REVIEWED: SEASON 3 (ALL EPISODES) | WHERE TO WATCH: NETFLIX
Season 3 of Santa Clarita Diet is as easy to binge your way through as human flesh is for Drew Barrymore’s living-dead realtor, Sheila.
Barrymore is once again paired with Timothy Olyphant in the role of Sheila’s husband, Joel, forming a screen-duo so undeniably likeable, it’s genuinely difficult to remember that they’re murderers. And the murders come thick and fast in Season 3 which picks up with Sheila and Joel enacting their plan to harvest a group of local neo-Nazis as a relatively ethical source of zombie-food. Of course, things don’t run smoothly and the two are soon side-tracked as they have to deal with tangents ranging from keeping several fellow zombies from causing trouble, to avoiding detection from The Knights of Serbia (an ancient organisation dedicated to hunting down and eliminating the living dead) to the very welcome return of Nathan Fillion’s character, Gary West, whose undead severed head is still rotting in the couple’s basement.
On top of this, police officer Anne (who witnessed some of Sheila and Joel’s heinous acts at the end of Season 2, only to come to the conclusion that Sheila is an instrument of God after shooting her and the bullets having no effect) is now something of a disciple to the couple, doing what she can to assist them, be it killing people, or simply showing up rival realtors. The problems come when she tells the details to her entire local church group. Meanwhile, Abby (Liv Hewson) and Eric (Skyler Gisondo) attempt to lay low after blowing up a fracking site at the end of Season 2. An investigation is launched into the explosion at their high school and, in order to ensure their alibis make sense, the two have to pretend to be a couple. That wouldn’t be too difficult, except that Eric has legitimate, albeit unrequited, feelings for Abby.
Santa Clarita Diet certainly isn’t for everyone. The show hits an incredibly strange tone, wedged somewhere between being an extremely light-hearted and twee domestic comedy and a blood-soaked gore-fest. What may have felt somewhat awkward in season 1 has now settled into an almost effortlessly comfortable groove. If you don’t dig what they’re doing then why on Earth are you still watching this show now that they’re in their third season?
Fans of the series can rest assured that, unlike her undead heart, Season 3 picks up Sheila’s zombie antics without skipping a beat. It really is more of the same – and given that “more of the same” means more offbeat characters, witty writing and charming performances, that’s absolutely fine with us.
