TV - Santa Clarita Diet
"I leave you for five fucking minutes and you bond with my dinner?"
I'm probably not the best person to write about the new Netflix Original series Santa Clarita Diet as I have a genuine soft spot for Timothy Olyphant, even as a Die Hard baddie, and my undying love for Drew Barrymore means she can honestly do wrong.* However Santa Clarita Diet is incredibly funny. It's not maybe the obvious humour that everyone can enjoy, more the kind of divisive humour like Ryan Reynolds' excellent The Voices, but it's hilarious if it is your kind of thing.
A married suburban couple, Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel (Timothy Olyphant) are real estate agents (bastards) that happen to have a huge change occur... Sheila vomits a huge amount, dies and comes back as one of the undead. Joel wants to continue living a relatively normal life but obviously loves Sheila so will do anything to help her. When her craving for meat goes past raw beef and she eats Nathan Fillion (not a problem as he played an actual bastard real estate agent) they realise that killing people is the only way to feed her habit.
There is so much to enjoy about Santa Clarita Diet. Olyphant channelling his inner Billy Bob Thornton is pleasing and he his comic timing is spot on. His obvious discomfort about killing whilst overwhelming with love for his wife is astonishingly played out in a psychopathic kind of way. The daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson), and young geek friend from next door, Eric (Skyler Gisondo), who diagnosed Sheila with Zombie related inflictions are immensely watchable as the typical yet not typical teens but it's Barrymore I can't keep my eyes off, and not for the same reasons as Poison Ivy this time. The change from quiet and shy housewife to swearing cannibal yet loving mother and wife is awesome. I shouldn't use the word awesome in reviews but my word she really is. The first two episodes sort of lay the groundwork for the murdering to come but it really comes to life (hee hee... just me? I'm wasted on you lot) when the "who to kill" really starts.
If you like your humour a little murderous, your television shows a little uncomfortable yet rib achingly funny then check out Santa Clarita Diet.
*this statement obviously excludes Music and Lyrics. I'm mad but I'm not totally insane.
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