‘Santa Clarita Diet’ gnaws on viewers’ funny bones

Out of the quintessential suburban life of mowing lawns, murder and tasty human flesh smoothies, the Netflix original series “Santa Clarita Diet” was released on Feb. 3, leaving viewers hungry for more.

The horror-comedy centers around the lives of married couple and real estate agents Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel (Timothy Olyphant) Hammond in Santa Clarita, California. The pair, accustomed to their mundane routine of work and parenting, find themselves in the midst of a serious situation when Sheila unexpectedly transforms into a flesh eating zombie. While her newfound state makes her impervious to pain and grants her immense vivacity and courage, the undead voracity for human flesh consumes her whenever she has not had a meal. The couple, along with their teenage daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) and neighbor Eric Bemis (Skyler Gisondo), must assimilate Sheila’s condition into their everyday lives, while simultaneously resorting to murder in order to satiate her needs and continue their real estate career.

The show’s cast does a remarkable job of exhibiting the diverse qualities of their characters, from Sheila’s voracious and violent outbursts to Joel’s hilarious perspective on his new life. Barrymore portrays the qualities of a ‘zomb-mom’ fantastically while allowing Sheila to still evolve as a mother, wife and ravenous undead individual who feeds on the living. Olyphant splendidly depicts the struggling sentiments of Joel as he comes to terms with the entire situation. Apart from his murderous escapades, Joel finding moments in between to smoke weed in his car and vent to the monotone Rite Aid employee Alondra (Joy Osmanski) about his needs for a better toaster-oven and lack of courage. Hewson reveals the many facets of a teenager’s want for excitement in the middle of suburbia. Her characterization of Abby shows the conflict between their new lives and how she remains vulnerable in the wake of all that is happening. Her relationship with Gisondo’s character leaves the fostering relationship of two friends—Abby with the bravado of a rebellious adolescent and Eric with his geeky, insecure charm. The entire cast manifests the attributes of four people left to traverse through their existence while evolving separately as humans and, in Sheila’s case, a corpse.

The comedy aspect of the series is remarkable, taking the scope of grotesque manslaughter and twisting it to make it seem like another ordinary family event. From all characters, the hilarious facets stemming from subjects of their marital lives to the casual affair the neighbor’s wife is having brings to fruition the light-hearted and enjoyable side of the bloody modern family. Juggling tasks like becoming impromptu assassins or even tear gassing the house of a local drug dealer, the Hammonds and company always find the silver lining in some of the most dangerous of situations. The show keeps the comedy fresh by avoiding over-saturating every episode with pointless jokes and interjecting segments of trepidation, action and jubilance. While the ten episodes of the first season are rife with witty remarks, titillatingly crude humor and relatable scenarios, each segment and tribulation offers a sense of joviality and companionship beneath the overarching frame of death.

In its entirety, “Santa Clarita Diet” provides Netflix bingers with the entertaining experience of a zombified mother’s trials of voracious hunger and uncontrolled impulse. As Sheila and her family are left to cover up their tracks and carry on with their responsibilities, the series’s comical, unaffected nature of homicide and suburban life cohesively blends the stereotypical soccer mom and imagined vampiric beast.