There are also several parallels between the stories themselves. They both involve strong female lead characters who work in an investigatory capacity. And while neither of the characters had any initial interest in the field, at least as far as the pilots reveal, after they experienced a dramatic, life altering event, they both fell into it as more of a means to an end.
There’s a significant amount of law enforcement interaction going on. In iZombie, Liv is more or less a voluntary participant in the process, working with Detective Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) as part of an innate sense of giving back. She’s a zombie who works in a morgue, so naturally she gets her brains from the victims that she comes in contact with. When she eats their brains, she gets visions relating to their murders. Helping Babineaux solve the crimes gives her a sense of doing the right thing. Veronica, on the other hand, takes every possible opportunity to stick it to the Sheriff who she believes is at least partially responsible for her family’s current broken situation.
Each show establishes their own look in the pilot, too. iZombie channels its comic book origins in a big way, which the editors manage to seamlessly blend in with the live-action sequences. The captions and transitions appear in a very graphic novel manner as well, separating the new CW show from anything else they have on the air. Liv is post-education, so there’s no school sets or co-ed ensembles dominating the screen. Instead, the biggest sets are the morgue where she works, her apartment, and the police station. VM, meanwhile, utilizes the Neptune High set repeatedly in the pilot, throwing in the Mars Investigation office, Sheriff’s department, beach, and Veronica’s car in various locations around town.
If anything, the real separation between the two pilots is that iZombie sets itself up as slightly more of a procedural drama. There is an overarching story – the zombie plight, Liv’s roommate and romantic drama – but each episode has it’s own case to be solved (think Bones). Veronica Mars is more serial in fashion, as it’s hard to understand what’s happening if you haven’t been following along (think The Originals). Like I mentioned before, the VM pilot really sets up the arc for the entire season, whereas iZombie makes it pretty easy to come it after the initial episode and still be able to pick up on what’s going on, even without having all the minute details.