To say that Santa Clarita Diet is a weird, hilarious and gruesome show is an understatement. It never fails to bring the gore, the weird and the funny. Focusing on two real estate agents, Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and Shelia (Drew Barrymore) Hammond and their daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson), living their suburban life when all of a sudden Shelia gets sick, dies and suddenly comes back to life as well a zombie the show brings a mixture of fun and seriousness. The gruesome moment in which Shelia proceeded to vomit everywhere definitely caught everyone’s attention but Season 2 takes long, maybe a bit too long, to find its grabbing moment.
So, a quick summary of season two: Joel managed to very quickly get out of the insane asylum, Abby manages to find the bile she needed to save her mum from the disease spreading, and the family let Shelia live outside of the basement even though she did violently murder someone in the kitchen.
The family try to get back to normal or as normal as you can be when your mother is a zombie. Joel and Shelia get back to work whilst Abby and Eric (Skyler Gisondo) go back to school. Things obviously take a dramatic turn when Shelia and Joel realise someone wants to build a house right where they buried Gary (Nathan Fillion). So, Joel and Sheila go back to move the remains of his body when suddenly they hear a voice, Gary’s voice and then find his head which, to everyone’s surprise, talks. As Shelia and Joel try to handle the situation, the deputy sheriff, who happens to be their next-door-neighbour Anne (Natalie Morales), lingers around and can’t help but question the recent disappearances of people in area.
After Abby whacks a guy on the head with a tray instead of being suspended due to no witnesses coming forward she chooses to engage in environmental activism. She begins to take things much more seriously instead of being the joker that she normally is. The season makes all the characters face reality and find a way to move forward without breaking their family. They continue to battle with the morality of what they are doing when they kill people, even if they are Nazis. The statement is by no means political and just makes the show more relevant.
They manage, to an extent, save the world from zombie making clams after the found out these where what turned Shelia into a zombie but with law enforcement close behind them Shelia and Joel make the decision to run and never look back. So, with Anne catching up to Shelia and Joel they try too fool her which in the end works but Anne isn’t as dumb as they think. She catches up with them when they go to fulfil Gary’s wish of them killing him. She confronts them but quickly learns that Shelia really is undead. Due to her strong belief in God, Anne is convinced that God sent Shelia to do his work for her and so she bows down and asks, “How may I serve you?” just before the end of the finale.
The season for a second did not fail to make me laugh, the jokes got better and better with every episode; there was not a single dull moment. I think the season moved on very quickly from the cliff hangers from the first season and took a bit long to find the main drama for the season, but it worked, and I enjoyed this season even more than the first.
The characters stood out a lot more this season and were given much more room to grow. Through having the characters question the morality of the action and face reality truly showed a different side to them. Through this we were given the opportunity to see just how close the Hammond family truly is. The love between Joel and Shelia is unbelievable and is truly brought to life by the amazing chemistry between Drew and Timothy.
I loved all the twist within the season. The Ramone storyline was very unexpected and the fight between her and the Hammond’s was definitely one of my favourite scenes this season. The clams, the weird spider ball and the mystery couple hunting Zombies were all very entertaining storylines. I do think that the show could have brought even more weirdness this season because it definitely does not lack gruesomeness.
Hopefully, we’ll get to see more gruesomeness, weirdness and humour in a third season!
Overall Grade: A-
Favourite Quotes
“Hey scrumptious, how you doing?” -Shelia
“Inside of every but is an asshole.” -Shelia
“Yanking intestines out of these guys like a magician pulling out scarves!” -Joel
“There was a dick in my fruit bowl.” -Joel
“How would you like it if I put my foot so far up your perfect little ass that you won’t find it until you shit it out on Christmas morning.” -Shelia
“How may I serve you?” -Anne
Let me know what you thought of the season in the comments below!
