Mystery-solving morgue job a perfect fit for undead doc in CW's 'iZombie'

Talk about brain power.

The heroine of The CW's new Tuesday series “iZombie” has it ... and not entirely by choice. Inspired by a same-named comic book, the serio-comic show from “Veronica Mars” mentor Rob Thomas casts Rose McIver (alias Tinker Bell on ABC's “Once Upon a Time”) as Liv, a medical resident who joins the undead after attending a wild (to put it mildly) party. Brains are the means of sustaining her new existence, and for each one she consumes while working in the Seattle coroner's office, she inherits related memories and traits that help her solve the given victim's murder.

“We didn't hew terribly closely to the source material,” explains Thomas, who shares executive-producer credit with his “Veronica Mars” colleague Diane Ruggiero-Wright. “In the ‘iZombie' comic book, there's a whole monster universe. There are were-terriers and ghosts. We wanted to stay strictly zombie, so we only have zombies in the show. And we really needed a story engine.

“We wanted to do a case-of-the-week show,” adds Thomas. “In the comic book, the main character is a gravedigger and that's how she gets her brains. By making her (in the series) an assistant medical examiner and putting her in the morgue, it gave us our case of the week that we wanted.”

Also seen previously on Showtime's “Masters of Sex,” McIver wears makeup in “iZombie” that makes it reasonably clear she's playing a member of the undead, but it's refined as the show goes along. “We've kind of refined it down to about an hour-and-a-half now,” the actress says, “but it's a wig. (And) it is airbrushing my skin, any skin that's exposed. I've been fighting for, like, skivvies and long sleeves.

“And we cover me in this white and translucent makeup, and then there's a lot of smoky eye work. And the team that have created it have done such a good job, and I feel like when I put that on, it really does do a lot of the work for me in terms of making the character.”

While most of those around Liv know what's happened to her, a few don't ... including her ex-boyfriend Major, played by “One Tree Hill” alum Robert Buckley in his return to The CW. Though many “iZombie” scenes are infused with ironic humor, he has to play his relatively straight.

“I think the hardest thing dealing with a breakup is when you don't know why it happened,” Buckley reasons, “so he's just looking for some sort of explanation as to why his soul mate suddenly doesn't want to be with him. And I know selfishly as the actor, I'm also like, ‘Come on. Look at her hair. Look at her skin, Major. Like, is it not obvious? Ask what happens. She didn't just go emo/goth overnight.'”