They’re baaaack! In Season One of Santa Clarita Diet, suburban housewife and realtor Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore) returned from “the dead” with a distinct taste for human flesh. Now, she must deal with typical domestic issues like reconciling her new food fad and her heightened sexual proclivities with husband and fellow realtor Joel (Timothy Olyphant) and weathering the angst of teenage daughter Abby (Liv Hewson). Joel has just been released from a psych unit after trashing Principal Andrei Novak’s (Thomas Lennon) house in search of a cure for Sheila’s condition. Abby and neighbor teen Eric Bemis (Skyler Gisondo) concoct a potion for Sheila using Serbian vomit but it won’t cure, it only keeps the condition from getting worse. Eric has the hots for Abby but gets some come-on vibes from Rite-Aid employee Ramona (Ramona Young) who, judging by her refrigerator’s contents is also a hardcore human-muncher.
Santa Clarita Diet Season Two also returns oversexed widow Lisa Palmer (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), Eric’s mother,who is getting it on with hyper-religious Deputy Anne Garcia (Natalie Morales). Garcia will inadvertently become an important player in this dark comedy. On orders from real estate boss Carl Coby (Andy Richter) Sheila and Joel vie for a high-end listing with uber-competitive realtor couple Chris (Joel McHale) and Christa (Maggie Lawson). The Hammonds win the contract but discover that Carl’s new development site harbors the place where the Hammonds buried Sheila’s first kill, Gary West (Nathan Fillion). In the dead of night, they dig Gary up, but find only his severed and still talking head that makes one request: leave his Michigan apartment to niece Kayla Lawson (Abby Cobb). Along the way, they meet some neo-Nazis via Kayla’s ex-boyfriend Boone Taver (Robert Baker). Sheila gives Boone and his alt-right buddies the “undead” treatment as they end up in the Hammond’s freezer.
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As Joel and Sheila Hammond try to find the source of her condition, it might have something to do with a special clam dish from Japopo’s Italian restaurant that also might have infected Ramona and retired Colonel Ed Thune (Gerald McCraney). Eventually, the Hammonds find the clam supplier and race to prevent a huge clam sale that could lead to an “undead” epidemic. Meanwhile Abby and Eric plot to blow up the headquarters of a newly installed fracking company that could ruin the environment.
Santa Clarita Diet Season Two keeps the off-kilter vibe of Season One alive and well with plenty of laugh-out-load campy dialogue. There are liberal doses of dark humor that skewer the serene lifestyle of SoCal suburbia. Returning viewers will be pleased to find that the principal cast has even better chemistry. The combination of innocent-faced Barrymore and clueless Olyphant make for an odd couple who maintain their disingenuous banter as their world is crashing down around them. Special kudos go to Liv Hewson as the worldly teenager who appears far better adjusted than her parents and to Skyler Gisondo who is her perfect dramatic foil. The device of Nathan Fillion’s talking head is yet one more comic touch and adds deft commentary to the endless crises that the Hammonds must face throughout each of the ten episodes. Thanks to writer/creator Victor Fresco this remains one of the more original Netflix series to come my way and could we please get a Season Three next year?
Santa Clarita Diet Season Two is streaming now in its entirety on Netflix
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