From vicious zombies in The Walking Dead to quippy ones in iZombie, Netflix is bringing something new to the table.
Santa Clarita Diet stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as a married realtor couple living in the suburbs of Santa Clarita. They live normal mundane lives, until Sheila (Barrymore) abruptly throws up all over the house they are showing and drops dead. But all is fine when she wakes up, except they find themselves with an interesting problem when she suddenly develops a taste for human flesh.
Luckily Sheila has a very supportive husband who helps his wife with her new diet of humans, and he even helps her with meals. Meanwhile the two are trying to juggle raising their teenage daughter (played by Liv Hewson), who seems surprisingly okay with her mother’s condition.
While Barrymore was nervous to play a mother with a sixteen-year-old daughter, she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted to be part of the television show until she realised she could somewhat relate to her character.
“I realised I could really parallel my life with her,” says Barrymore. “I started the show and I was like, ‘Victor, I’ve gained 20 pounds and I’m going through hell in my personal life’. So we sort of made this plan of how Sheila would go from Cro-Magnon to erect human through the course of the show.”
Barrymore went on a strict but “very healthy” diet and lost the 20 pounds by the end of the series, although with all the blood and gore the show has, that may have even contributed to her success!
It seems an interesting concept, the use of zombification to essentially rejuvenate someone in their 40’s and Sheila’s new love of life may seem erratic at first to her husband, but it seems to recharge their relationship. But will the show have enough to sustain viewers and make it to a second season? We shall see.
The 10-episode series hits Netflix today.
Will you be watching? Let us know in the comments below!
