Drew Barrymore stars as Sheila Hammond, a realtor who lives a very contented suburban life with her husband and coworker, Joel (Timothy Olyphant), and teenage daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson). However, their normal existence is quickly disrupted when Sheila falls sick, profusely vomits all over a house that she and Joel are trying to sell, dies, and then comes back to life as an undead zombie craving human flesh. Did I mention this is a comedy?
Like any great sitcom, Santa Clarita Diet has two key things going for it: stellar writing and a stellar cast. The main cast are sublime, including Skyler Gisondo as Eric, Abby's nerdy best friend who quickly learns the Hammonds' secret and employs his love of science and science fiction to help them out with possible cures. Olyphant's line delivery as the completely hapless Joel, who loves his wife and will do anything to save her, which now suddenly means having to murder people, is one of the highlights of the show. You are guaranteed to keel over at least once per episode from watching him deliver some utterly insane line with a terrified grin. And Hewson is fantastic as the profoundly sarcastic Abby, a girl who will never tell her parents she loves them, but will fight tooth and nail to keep her family together.
The writers on this show are comic poets. I could pull up any episode from the show, scroll to a random timestamp, hit Play, and immediately giggle over some ridiculous joke. This show is so densely packed with humor that it's one of those rare treats that you could binge-watch multiple times to ensure you got all the jokes you missed the first time around. And of course, at the center of all this hilarious mayhem, is Drew Barrymore, America's Sweetheart, playing both to and against type. This role is perfect, because it allows her to both portray the nice and sweet lady we're familiar with, but then suddenly revert to a raging cannibal who waxes lyrical about the orgasmic delight of eating a man's liver while her husband nervously titters.
Santa Clarita Diet is a masterpiece of a show, endlessly entertaining with never a dull moment. Created by Victor Fresco (the man who created the similarly bonkers and spectacular Better Off Ted, a show you must seek out immediately if you haven't already), this show is like nothing you've ever seen before. It is funny and bloody and you will find yourself constantly hitting "Play Next Episode," because nothing else is more important than finding out what is going to happen next to the Hammonds.
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