Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Santa Clarita Diet is a super fun half-hour comedy unlike anything else on Netflix. Once Sheila (Drew Barrymore), a suburban wife and mother becomes a zombie, the show chronicles how it affects her family, including hunky husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and teen daughter Abby (Liv Hewson). It might not sound like 50 Shades of Grey, but let me tell you, this series is one big female fantasy. With blood and guts, too.
Once Sheila goes through this version of “the change” (becoming dead), a lot of things begin to shift in her personality as well. First of all, homegirl is horny AF. She employs a swift head push to signal to her husband that she’s ready to receive oral sex, and he obliges, a bunch of times! Until his jaw hurts, in fact. You get yours, Sheila!
The impulses don’t end there. Shelia already lived a lifetime of politely biting her tongue, but those days are along behind her. Now she speaks her mind, open and honestly in her marriage, and sharp and matter-of-factly to her dick of a neighbor, Dan (Ricardo Chavira). It’s exciting and thrilling! Her neighbor knows not to mess with her, and with Joel it opens up a whole new clear line of communication.
While orgasms and satisfaction are any woman’s dream, Joel steps up in an even bigger way: he accepts her. He listens to her. He tries to get to the bottom of this change by hunting down the meaning and potential cures for his wife. But even more important, he doesn’t judge her taste for human blood. Quite the contrary. He suits up, in a plastic poncho, and helps her kill for dinner. It’s a bit of a jump for a man who spends most of his days looking amazing in a buttoned down shirt, relaxed jeans, and flip flops, but hey, that’s love. Basic relators one day, murderers the next. But the fact that he stands by her side, in sickness and in health, for nearly the entire first season’s 10 episodes, letting his love for her override his moral compass, makes them one of the hottest and coolest ride or die couples of TV.
If you don’t count endless oral sex, telling off haters, and having a loving supportive husband as your fantasy, here’s one more element that might be: the eating. While many scenes where Sheila attends her own personal all-you-can-eat human buffet are particularly yucky (shoutout to the Foley team on this show for some of the most disgusting eating noises known to mankind), she gets a full male body to herself. Several of them, throughout the course of the first season! Fun fact: no women are devoured, yet. She doesn’t have to share a piece with her husband or daughter, and there’s no picking fries off of each other’s plates. Every finger and every organ are hers and hers alone to chomp down on.
Santa Clarita Diet remains a really great, entertaining binge-watch throughout, as Sheila gains female friends, lets herself have a girls’ night out, gets closer to her daughter, and uses her outspokenness to convince clients to buy homes. Oh, and being dead has no affect on her pretty looks, especially that gorgeous, long, Ombre hair. With the exception of a beating heart, this girl’s got it all! Sometimes you just have to die in order to live your best life.
