Many of you fellow teen TV watchers have probably heard of the CW, the network that produced shows like The Vampire Diaries, One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Gilmore Girls that have become extremely popular on Netflix.  However, there are many shows still airing on the CW that have the potential to be just as famous as any other of their other hit shows.

One of these shows is iZombie, a show that takes every cheesy motif from teen television and combines it with an apocalyptic zombie world.  While this may seem like a stretch, somehow the network managed to pull it off so successfully that the show was renewed for a third season, which began airing this past month.

The main character, Liv, is your average 27 year old just out of medical school, until she is scratched by a highly contagious zombie at a boat party massacre.  She wakes up the next morning on the beach craving brains, with pale skin and white hair (telltale signs of zombies), but otherwise very normal looking.  The show portrays zombies in a unique manner; the show’s zombies are normal, healthy people, with the exception of their diet, allowing an entire population of zombies to live amongst humans.

The show follows Liv as she focuses on keeping her new identity a secret while managing to eat brains, and avoiding becoming a full-fledged zombie (the stereotypical traits: rotting skin, red eyes, incoherent grunts and a limp).

But what is it that makes iZombie unique from any other show, particularly more grotesque zombie shows like The Walking Dead?  Its irresistibly catchy theme song, “Stop, I’m Already Dead,” is one factor, which you will find yourself singing along to before you know it.  This song, accompanied by its montage of pop-art drawings of the characters is an immediate draw for any new viewer.  This cartoonish transition after each commercial break is very aesthetically pleasing and makes the mood much less intense than any other zombie flick.

Speaking of iZombie’s aesthetic, Liv must eat brains to stay sane, so the writers got creative.  Each episode, there is a thirty second clip of her chopping up “brains” and cooking it into normally delicious dishes like ramen, pizza, and even sloppy joes.  Knives clatter and microwaves beep and quite honestly, it does not look all that disgusting . An interesting twist to these brain-ridden meals is the side effects it has on zombies—the zombie will take on the personality of the brain that was previously digested and get visions of important recent memories from that person’s life.  This creates awkward and funny instances like when a 30-year-old man eats “teenage girl brain” and takes on all of the stereotypical teenager traits.

While it may seem as if this show has no plot line, the writers work hard to keep their viewers watching episode after episode.  Each episode features a unique and intriguing mystery, as Liv uses her visions and assumed personalities to solve the murder of the person whose brain she just consumed.  If that is not captivating enough, the show is also sure to have a love triangle pop up here and there or a forbidden romance between human and zombie.  Additionally, there is a quite complex backbone story involving deadly energy drinks that connects back to how Liv became a zombie in the first place.  The new season even hints at the possibility of a zombie-human war in the future.

So next time when you’re browsing various streaming services for your next TV show to obsess over, take a peek at iZombie.  Seasons one and two are readily available on Netflix.  Get ready for a humorous take on the zombie apocalypse with a hint of relationship drama and mysterious murders—I mean really, what more could you ask for?