Santa Clarita Diet Season 3 Review: More bite, once the whole family is involved…

The Hammonds are back in Santa Clarita Diet season three and they bring with them a host of familiar faces (and a couple of new ones) as they try to juggle the day-to-day chaos of undead living with some revelations that they so far hadn’t had much time to consider.

Netflix’s uproarious zombie comedy Santa Clarita Diet returns for its third season in fine form and picks up in the immediate aftermath of Sheila’s (Drew Barrymore) miracle in the desert that caused sheriff’s deputy Anne (Natalie Morales) to start worshipping our undead heroine as an instrument of God. That was a clever way to wrap up the Anne Problem in season two, but of course, now it isn’t as simple as Anne deciding Sheila is a holy crusader and leaving her alone to smite bad guys.

The new Anne Problem is that she has gone from being increasingly suspicious of Sheila and Joel (Timothy Olyphant) to being a Sheila disciple, which brings with it a whole host of other problems, even if there are some perks to having a sheriff’s deputy as your biggest fan.

Meanwhile, Joel has his hands full with the reappearance of Ron (Jonathan Slavin), his buddy from the psychiatric unit who wants Sheila to turn him undead, and Abby (Liv Hewson) and Eric (Skyler Gisondo) are up to their eyeballs in their own problems when the FBI is called in to investigate the explosion at the fracking site.

Barrymore is a delicious delight as Sheila, a once timid suburban woman who relishes in her untamed undead life. As always, Sheila is smart, sexy, confident, powerful, and also a bit deviant, grinning while she gnaws on a finger and relishing in her moments of naughtiness. Barrymore is once more a force of nature whether she’s leaping into attack mode or quipping it up with Olyphant.

Their chemistry is explosive, and the writing on the series makes their bond feel as authentically intimate as it is hilarious and enthralling.

Her retail hubby, Olyphant, the Emmy-nominated actor may be best known for his dramatic works, but he is a masterful comedic performer. As always, Joel’s face is always etched into some extreme reaction to the increasingly outrageous circumstances; wide-eyed grimaces of horror or resigned, if unperturbed, acceptance of the utterly unacceptable.

The supporting cast also remains at the top of their game, especially Liv Hewson as the Hammonds’ smart and now, foul-mouthed teenage daughter Abby, and Skyler Gisondo as her brilliant and besotted nerdy best friend Eric.

Just like Joel and Sheila, the pair get meatier material to chew on this season and find themselves facing down complicated moral questions. Perhaps not unexpectedly, after watching her parents hunt and kill the people they deem evil enough to eat, Abby’s developed her own questionable moral compass, and it tends to point outside the law.

After convincing Eric to join her in some light eco-terrorism at the end of last season, the pair find themselves facing down an FBI investigation that shakes their beliefs and their will-they-wont-they relationship down to the core.

And let’s not forget, rival realtors Chris and Christa Caldwell – magnificently vicious creations both – are back, Gary’s (Nathan Fillion) decomposing head (they forgot his serum) is full of ideas for the Hammonds’ estate agency.

Santa Clarita Diet show creator Victor Fresco gleefully expands the world of the show, expanding on the Knights of Serbia thread started last season, introducing a cult, new zombies running amok, and a scowling stranger with thugs and mysterious motives. Fresco will also gift audiences the return of the adorably apathetic Ramona (Ramona Young).

But the beating heart of this series continues to be the marriage of Sheila and Joel.

But THE SHOW asks us what we’d do for love and how far we’d go for our partners?

Joel has just about got used to his new husbandly role as an accessory to multiple murder, but in season three the couple begins to realize the other ramifications of Sheila’s condition. Her immortality means she will outlive her entire family – unless she bites them and they join her in her bloodthirsty ways.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Across the board, Santa Clarita Diet has some of the best comedy writing on TV — clever one-liners, wordplay, absurdism, visual gags, running jokes, you name it.

By Season 3, the series has earned that lived-in comfort, and it’s right at home with its own strangeness, trusting audiences will go along for the ride.

The end result is a sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes poignant, but always an entertaining third installment with a great ensemble of alive an undead cast (PUN-intended!)

5/5 STARS