Santa Clarita Diet - TV Show Review

Anyone who knows me or read my articles knows how much of a zombie lover I am. Left 4 Dead 2 is one of my favorite games, even after 12 years since it came out and I've been watching The Walking Dead since it's fourth season (third if we're counting watching reruns before any live episodes). I would love to play the finally released Back 4 Blood, but playing the alpha and beta tells me that $60 is not worth it and I'm going to have to wait for a lower price. Zombies are often associated with action and horror, but this week we're taking the zombie genre in a different direction: A comedic drama. This week I present to you the Santa Clarita Diet!

The Santa Clarita Diet is about two realtors named Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore). Married for years, these two work together in selling homes in their pleasant town of Santa Clarita while raising their rebellious teenage daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson). But one day though Sheila vomits an obscene amount of bile (like it's literally everywhere) and dies. Or so it seems because not long after Joel discovers his dead wife she comes back to life. Except her blood is thick and black, has no heartbeat, and suddenly has a hunger for the flesh of man. With the help of next door teenage boy and nerd, Eric Bemis (Skyler Gisondo), the Hammonds must help Sheila adjust to her new life as a zombie while keeping her new secret hidden from everyone else. It ain't easy being a zombie though and soon their life is thrown a new curveball, one after the other, as they try to create a "normal life" with a zombie parent.

I was suggested this show early this year and my friend convinced me to watch it by telling it was a zombie show set in a suburban environment. It wasn't apocalyptic or scary or action packed, just a normal modern environment with a zombie in it with excellent main characters. Now that does sound very boring, but when I started to watch I was instantly hooked in because of these main characters and how the story kept evolving in very unorthodox ways. Every couple episodes threw something new at me that felt right at home in the story, while also being very different and exciting. I'm going to try and keep my spoilers to a minimum, but that'll be hard with how incredible the story gets. I'm very sad it was cancelled after its third season, but what we got was something very good and it's last season wrapped up pretty well.

Easily the best element of the show is the chemistry between Olyphant and Barrymore. This is some of the best character interactions I've seen on television. The way these two actors bounce off each other is so realistic, so believable, that multiple times I wondered if they were married in real life. They're not, but they sell it so well that I was totally captivated by their performances. The scripts helps them out by providing excellent dialogue, but they're both so comfortable around each other that alone sells it. Their jobs as realtors also really helps their characters because it gets them out of the house and interacting with large diversity of people. They are conditioned to smile, be positive, and help others, which clashes excellently with their predicament of one of them wanting to eat people violently.

Joel, throughout the whole show, struggles with his wife's condition and her rash hankerings for human flesh clashing with his absolute love of her. The stress he is continually put under would break anyone and there are times where we see cracks in his resolve, yet he continually fights to keep his wife safe, secure, and fed. The weed he smokes on occasion does help, but his love is what really keeps him going. All that, plus making sure to only kill "evil people" (ex. crooked cops, drug dealers, Nazis), makes Joel a very normal person put into a situation that is insane and at first way above his abilities to handle well. He never grows into a hardened badass, but he grows to become more efficient at killing and keeping his wife's secret safe while still remaining very pleasant and a little goofy. It makes him a very compelling character that I was continually rooting for.

Sheila was also very interesting. Not just because of her desire to eat people, but her attitude is one that often gets people (not just Joel) into trouble. It's not that surprising considering her condition. Despite that though she genuinely wants to be a good person and live a normal life. She likes to shop, hang out with her girl friends, wear nice dresses, and manage her realtor job. Like her husband she's dedicated to her profession and is more than ready to help her husband out with her or his problems. With all the stress he's under taking care of her, she wants to make sure he isn't overwhelmed. Throughout the show she also grows to become more open minded and gain some empathy to others who don't have her condition. Barrymore also has great charisma to her performance that, despite eating people, makes her very likable.

A part of this chemistry that might bother people though is Sheila and her inability at times to control herself. In this universe, being a zombie causes people to have the ID in their brains to almost completely control them. For those who don't know, ID is the part of our brains in which innate, instinctive impulses and primary processes manifest themselves. For example, on Sunday of this week I went out for groceries and afterwards had a sudden desire to eat at Sonic. I wanted to try their new Grilled Cheese Burger, I couldn't get it out of my head. I went there and was told that promotion is over with. Still hungering for Sonic though I ordered a double cheeseburger combo and added a chocolate Oreo shake to it. I could have just have a simple burger with fries and soda, but I wanted a double burger and a milkshake instead of a less costly beverage. Instead of thinking logically and for the long run, the ID produces thoughts that play on our lust and gluttony, that desire to feel satisfied outweighing any risks.

