Review: Santa Clarita Diet

The new Netflix series starring Drew Barrymore is a wonderful new addition to the TV series that Netflix has invested in. A typical suburban American family of realtors find themselves in a spot of trouble when Sheila (Drew Barrymore) finds herself craving raw meat and having no heartbeat.

On a typical day in the life of the Hammonds as they show an off a new house on the market, Sheila finds herself profusely vomiting all over the living room floor with her clients standing right beside her all over then fresh cream carpet. Quietly excusing her self to the bathroom she is left vomiting her guts up, literally. When she arrives home she realises that her heart has no pulse, her blood is a thick tar-like substance and all she wants to eat is raw hamburger. The undead becomes completely driven by their ‘Id’ and Sheila changes from this boring woman stuck in her ways to an outgoing, crazy lady who does whatever she desires whenever she wants to.

Obviously, these are not normal symptoms for a human and they are well aware that if she was to visit someone for professional help they would laugh in her face or lock her away to do crazy tests and experiments on her. Left with no choice, they visit the neighbour’s son, a young boy with a keen interest in the supernatural. You can probably guess what the diagnosis is, no heart beat, no blood and a taste for raw meat, yep you’ve got it, a zombie. Without giving too much away as the series wastes no time in explaining how she is going to deal with it, one thing is certain, her life won’t quite be the same again.

We haven’t seen much of Barrymore in these days as she has turned towards more television roles and tried her hand at directing and producing, in fact being an executive producer of this new series. However in this role, we can see why she was cast, her fun-loving nature is showcased to the max and we see the Barrymore that we have all grow to love over her career, since her earlier roles as the cutest little girl in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

Overall, the great thing about this program is that they’ve taken a theme that so many people have tried to recreate, and done it in a way where instead of them being dressed head to toe in fake blood and gloop, we have a very normal family, who look normal, act normal but have to intertwine being a zombie into their everyday lives. You’ll see that trying to be a zombie in modern day American is rather difficult, especially with the added cop and sheriff being your next door neighbours.