Best Geeky Finds – The Zomedy for Any Occasion

When I was in college, the big paranormal craze was vampires. It obviously wasn’t the first time this craze had happened, but once Twilight hit bookstores and theaters, they were everywhere. Vampires aren’t as widely visible now as they were then though. They were replaced by another undead entity—zombies. 

The Walking Dead set off this new creature feature 7 ½ years ago, and ever since the stranger the better when it comes to the brain eaters. Heck, even Disney has a zombie musical (I didn’t have the brains to watch it). So when a new, and quite entertaining, zombie show came around, and didn’t involve the days’ worth of prosthetics and makeup Kirkman’s show does, I was curious.

The Santa Clarita Diet involves zombies that live their lives without hiding. This is not much different than those of iZombie, but there are much fewer of them and nobody would believe you if you told them you were one. And it all started with a real estate sale and the vomit to end all vomiting.

During a huge sale which they inevitably lose, Joel and Sheila Hammond (Timothy Olyphant and Drew Barrymore) are forced to clean up the entire house after Sheila uncontrollably vomits everywhere, only to later that day die, unbeknownst to everybody. She awakes feeling much better, but seems to crave raw flesh. Nobody knows how this happened, and nothing in their daily lives, science experiments, or even lore can explain exactly what set this in motion. All her husband, daughter, and neighbor understand is that she is now undead. And, being undead, she needs bodies to live without falling apart. So in true Little Shop of Horrors fashion, the show centers around Sheila and Joel finding horrible people to murder in order to feed her hunger, while their daughter Abby and her friend work to understand how to, if possible, fix this problem

Having Drew Barrymore and being a comedy, I was all set to enjoy this series when it premiered on Netflix last year. Every time I’ve see her in a movie in the last 10 years her acting has changed, each time for the better. This, combined with not knowing any of the other main stars of the show, helped me jump in without expecting too much. A zombie comedy (a zomedy?) already seemed like a stupid idea, but I held out hope based on this and the trailer and was pleasantly surprised.

Santa Clarita doesn’t focus on the mindless zombie motif in pop culture, but rather looks at what the family faces being murderers living next to cops. Sure, there are decomposing bodies and more lost ligaments than you can throw a toe at, but the fun of seeing Barrymore and Olyphant stress out over the small stuff while hiding a dead Nazi in a freezer is more fun than watching Glenn nearly get torn to shreds.

The second season just premiered last weekend on Netflix. If you haven’t turned yourself on to this diet, I highly recommend it.

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