Review: Santa Clarita Diet

In Santa Clarita, death is a holiday and Culturedemandsgeeks loves this show.

As a caveat for the squeamish among us, death as it appears in all its gory glory in Netflix’s sparkling new comedy Santa Clarita Diet  can also be a stomach-wrenching experience. But for those who can muscle through, the reward is a joyous, hilariously dark comedy to come our way.

Created by Victor Fresco, who also gave us the too-short-lived Better Off Ted and Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Diet stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant — perfectly, delightfully off-kilter as married real-estate brokers Sheila and Joel Hammond. They have a lovely house and a whip-smart daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson), but they’re vaguely discontented: Sheila’s too timid and Joel’s too indecisive.

That all changes when Sheila becomes a zombie, though that’s a word Eric (Skyler Gisondo), the nerdy teen neighbour they go to for advice, doesn’t like. (“It’s inherently negative.”) Obviously, there are disadvantages, including what (or whom) to eat. But being dead also brings Sheila to life, making her bolder and more confident, if also a little impulsive.

Husband and wife stuff!

That may lead you to think Diet is a spoof of zombie movies, and on one level it is. But on a more resonant and fruitful level, it’s a spoof of our “self-actualization” culture — the current belief that the key to happiness is doing and buying and being anything you want, no matter the cost to anyone else.

Yet that’s not all Diet is, either. At heart — and this show does have a surprisingly warm, beating heart — Diet is a comedy about the lengths we’ll go to protect the ones we love, even in the most abnormal situations. Which may be why some of the funniest moments in Diet are those when Sheila and Joel are arguing in standard, married-couple ways over things that married couples usually don’t face.

With her baby-doll looks and voice, Barrymore might seem an odd choice for Sheila. But she’s an inspired one, playing off our expectations while making Sheila’s plight seem real and touching. As for Olyphant, once again he proves he’s one of the finest and most appealing stars working in the US, moving effortlessly from Justified’s cocky tough and The Grinder’s egotistical goof to this sweet, solid husband who is in way over his head.

But two people don’t make a show, and the 10-episode Diet also gets great work from a cast of guest stars that includes Ricardo Chavira, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Richard T. Jones, Nathan Fillion and Thomas Lennon. Still, special praise goes to Gisondo and Hewson, who make Eric and Abby as worthy a pair as Sheila and Eric. Often in shows like this, you dread when the plot turns to the teens. These teens help propel a series that gets richer, funnier and wilder with each outing.

Drew Barrymore’s terrific comic timing is put to good use in Santa Clarita Diet.

Anyway, it turns out Sheila has contracted some strange virus that has turned her into one of the  undead. Now she only wants to eat human flesh. And it has to be fresh. As they discover having bought a greying foot from a morgue attendant for US$400. It’s a problematic situation, as you can imagine.

But, luckily, there are subtler elements to being undead. Suddenly, Sheila is a new person, impulsive and newly assertive and concerned with satiating her immediate desires. And her pot-smoking husband is the responsible one.

A scene burying a corpse strays into Sheila and Joel snapping at each other about a lost container lid. Then it’s onto why saying they are Mormons is not a good excuse for being found covered in blood with a corpse nearby.  “Mormons don’t clean up murder sites,” points out Sheila. “Mormons are helpful,” responds Joel through gritted teeth.

It’s certainly odd, but it quickly draws you in. I loved it.