The Santa Clarita Diet, Netflix’s comedy about marriage and cannibalism, has been renewed for a second season. Those viewers who have access to the video streaming service or are contemplating getting it should check the show out. However, fair warning, the series has a considerable amount of grossness in the form of vomit and gore.
The premise is that Joel, played by Timothy Olyphant, and Sheila, played by Drew Barrymore, are living a quiet life in a cul-de-sac in the small town of Santa Clarita, California, selling overpriced houses and raising their teenage daughter.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Sheila develops an appetite for human flesh. She also seems to be undead, sexually voracious, and at times hyper-aggressive. Much hilarity and complications ensue.
The most unsettling aspect of the series, besides the gore and messy murders, is Timothy Olyphant playing a character unlike anything he played in Justified or Deadwood. Joel is constantly confused about what is going on (“This can’t be happening! We’re realtors!”) Yet he takes great pains to help his wife in her time of need, whether it is to satisfy her renewed lust or to help her bury the latest body in the desert.
Raylan Givens, from Justified, would have had an entirely different approach. Either he would have put Sheila down, out of mercy, or he would have actively sought to find her dinner.
Harlan Country was filled with people that it would be justified to have their entrails torn out and consumed in front of their dimming eyes. “Sorry, Boyd, but the misses is rather famished right now.”
Drew Barrymore is far away from the spunky five-year-old we fell in love with in “E.T.” Despite the problems satisfying her new appetite causes, she kind of enjoys the empowerment that being a flesh eating zombie entails.
She has become assertive and stands up for herself. And if one ever has the bad judgment to mess with her, they will live to regret it, but not for very long.
Abby, the teenager, takes things in stride, Parents are weird, baffling creatures even in the best of circumstances.
