Santa Clarita Diet is a Netflix TV show which blends horror and comedy to create a unique story telling method. Married couple Shiela and Joel lead regular lives as real estate agents. However, the show takes a turn when Shiela dies in season one and turns into a zombie.
Unlike the plot in other zombie shows, Shiela does not turn against her family and instead works with them to figure out the cause of her zombie disease. Season one of the show was rough and rocky, with some obvious plot holes, but the release of season two changed that.
Season two is stronger than season one and has begun to establish the rules for this show.
Produced by Victor Fresco, Aaron Kaplan, and many more, this show also features star actress Drew Barrymore as Sheila.
Barrymore brings more persona to the show, with an impressive acting career starting at eight years old as a lead role in E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial.) Besides Barrymore, the show also features actor Timothy Olyphant as Joel.
At the end of season one, the show ends with a cliffhanger as Joel gets put into an insane asylum and the couples’ daughter struggles to find a way to keep her mom’s zombie-ness from spreading.
Season one relied heavily on the juxtaposition of mixing a comedy style with gory and scary scenes.
Compared to how wobbly and unusual season one was, season two is much more stable and strong. Season two fully embraces the nature of this horror-comedy family zombie movie.
The most impressive part of this show is the portrayal of Sheila and Joel’s relationship, which is strong and positive throughout both seasons.
Sheila and Joel work together, even though Sheila is a zombie, and they represent a team and a family. Joel helps Sheila keep her disease under wraps from neighbors by helping her find already dead people to eat.
Differently from season one, where all of the problems are inside the family and kept fairly low-key, season two finally connects Sheila and Joel to the outside world.
Similarly to other mythological and fantasy TV shows and movies, Santa Clarita Diet is still developing its rules and guidelines for this disease. However, season two has begun introducing those rules as Sheila and Joel finally begin to think about why this disease came to be and who else it could possibly be affecting.
For anyone who wants to watch a weird and different show, Santa Clarita Diet is the perfect one. For anyone who isn’t a fan of gory scenes or might get sick from blood, it is not the one.
However, the good part about Santa Clarita Diet is that it has done something new and different, and stepped out of the comfort zone. The smart casting of Barrymore as Sheila brings more attention to the show. Even more, the unusual mix of horror and comedy as well as a family friendly plot makes this show a unique one, and that’s what has made it so successful.