-up seasons and worldbuilding in television shows, whether we needed to muscle through quite so much turbulence before we reached the smooth sailing of season 2. Meanwhile, Major spends these episodes thinking primarily with his dick as he and Liv get back together. Ravi becomes the best bro to both Liv and Major as he researches zombie-ism as an STD. In the next episode, we meet another great creepy villain in Mr. Boss, who's coming for Peyton and Blaine. Clive is also there, although he has yet to find an interesting plot.
This week, Alli and Mary discuss the positive trending direction that season two has taken: Liv and Peyton are actual friends, with actual non-zombie interactions. The mysteries of the week are subdued and secondary. We're missing a bit of lore, but can't win them all. In episode one, Liv is finally forced to confront the consequences of her zombie behavior, and in episode two she's able to defend her self without losing the moral high ground. Progress, folks!
This week, Alli and Mary do a little top of show chat about birthdays and overall deal with a cranky cat. In iZombie news, we get a bit of a soft-reset on overall plotlines and relationships. Major and Ravi continue as our MVPs, clubbing utopium-style in the name of science. We are again a bit unclear on why Liv is such a non-character, completely subsumed in her brains, one of which is STRAIGHT UP RACIST, you guys. It's hella uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Blaine runs a funeral home now, so there's that.
Alli and Mary discuss penultimate ep and season finale of iZombie's first season. Overall, the episodes are pretty good, but we consider that although we've spent a whole season with Liv, we have next to no idea of who she is as a person. Meanwhile, in quite the turn of events from our season one episode one podcast: we crown Major our season one MVP! Go Major go! As it happens, he has a rough go where he's tortured, takes out Meat Cute, is stabbed, is zombified, rips on Liv, and then is unzombified. Main character who?
This week, Alli and Mary discuss Liv totally melting into the personalities of the various zombie brains-- yet, we don't really see any other zombie act this way. Since there isn't a lot of lore in the show yet, it's hard to get a good handle on who Liv is as a person. Is that on purpose? Are we doing Buffy an vampire lore part II? Who could know. Meanwhile, the show mourns Lowell for one whole episode, and then we move on to Major's (admittedly, big deal) issues. Will someone help this dude out? Seriously.
Alli and Mary discuss Liv's character, or lack thereof, and how that affects her status as main character. Why are the dudes all excellent, well-rounded characters while the women are ill-defined (Zombie Liv) or barely present (Peyton) with a primary characteristic of "hot/perfect"? Hm. Then, we get into Liv's zombie-privilege and whether it's moral to live as a zombie in general. Lastly: RIP Lowell. You were hot, but you were so much more.
This week, we discuss the weirdly out of place "lol nerds" vibe of this week's first iZombie ep, Virtual Reality Bites. We're seriously out here defining the term internet trolls you guys. You can do better, show! We get a little deep into LA industry culture before moving on to big life changes for primarily Liv and Major. Things are going well for Liv, who makes up with her mom and gets closer to Lowell. Major, on the other hand, continues getting his ass beat. Such is life.
Alli and Mary discuss the importance of emotional arcs and character relationships to build interest in the show. By the second episode, we've got crazy-charming Lowell, Ravi/Major bro times, Peyton not sucking, and Clive jumping in to the season-long mystery. We also go into the concept of voiceover: is it needed in iZombie? Is it a holdover from Veronica Mars? Is it a network mandate? Are we watching Dora the Explorer? Who can tell. Cheers!
Alli and Mary discuss the supernatural detective drama and the subsequent procedural vs. serial television debate. In a netflix world, how does a show like iZombie, or any of its similar peers, balance casual viewers and die-hard fans? We're looking forward to digging into this throughout the duration of the show. This week, we learn that Blaine straight up sucks and although Ravi is still awesome, he needs to brush up on the scientific method.