I knew
Drew Barrymore had a series developing at
Netflix, but actual details didn't turn up on my radar until a couple of weeks before it's release. Their ads finally revealed that instead of the straight-up suburban family
comedy it initially appeared to be, it turned out that
Santa Clarita Diet is way more quirkier than that.
Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore) is your typical suburban woman... wife to high school sweetheart
Joel (
Timothy Olyphant), mother to teenager
Abby (
Liv Hewson), and she and Joel are realtors by profession. One day, however, all that changes when she throws up an obscene amount of vomit while trying to sell a house. While Sheila brushes off the incident, it appears all is not well... she has no pulse and she's more prone to spontaneous outbursts and actions. Abby suggests that they talk to the only 'expert' she can recommend, schoolmate and neighbor
Eric Bemis (
Skyler Gisondo), who has a crush on her. Eric tells them that Sheila has most probably become a zombie, though he doesn't like that term, and informs them that she's probably going to want to start eating people.
It's always fun when somebody tries something different with the zombie genre (i.e.
The Girl with All the Gifts focusing on the perspective of a zombie or
iZombie featuring a zombie that stays human by eating brains but taking on the brain owners' personalities). The zombie survival drama formula can be exhausting to watch, which probably accounts to why I'm behind in my viewing of
The Walking Dead... I'm so far behind, it's embarrassing. In
Santa Clarita Diet, Sheila is still herself, but finds that she's more inclined to speak out her thoughts, however impolite, or find herself acting out on every impulse, a side effect of being undead as per Eric.
Sheila giving in to her id or desires is initially the series's source of
comedy, especially since Joel is left as the only voice of reason in the family (Abby, being a teenager, is more inclined to get on board with mom's antics). But it doesn't take long for
Santa Clarita Diet to show its deeper layers, such as Sheila understanding that there's a darker side to giving in to her desires, Joel's struggle with having an undead wife who has to eat people to survive, or Abby's coming to terms with her family dynamic changing, despite how fun it was in the beginning. The comedy is always forefront, but the Hammond family's situation also calls for more sensitive storytelling, which
Santa Clarita Diet is able to balance well.
The core characters of the Hammond family and Eric make for great dynamic, with the characters playing off each other well. Drew Barrymore is her usual adorable self, playing Sheila with what is obviously a lot of fun on her end. Timothy Olyphant gave me serious
Billy Bob Thornton vibes in his portrayal of Joel, but it was fun to watch him play somebody who's less put together than his previous roles and he shares some serious chemistry with Barrymore, making their on-screen marriage all the more fun to watch. Liv Hewson and Skyler Grisondo play their characters with all the right levels of teenage awkwardness (mostly concentrated in Eric) and rebelliousness (obviously concentrated in Abby), and have their own moments to shine when Eric helps out Abby with dealing with her mom's new normal.
Santa Clarita Diet rounds out its cast with a wonderful mix of supporting characters, such as neighbors (
Mary Elizabeth Ellis,
Joy Osmanski,
Richard T. Jones) that include the always intense, always suspicious and ever the cop that he is
Dan Palmer (
Ricardo Chavira), possible victims, the school principal (
Thomas Lennon), and his cranky Serbian grandmother (
Grace Sabriskie). The series also makes the most out of the single episode guest appearances of
Nathan Fillion,
Patton Oswalt,
Andy Richter and
Portia de Rossi, ensuring that we are geeking out as much as we are laughing while we binge-watch (though this meant watching episodes randomly over the course of nine days for me).
Santa Clarita Diet could have easily just relied on its star power or the popularity of zombies. It could have just been a campy series that banked on a talented cast and funny premise. What we got instead is something that is genuinely fun and funny, but also manages to imbue a great family dynamic that gave the series its heart.
There's a lot to love in
Santa Clarita Diet and you'd be doing yourself a favor scheduling a binge-watching session, because it's easy to breeze through all ten episodes. Although, I wouldn't suggest eating heavy snacks, because there are some gnarly and gory scenes that's bound to ruin your appetite, but somehow not affecting the overall fun levels to be had in watching the series. So, consider yourself warned and dive in if you've yet to watch the antics of the Hammond family.
Happy viewing!!
