Netflix’s newest binge-worthy comedy, “Santa Clarita Diet,” has the promised gore but none of the comedy.
STARS: 1/5
While vomit and gore can induce plenty of laughs, Drew Barrymore’s turn as the undead Sheila Hammond is stale and weirdly peppy. The entire show is off-putting because of its strangely sunny demeanor.
“Santa Clarita Diet” is Netflix’s stab at the horror-comedy genre and tells the story of Sheila and Joel Hammond (Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant), husband and wife realtors who become killers after Sheila loses her heartbeat and becomes cannibalistic.
The premise is interesting, but this show would’ve been much more successful a decade ago. It pulls from the success of the Showtime drama “Dexter,” which combines humor with gore.
However, the success of “Dexter” is the dramatic element. “Santa Clarita” lacks important character development and has far too many supporting characters for its first season.
What I couldn’t get over was the grotesqueness of it all. Sure, some people might be entertained by fifteen minutes of Drew Barrymore vomiting and seeing Nathan Fillion’s entrails all over the ground, but, for me, this type of humor lacks intelligence.
I’m sick of seeing female-led comedies rely on gross-out humor while the male characters get the one-liners.
This show lacks character investment, which would be fine if it had a bigger purpose. The writer and creator, Victor Fresco, does nothing to say something bigger about the upper-middle-class white society in which the show is set. If he did, I could forgive him for the lackluster character development.
The show is remarkably shallow; it scratches the surface of funny without ever digging into the really good comedic elements. Olyphant’s character, for example, is great, and his comedic timing surprised me after watching him for years on “Justified.”
Everything in this show is vaguely amusing, but with Netflix usually having shows far beyond the quality of television, you’d be better off watching another season of “Modern Family” if you’re in for a laugh.