UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Somewhat lacking in brains.

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Clint

iZombie -- Image Number: ZMB1_Mondo_.jpg -- Pictured: Rose McIver as Liv -- Photo: Jordon Nuttall/The CW -- © 2015 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.This era we live in has produced some fantastic television, not to mention some fantastic comic book adaptations brought to that small screen. In fact I sometimes feel the only downside is that there’s just too much out there to possibly watch, even with the aid of on-demand services.

Thus it was with mixed feelings that I figuratively walked away from iZombie after viewing two episodes. Happy that I don’t feel the need to add it to the already crowded list of series to keep up on and/or binge; sad for the same reason.

Full disclosure: I have not read the comic. I have heard sources say that the TV series is a very loose adaptation, perhaps to the point only the names of certain characters are the same, and so I will only comment on the show. There is an idea I keep in my head regarding effective zombie stories, which is that they are about the people (this was as opposed to a vampire story, which is primarily about the vampire). Now the blog entry where I brought that up showed an example of a zombie story which broke that rule to my delight. Similarly, Warm Bodies was able to overcome my initial skepticism. So I guess it’s ultimately more of a guideline, but in iZombie I found my limit. It’s a similar reaction to the one I had with the Roswell TV series back in the day, which is that if you’re going to base a show around the existence of zombies or aliens or other things with an established mythology, don’t just give me pretty people with superpowers and angst. That’s called X-Men. Or worse, Twilight.

Now the line between monster and superhero is often a blurred one, sometimes to very interesting effect, but… okay, let’s just get to the bottom line here, which is that by the end of Episode 2 I felt iZombie could easily just be called Psychic Superhero CSI. It’s a “case of the week” police procedural at heart, but not a very good or smart one, and the zombie elements just don’t click beyond some surface elements like brain-eating. The pilot showed some promise by showing the lead character go out of control under stress towards the end and have to wrestle herself back to humanity–though even then, that seems to me more of a vampire schtick–but I can tell you the exact moment the second episode lost me, and that was when the same lead character was able to turn her “zombie rage” on and off like a faucet, just long enough to overpower and knock out a guy getting sexually aggressive.

No no. There need to be consequences to giving in to your vampi– err, zombie rage. Otherwise you’re just a superhero, no matter how many dead brains you scavenge from the John and Jane Does on your medical examiner’s table. The psychic part, by the way, comes from our hero getting compartmentalized access to the recent memories of the deceased by way of her nom-noms, allowing her (with the help of a wisecracking detective) to solve their murders in time for the end of the episode. So I guess there’s that, although even that part makes me sad because now if there’s ever a Chew adaptation in development it will seem derivative.

Am I a bad person for giving up so soon? Perhaps. I could even be being hypocritical by dismissing it under such brief circumstances. Perhaps there will be a betterment of things down the road, although the introduction of the Evil Mutan– err, Evil Zombie isn’t what I mean. Perhaps iZombie is simply a victim of there being too many other awesome alternatives out there, but for now I’m not feeling any compelling reason to follow it week to week. Maybe when the season’s over and it makes its way onto Netflix, Right now I’m just not seeing anything I haven’t seen done before, and better, under different guises… but I’ll wait and see if it manages to shamble its way to a more brainy path.