Instead of bigger burger and spiced up milkshake though Sheila is a person who has to eat human flesh that hasn't rotted away every couple of days or else her ID takes over more and Joel has to almost restrain her from jumping somebody and devouring them. I don't know if everyone will be as open-minded and forgiving as me and might hate her because Joel's continual efforts to help her and go above and beyond and she might appear not to do much in return. Before her reanimation Sheila was quiet, almost timid person, but after she is zombified she is impulsive, blunt, exuberant, and at times irrational. Even when she's in control of herself though her thought process can ignore the idea that doing something such as eating people is a very immoral thing to do. Only with the exceptional chemistry between the two actors does this appear like a very loving relationship instead of a toxic one. Which brings us to one of my favorite comedic moments in the show:

Joel: "Don't you want to be cured?"

Sheila: "Of course I do... Although I do like the way how I feel. I have endless energy and I only sleep two hours a night. I get so much done."

Joel: "...... You eat people."

I laughed so hard at this joke I had to pause and take a few minute to laugh it all off before returning to the show. There are a lot of funny moments made through great character interactions and a great script. Most of these laughs come from Joel and Sheila, but every character gets their moments to shine. Moments like this, in which immoral decisions aren't fully recognized as immoral, provides great comedy throughout the whole show. I was often smiling at how everyone interacted with one another and how every was able to bounce off each other very well. There are a few pop-culture references scattered throughout the show, but not enough to be annoying and they're done pretty well.

As much as I have praised this show though it is not perfect. Besides some of the special effects being noticeably bad, sometimes the story evolves so much that some of the smaller characters and plotlines are left behind. I started to miss characters like fellow neighbor and police officer Rick (Richard T. Jones), the Hammonds' bad tempered boss Carl (Andy Richter), and religious sheriff deputy Anne (Natalie Morales), and some of Abby's friends from school. Also, some plotlines were sometimes solved a little too easily? Maybe it's just the tone of the show not treating a majority of this story in a very relaxed way and that might just be a small itch in the back of my mind. There were often moments that come back to bite (pun intended) back at our main characters and the writing for some of that is pretty good. Even so, I could tell the writing was was very reminiscent of many comedic drama series of the past, from Friends to Seinfeld, which might feel dated in this current age.

There is also a plotline in the second season and part of the third season in which Abby kind of becomes a criminal because she suddenly wants to be a rebellious anarchist. She was already skipping school because it's boring now that her mom wants to eat people and she helped bury a body with her, but she still could have been pleasant enough to still be likable. That season two plotline has nothing to do with the zombie stuff when it could have been tied in very well and putting the Hammond family as a whole in danger. I know Abby is supposed to be the rebellious teenage girl, but for a good portion of the show she develops in a very negative way that just feels a little too much to be believable or enjoyable. My belief is that this plot was only introduced to slow down the journey of Abby and Eric getting together because early in season one we can see them becoming closer and hints of a romantic relationship between them.

Abby isn't a bad character though, she just has a bad story to her. While she's rebellious, a little snarky, and a little rude at times, she's caring, strong-willed, and not afraid to punch somebody to rightfully deserves it. Having somebody like this works great with parents who are mostly overly friendly (because of their jobs), have too much on their plates to keep a constant on eye on her, and have an significant age gap. She's also a girl who's bored with her life and with her parents unable to fully care for her and continually trying to keep her away from danger she goes out of her way to find out who she wants to be. In other words, she strives for independence and identity, which are exactly the types of character traits we need in more female-lead stories.

Lastly, I want to talk about the violence in this show because anybody who hears zombie will think insane amounts of gore, blood, violence, and more gore. With eating people there will be some violence and organs taken out of the human body. But the most violent kill in the show is Sheila's first kill in episode one where she completely disembowels a new, lecherous coworker that is a little too much in her personal space. The level of gore for that kill is used to start off and set the tone of the series, which I found was an excellent idea. Most deaths in the show though will be Sheila going for the neck or the classic brain stab. More importantly, the violence itself never becomes the main attraction of the show, it's always the relationships between the characters, especially our main two. You'll need some stomach to watch the series, but this show isn't about the kills. It's about family.

Santa Clarita Diet takes an idea that sounds stupid, runs with it, and creates something really enjoyable. I was continually charmed by Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore's performances and the story kept me hooked and pulled me in more every few episodes. Some character development could have been handled better and there were some plot points that were forgotten, but I would absolutely watch this show again if I could. This idea of a husband taking care of a zombie wife in a normal, everyday community is an idea that sounds dumb. Or maybe at least dumb to normal zombie fans because, as I've said in past zombie-related posts, the fandom has been conditioned to think zombie media is only good when it's action and/or horror and almost everything else is bad. So maybe this show isn't for the regular zombie fan, but something that a wider range of people can watch and enjoy. So with that, I highly recommend you all watch the Santa Clarita Diet!~

Tentative Score: 8.5/10

While the ending of season three had a decision that I personally thought was not the best move, I would have loved to see what would have happened in the next season because the show, overall, kept my attention in its grasp.