Tonight brings two new and one returning series -- all three arrive at 8 p.m. and seem designed to appeal to the same general demographic. Here they are for you to mull over.
My recommendation: Watch the first and record the other two.
• iZombie 8 p.m. The CW. The Walking Dead may be hugely popular, but the zombies are mainly background for the drama on that show. In iZombie, the zombie is the star.
Major plus: The series was developed by Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright. He's the guy who brought us Veronica Mars. There's a definite hip, smart Veronica vibe to iZombie.
Here are the basics.
Twenty-six-year-old Rose McIver (The Lovely Bones) stars as Liv Moore, a young, overachieving medical resident who had her life completely planned out with her finance until she attended a boat party that turned into a zombie feeding frenzy.
Now she's undead. But she cleans up real good.
All those who knew Liv before are baffled by her sudden change into a pale-skinned Goth with white hair. They believe she's just stressed out or in a depression from having survived the boat massacre.
Thomas sums up the series: "It's just your standard girl-gets-turned-into-zombie-and-eats-brains-to-solve-crimes ... comedy? Yeah. One of those."
There are plenty of humorous moments. Despite the premise, I'd label iZombie a comedy/drama.
Solve crimes? Being secretly undead, Liv is doing her best to blend in and look as human as possible. To satisfy her hunger for human brains, she takes a job in the Seattle coroner's office where she can surreptitiously snack on the brains of the many John Doe corpses who make a final stop in the morgue.
Her boss, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (British newcomer Rahul Kohli), learns she's a zombie but is relatively unfazed.
Then Liv realizes that when she eats the brains of murder victims, she begins to experience disturbing visions from their points of view.
Enter homicide detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin), who wonders how Liv frequently has crime knowledge she can't explain. Playing the Psych card, Liv poses as a psychic and works with Babineaux to solve the murders.
Others in the series are Robert Buckley (One Tree Hill) as Liv's former fiance, Major Lilywhite; David Anders (The Vampire Diaries) as Blaine DeBeers, the zombie who turned Liv; Liv's mother, Eva Moore (Molly Hagan, Unfabulous), and Liv's best friend and roommate, Peyton Charles (Aly Michalka, Phil of the Future).
This series looks as if it'll be clever and lots of fun. Check it out.
• Undateable, 8 p.m. NBC. The summer series -- the most watched NBC summer comedy in a decade -- moves to midseason for Season 2.
In case you missed the first season, the comedy is about a group of friends living in Detroit trying to help one another sort out their lives.
At the center are mismatched roommates Danny Burton (Chris D'Elia), who is resisting adulthood, and bar owner Justin Kearney (Brent Morin). They spend most of their time hanging out with their wacky friends at Justin's unsuccessful bar.
The gang consists of Danny's sister, Leslie (Bianca Kajlich), who is recently divorced after 10 years and struggling to find her place in the single world; lovable wisecracking Shelly (Ron Funches); the geeky Burski (Rick Glassman), who is unapologetically and annoyingly honest; gay bartender Brett (David Fynn); and new waitress Candace (Bridgit Mendler), who quickly becomes like a little sister to the crew.
• One Big Happy, 8:30 p.m. NBC. The new sitcom comes from comedian/writer Liz Feldman (Hot in Cleveland, 2 Broke Girls, The Ellen DeGeneres Show) and executive producer Ellen DeGeneres.
"I think people will like it because it's fun and there's a lesbian in it," DeGeneres quips. "People are curious. They don't see lesbians every day. I do, but not everyone."
The missing word in the title is "family." In this case the family is a lesbian, her straight guy friend and, eventually, his new wife.
It all begins with lifelong best buds and housemates Lizzy (Elisha Cuthbert, Happy Endings) and Luke (Nick Zano, 2 Broke Girls). Lizzy is uptight and meticulous; semi-slacker Luke (he owns a bowling alley) is charming and easygoing.
Lizzy decides she wants a child and Luke agrees to donate.
Luke then meets and falls madly for Prudence (Kelly Brook, Smallville), a free-spirited Brit who's about to be deported back to England. Just as Lizzy discovers that she's pregnant, Luke announces that he and Prudence have gotten married.
Cuthbert boasts, "It's a little like Will & Grace meets Three's Company," but I found it a little too frantic, gag heavy and top loaded with laugh track. That may be the pilot episode curse, so I'll watch a couple more before deciding.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 03/17/2015