9) Olivia “Liv” Moore
Actor: Rose McIver
Show: iZombie
So it’s Veronica Mars as a zombie, who cares? Creators Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright knit a show with such a brilliantly odd world (a soda company churns out the main villains here) and instantly need more of ’em characters, you get the reason why nearly 100,000 people were willing to shell out the dough just to see Kristen Bell’s classic sleuth again. Here’s to hoping we don’t have to deal with series revivals anytime soon with Thomas’ newest show, because McIver as the titular Liv Moore (just go with the puns) is as much the enthusiastic, sarcastic narrator and protector of the dear, dark city of Seattle as Veronica was for Neptune.
McIver just gets to be a completely different version of her character every week, thanks to the rules of zombiehood in iZombie, which state that each time a brain is consumed, the zombie adopts the dominant personality trait of the brain’s former owner. It’s classic case-of-the-week stuff but thanks to McIver’s masterful mental wardrobe changes, and a dollop of existential peril thrown in for good measure (who are you really if you become a different person every time you eat?), iZombie just feels new and different and special with every new brain.
