Representation matters — even for the undead
Zombies get a bad rap. Every one you see on screen is some kind of mindless, sloughing predator with no plans beyond their next serving of human tartar. The thing is, like other groups who are only portrayed stereotypically in film, the undead are a diverse bunch and finally we have a series to showcase that. Set somewhere in suburban America, Santa Clarita Diet follows the lives of Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant), a pair of perfectly beige realtors whose lives get drenched in crimson when Sheila becomes violently ill and turns into a zombie. By zombie we don’t mean the kind of gormless flesh sacks that waddle around the set of the Walking Dead. Sheila Hammond is a fully functioning member of the undead petite bourgeoisie replete with a moody teenager, an SUV and a collection of pantsuits. She just also happens to have an insatiable need to murder people and feast on their innards sans cutlery.
As a premise, Santa Clarita Diet is lovely. This dark comedy jovially navigates how a perfectly middle-class family deals with the fallout of Sheila’s condition and how it affects their community. Her husband Joel and daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) are drawn into her new lifestyle in amusing ways as they are forced to help cover up murders, locate bile and discover the source of zombieism. For added effect there are moral dilemmas to deal with as well, like: is it alright to kill and eat a Nazi?
The show is more than just an offbeat suburban comedy. At its core it’s a love story. Despite the near constant tumults rocking the Hammonds’ lives, Sheila and Joel are steadfast and adorable lovers. They fuss and they fight but they’re always drawn back to one another in the kind of way that makes you want to squeeze teddy bears or pet baby dogs.
It probably won’t win any awards but Santa Clarita Diet is one of the more original ideas on television and is at least twice as good as Modern Family. Its creators have injected mirth into a love story swimming in guts.