The circumstances surrounding this week’s highly stylized episode are incredibly ironic.
Is the femme fatale to blame for the murder, or is she just another victim?
As Liv ponders, she pulls her trench coat tighter as a terse, dramatic voiceover narrates the scene.
Credit: Diyah Pera/The CW
In only a few moments,iZombiehits so many tropes found in the classic noir genre.
But heres the ironic part: the showrunner actually had nothing to do with this weeks episode.
In fact, he actively foughtagainstdoing a noir episode for years.
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I cant imagine how much fun you were having making this episode.
You finally got to go full noir!ROB THOMAS:That is true and not true.
Episodes 7 through 11 oniZombiebecame to the point where I was just kind of reading outlines and giving notes.
That feels incredibly ironic.
[Laughs] It does a bit!
So that was my big contribution to this particular episode.
The writer of the episode, Bob Dearden, has been pitching me this hardcore noir episode every season.
And Ive been saying, Maybe someday.
And then the moment I leave the room, he gets it made!
The minute the cats away, Bob Dearden [laughs] got his noir episode!
But because I wasnt there to say no, they pulled it off!
Its a really fun episode.
Tuan Le, the director of the episode, did a great job.
I wasnt sure there was enough space between the two so I was concerned about that.
They sucked the marrow out of the noir theme.
They did it to such comic effect that it did not step on the toes ofVeronica Mars.
When you were away working onVeronica Mars,how did you feel about finding out this episode was happening?
[Laughs] My first reaction was, You son of a bitch, you finally got that through!
It was never an idea that I hated.
It was just an idea that got beaten out by something out because I had those reservations.
Somewhere around season 3 we had this change in philosophy that was good for the show.
Writers for episodes would get brains that they werent emotionally connected to or have insight on.
Eventually, by season 3, we went, Hey writers, what brain are you desperate to write?
What do you love?
What could you riff on forever?
At that point everyone got to do the brains they wanted and we made it work for Livs life.
The brains got funnier and more specific after that.
I would hear bits and pieces.
It was like, Okay, you really want to do this?
Okay … go ahead, full throttle.
I got a thumbs up from the editors, like, Its coming together, its looking good.
And finally I got to see a cut and was tremendously relieved and pleased with it.
That all played funny to me.
iZombieairs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
