Santa Clarita Diet

Netflix dropped another original show yesterday, which stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as a married couple that have to deal with the fact that Barrymore has (randomly) become a zombie.

Barrymore is hit or miss with me, but she is pretty funny in this show. Although, it's Olyphant that really surprised me with his comedy chops. I flew through 8 episodes in one day and want to save the last two for tomorrow before I officially go back to work.

While the series seems to be on a smaller budget than other Netflix shows (The Crown seems to have taken a lot of their money) I really connected with this one and hopefully it's successful enough to warrant a few seasons. It'll be interesting to see what direction they take with the show.

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Suspect's Reviews

When I heard the cast/concept (and that the Better Off Ted guy was involved), I was pretty stoked. But early reviews from critics I usually agree with say it's not great. Bah.

I'll probably still try it. Lots of shows, particularly comedies, really come into their own in the second year, too.

It's definitely odd and I can see people not digging it, but it clicked with me.

I only heard about this the other week. Now I have to get Netflix.

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I watched the early trailer for it and added it to my queue, but haven't watched it yet cause it strikes me as one of those that I'll either really love and binge watch the hell out of or really hate and drop by ep2

It LOOKS good though so I have high hopes...

Olyphant definitely carries the show. Anyone who's seen him in Justified... and to a lesser extent, Deadwood... knows he's got some good comic timing. And he really shines in this show. The first episode's guest appearance by Nathan Fillion made me hopeful that they might do what Six Feet Under used to do: have someone recognizable show up each episode, for kicks. But that didn't seem to happen in later episodes. (I'm a handful of episodes in.)

Sadly, Barrymore is NOT cutting it for me. She doesn't seem the least bit believable and her comic timing is forced, at best. I'll keep watching, though, because the episodes are short and otherwise fun. Plus, the teenage neighbor boy is hilarious and adds a nice touch in the scenes he graces.

We'll see how long this lasts for me, but for now, it's innocent, slightly outrageous fun.

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finally started and finished.. loved it...the daughter was priceless, Barrymore and Olyphant were great as was the entire supporting cast.


The 27 minute episodes really made a 10 ep season fly by but they used every minute to good effect. Really hope it gets a second season.

That's probably why I enjoyed it, it was a really fun and fast watch.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm a few episodes in. It's getting a bit better. I'm only laughing a couple times per episode, but there's potential.

I finished out the season and liked it more with each episode. By the end, I even thought Barrymore had found her comic rhythm. The banter in the mother/daughter episode was funny. And the one-liners got better and cleverer. It often sounds like a typical cheesy sitcom, but on purpose and with the whole undead thing thrown into the banter when you least expect it. Plot twists were funny and kept coming.

And Olyphant kept getting better. The kid playing Eric is a nice foil to everybody else. Am looking forward to a second season.

I've watched the trailer and it didn't really look like something I was interested in. But since reading this thread and especially since hearing it got short episodes, I might give it a go.

I'm seven episodes in, and man, has this gotten a lot better.

It's not that this show is great even now, it's just such a ridiculous improvement over the first episode. I was kind of shocked at how uninspired the first episode was. All the zaniness felt forced I felt like I was five steps ahead of the show the whole time. But it's managed to keep twisting and turning, and somehow the insanity feels more "earned" now, maybe because one situation keeps piling on the next. That, and I think the writing is just straight-up better now. Helps that they're slowly introducing some mythology into the show, too.

Glad I stuck with this one. Still not one of my favorites, but I'm actually looking forward to the last few episodes, whereas I could've happily stopped after the opener and not felt like I was missing a thing.

I havent heard of this.I love the two leads. Bit over zombies, though. Still havent caught up on the latest TWD but that's my husband's show. I only watch it now for Negan.

Strangely enough, Dani, it's not really a zombie show at ALL. It's this odd amalgam of cheesy married-life sitcom (and all the necessary tropes thrown in, in parody form) and zombie jokes. So, take the typical marriage and family jokes in a sitcom and throw in the zombie element... and you have the clever banter between the characters. Olyphant's character, Joel, has some of the wittiest lines and zingers in the show, and the writers sometimes pile a whole dialogue exchange full of the back-and-forth between Joel and another character.

I felt the same way. Even Barrymore's bad acting in that first few episodes seems to smooth out and find traction later. (The mother-daughter episode with the motorcycle really was funny to me, even without Joel or Eric in those scenes.)

I'm glad I stuck with it, too. Didn't take up HUGE amounts of my time, but felt like a great bit of fun now that I've also caught up with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (which really aces the banter). I'll definitely watch a second season.

OK you've got my interest, Aus.

Yoda is right, though. Don't judge the series by that first episode. My main impression now, as I try to think back on specifics of that first episode is, "We think vomit is funny."

It gets better and better with each episode. It's almost as if the writers wrote themselves into the world/plot slowly and built up steam. They should have then gone back and rewritten the first episode or two once they had that rhythm well set.

I like shows that build up steam so this is sounding good.

@Austruck what did you think of the finale? I was a little underwhelmed by the last few minutes of it.

Me too. In fact, my Netflix app automatically starts the next episode in a series when you're watching it... and I was waiting for the next episode to start. I was a bit surprised to find I had just watched the end of the season finale because it didn't feel like one.