Now I’m going to be completely honest, this is such a weird show. It really throws you straight in with the randomness and craziness. Oh and some gross scenes, like a lot of vomit, a lot of being sick. This is definitely a show for older ages, a few sex scenes, a lot of swearing and also use of drugs. There’s also many gory scenes, the main character does eat people…
I started watching this because Netflix was really pushing it, definitely a lot of advertisement for this show, it kept on coming up as a recommendation for me. Besides, it’s also Drew Barrymore and I love her! She’s great, she stars in so many films I love: ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Ever After’, ‘50 First Dates’, ‘Blended’ and I could go on. So I gave this new show a chance. Once I started watching, even though I was so confused over the weirdness, I strangely couldn’t stop watching it. Once you get used to everything, it becomes comical and so addictive. Every episode ends in some chaotic new drama and you just need to watch the next episode.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s the plot for you. The Hammond family changes completely when the mother suddenly falls ill. They are real estate agents whose life became routine and boring. Until… Sheila (Drew Barrymore), the mother, dies. And then she wakes up again, but this time, undead. Sheila changes completely, more confident, more impulsive and more truthful. Then what changes the most, she discovers she wants to eat people. Her husband, Joel (Timothy Olyphant) just wants a normal life. But he loves his wife so much, and would do anything for her, even though she does want to eat people, the freshest of people, because dead people don’t work for her. So this concludes the beginning of their normal-not-so-normal life of killing people to satisfy the now-undead Sheila. They try to keep secrets of their new life from their sixteen year old daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson) but in reality she knows everything, and tells all she knows to her next door neighbour, Eric (Skyler Gisondo), the stereotypical intelligent but awkward teen. The Hammond’s try as hard as they can to remain a normal family, however as the next door neighbour Sherriff becomes more suspicious and Sheila becomes more impulsive, and the question of food for the now-undead mother, things get crazier and crazier and escalate to extremes as they comically struggle through something that’s on a different world than what they’ve dealt with before.
As it is a Netflix Original, of course all episodes are on Netflix. You also do need to watch the programme in order as the episodes practically lead on from one another directly. They are such an easy watch, only half hour long. It is such a different programme to other undead shows I’ve seen before. Safe to say, it’s highly opposing ‘iZombie’ for example, that even though carries comedy as well, has more of a murder mystery element. ‘Santa Clarita Diet’ has comedy, gore and crazy moments that are honestly reacted by an average family.
You know what, I would recommend it. It’s a great watch and extremely addictive in every episode. Honestly none of the episodes are boring. The actors and actresses are superb and the loving relationship between Sheila and Joel shows no bounds. But like I’ve previously stated, it is a 15 for a very good reason. The first season is definitely the best, and it does go a little downhill after that, although still good nonetheless. If you think this is a show you would appreciate and enjoy, then watch it!
Striking Film Reviews 