Netflix's 'Santa Clarita Diet' satisfies cravings for messy fun

If anything had given me crazy shivers recently it would be the parcel I had received at my door that enclosed a protein bar - actually one that had me almost faint on the spot. A dismembered finger shaped bar, alongside a smoothie on the go bottle, in a sophisticated box all to give a not so subtle hint about the new Netflix original series Santa Clarita Diet starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant that officially premieres today, February 3rd. 

The trailer leading up to the show's release pretty much gave viewers an indication of what to expect. Realtors Sheila (Drew Barrymore), Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and their daughter Abby (Liv Hewson) are a typical middle class family living in the sunny and picturesque California suburbs. Life is normal and predictable. Until it wasn't. Unexplicably Sheila gets violently sick and spews out an organ. Momentarily dies and then somehow comes back to life but can only survive eating raw meat - human. meat. As the family comes to grips trying to understand what happened, they consult with the neighbour's 16 year old son who's into sci-fi and is the only trustworthy person outside of the family to accept and aid in this new discovery. Yep, she's a "Mombie".

The show is gross...not in a "that's really effing scary" gross, but a "I can't stop laughing and that's disguisting" kind of gross. Warning, if you're sensitive to gore don't watch during breakfast...lunch or dinner. Although if you're contemplating going vegan, this may work in your favour. 

There's a great sense of balance of humour and yuck - it's like a modern B-movie and with lots of zippy one liners as we see the family transform to their new norm with the cravings and personality change of the "undead". Loving husband Joel tries hard to find ways to accept his wife's hunger and even heads to the morgue to see if he can purchase fresh dead meat (okay, morally and ethically better than killing off someone, maybe? Food for thought.)

By the third episode, you discover how the family looks for that silver lining on how to satisfy Sheila's food cravings,  and also see her becoming more fearless and daring especially with her husband. As the unexpected changes were happening, husband Joel also realizes that he'll do anything for his wife. 

"She has an appetite for things that she never had before, and for Joel, it's wonderful on some level: The sex is great, she's full of life, she's fun," Olyphant says in the production notes. "But it's also a bit unnerving. It's hard to understand why it's happening, or if there will be consequences so severe that (they) won't survive it."

The series is created by Victor Fesco (Better Off Ted, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and co-executive producer of Mad About You) who said about Barrymore, "I feel like you could eat people...and still be likable."

Barrymore took that as a compliment. 

All 10 half-hour episodes of Santa Clarita Diet are now available on Netflix worldwide. It may just be the diet you'll stick to.