Santa Clarita Diet Season One Review

Let me start by talking about the actors. Timothy Olyphant practically
steals the show. I’ve always enjoyed his work, but I didn’t expect him to give
such an awesome performance here. He delivers his lines with such sincerity
(even his most-absurd lines, and there are a number of them) and is genuinely
hilarious. I haven’t seen Drew Barrymore in anything for quite a while, so it
was nice to see her in something current (I’ve been a fan for some time now),
but to be honest, she isn’t terrific. Her joke delivery is hit-and-miss—in the
pilot episode especially, she has more misses than hits. But, her comedic
timing becomes better toward the end of the season. And she looks great, even
as she consumes raw, bleeding flesh.
The two leads are pretty consistent and have good chemistry,
but the supporting cast is a bit of a different story. In the trailer I saw for
the series, Nathan Fillion makes an appearance, and his presence is one of the
things that drew me to watch it, which I’m sure is true for many other people. Without
spoiling too much, I’ll say he’s great in the pilot, but his role is far too short-lived,
which I found pretty disappointing.

I didn’t know what to make of this show when I began
watching it. The first episode gets things off to a rocky start. A lot of “shock”
jokes are thrown in seemingly at random—by “shock” jokes, I don’t even mean
jokes, necessarily, just random shocking comments meant to come off as funny
because “OMG can’t believe he/she just said that!” but it doesn’t work. One
example is when Eric and his mom are introduced. She tells Abby that Eric
really likes her, and mentions she’s at the top of his spank bank. Of course
Eric is embarrassed. That’s it. That’s the “joke”. It’s not that funny, and
there are a lot of moments like that in episode one and two, which made it hard
to determine what tone the show was going for. There are parts that are weird,
and parts that are just plain dumb.
Then there are the parts with shocking violence and gore, as
well. This didn’t bother me, but it will definitely be a point of contention
for some viewers. Horror-comedy is difficult to do well, but I wouldn’t call
this horror-comedy, per se. It’s not trying to be scary, it’s more about, once
again, the shock factor. Sheila and Joel kill people, and it’s bloody, and
brutal, but played up in a light-hearted way. And it works pretty well most of
the time. The effects look good and are mostly practical. There are moments
where Drew Barrymore bites into body parts that look totally real.

Ultimately, this show is, on multiple levels, difficult to recommend.
I don’t think it has any kind of mass appeal, it’s going to cater to a niche
audience. If you like gory, bloody TV shows/movies, stick with me. If you like
gory, bloody shows that are serious,
then this isn’t for you. If you like horror-comedy, such as Ash vs. Evil Dead (which this series seriously
pales in comparison to), this won’t satisfy in those regards, because it lacks
the horror aspect. If you like irreverent humour AND gory stuff, then you might
like it.

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