Who’s the Real Monster? Humans, Zombies, and the Corporation in iZombie
摘要
The zombie can serve as a metaphor for everything from colonialism to rampant consumption, but with a few notable exceptions (e.g., Warm Bodies), they are rarely given a voice. That is not the case in iZombie, which not only features sentient zombies but also a zombie protagonist. Yet, along with this important shift in perspective, the metaphors that surround zombies, particularly around capitalism and contagion, are still significant drivers of the series’ narrative over its five-season narrative arc. To that end, I will examine how the corporate behavior of series villains Max Rager and Fillmore Graves offers two distinct approaches to corporate malfeasance: ignoring and/or covering up environmental and health issues caused by corporate behavior (Max Rager) or, in essence, turning a large number of the population into both consumers and externalities of the corporation’s actions through secretive, underhanded, and conspiratorial means (Fillmore Graves). In this respect, it is the unethical behavior and choices of these corporate types, rather than their positioning (or not) as traditional horror-film “monsters,” that make them the real monsters within the world of iZombie.