By
Phantom Troublemaker
It’s not often that I’m inspired to write anything about
a new television show. Typically I need to have experienced a full season or
more to have formulated thoughts or even the most basic kind of fandom. Sure, I’ve
loved shows like Westworld or Game of Thrones right off the bat, but
it’s very rare for a show to click with me in the way that I feel like it’s
just for me.
Of course, I have
watched the entire first season of Santa
Clarita Diet now thanks to Netflix’s model, and I can’t wait to watch it
again.
*It stars Drew Barrymore
*It also stars Timothy Olyphant
*Drew Barrymore’s character has to eat people for some
reason
*But it isn’t really
a zombie show
That’s it. And that was enough recommendation for me. Now
you guys have the benefit of those facts and
my highest recommendation. If you trust my opinions and can handle some
outrageously gory practical effects – like, Dead
Alive gory, almost – then you should just go and watch Santa Clarita Diet right now.
If you need a little more, here are some spoiler-free
thoughts on the show. I might mention some casting surprises, but I won’t give
away any plot points.
If you doubt the concept a bit, let me assure you that
Drew Barrymore’s character, Sheila Hammond, does have to eat human flesh. And isn’t
really a zombie. Her husband, Joel Hammond, is played by the delightful Timothy
Olyphant.
If you’re around my age, male or female, you are probably
in love with Drew Barrymore to some degree. We have grown up with her. We’ve
seen her make good decisions and bad and have all rooted for her regardless of
what her next project might be. Her acting career has covered just about every
genre there is and no matter the quality of the project, she has always brought
her magic, both in front of and behind the camera.
Before this turns into a post about Barrymore – perhaps the
subject of a future podcast episode – let me just say that not only does she
not disappoint in this show, she is at the top of her game. You won’t see it at
first, but by the end of episode 1 you will. And as the series goes on, you
will marvel at just how compelling and human she is while still delivering
gut-busting one-liners and living a nightmare.
I’ve been watching Timothy Olyphant for years in
supporting roles, but I truly discovered him in Deadwood and Justified,
both of which I started watching right around the same time. While Seth Bullock
and Rayland Givens are very different characters, they shared a certain humor
and… scariness. Olyphant can go from
charming to terrifying in a second.
Santa
Clarita Diet gives viewers the opportunity to see
Olyphant play a character that relies much more on humor. Barrymore is
wonderful, but without Olyphant’s Joel the show would not be the same. His
reactions to his wife’s situation and his resolve to make their lives work is fantastic
and just as critical to the show’s success as Barrymore’s affliction.
Joel and Sheila have a teenage daughter, Abby, played by
Liv Hewson. It’s pretty easy – and standard – for a kid to be the drag of a
show. All too often creators mistake snarky for clever and bitchy for
independent. I feel like portraying a likable but real teenager has to be one of
the hardest gigs for writers and actors. But Abby Hammond is a fully developed
and compelling character. She’s not the kid that the stars have to deal with,
she is an equal. This show is about a family of three, not two parents and
their kid.
At its heart, Santa
Clarita Diet is a show about a family dealing with adversity, but the magic
is that the family genuinely love and respect each other. While the
relationships aren’t sugar-coated, they aren’t the sniping, derisive
interactions that we see so much of today.
These are genuine people dealing
with a horrifying problem. They’re just a lot funnier than you and me.
The supporting cast is made up almost entirely of “Oh,
hey – it’s _________!” actors. Some are names we all know, some are familiar faces
that we’ll know by heart in a few years. I’m not going to list them all because
there are some delightful surprises and I want you to enjoy those moments of
recognition as much as I did, but there are a few regulars that I want to
highlight.
Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Ricardo Chavira portray the
Hammond’s neighbors, Lisa and Dan Palmer. Their relationship unfolds in a very
entertaining way over the course of the season. Both actors are fantastic in
their roles and it’s especially rewarding seeing Ellis as such a departure from
The Waitress on It’s Always Sunny.
Skyler Gisondo is Lisa’s son and Dan’s stepson, Eric. I
am confident in saying that this guy is going to have a long and memorable
career. Like Liv Hewson’s Abby, his character transcends the tropes you expect.
Eric could have easily been the shallow, two-dimensional stereotype of a geek
portrayed by certain terrible, awful sitcoms, but instead he is a charming
character with depth that rises to the demand of a strong supporting role.
The Hammond’s other next-door neighbors, Rick and
Alondra, don’t have quite as much screen time – denoted by the fact that they
do not, in fact, have last names – but they still manage some truly great
moments of comedy and pathos. Richard T. Jones and Joy Osmanski are delightful
every time they’re on screen and I look forward to hopefully seeing more of
their characters next season.
Now we need to talk about the gore.
WARNING – there is gore. LOTS of it.
After all of that gushing about the cast, you might have
forgotten that this is a show about a mom that eats people. Naturally, that
involves an entirely different kind of gushing.
After years of being a horror fan, I am somewhat
desensitized to fictional gore. I have seen shit that would turn you white, so I often forget that a large
percentage of the population isn’t prepared to see things like disembowelment
and impaling depicted in as graphic a manner as Santa Clarita Diet brings.
You guys – it brings
it. And as far as I can tell, it is mostly practical. There were a couple of
big splatter moments where I thought
I might detect some CGI trickery – or at least enhancement – but it was given
away more by the actors’ behavior than the visuals. And that’s not a knock on
the actors. You’ll understand when you see the show.
Santa
Clarita Diet is just as gruesome as it is funny. One
moment I was laughing so hard I was crying, the next I – the hardened gorehound
– was cringing at some onscreen nastiness. It’s an amazing mix of over-the-top
splatter and grounded viscera. Some moments are outrageous, but the ones that
really got to me were the small, more subtle instances of carnage. I can’t go
into more detail without giving too much away.
Watch this show. If me and the missus didn’t have jobs, a
kid, and responsibilities we would have watched all ten episodes in a night. As
it is we watched six one night, two the next, and the final two last Wednesday.
The only bad thing I have to say is
that the season ends too abruptly. It’s meant as a cliffhanger, but feels more like
when a show just gets cancelled and never airs the rest of the season. It could
have been much more artfully done, especially given the longer than usual
amount of time that passes between seasons with Netflix shows.
Having said that, I have no doubt we’ll get a second season.
This show is excellent and seems to
be getting a lot of praise, though that praise is sometimes tempered with “too
much gore”!
I feel like those people are missing the point.
No comments:
Post a Comment