Santa Clarita Diet.
Netflix has like a billion original series, and doesn't do an especially good job of getting the word out about them. If you already watch Netflix all the time, it'll keep you secure inside the walled garden and toss one recommendation after another your way. If you're the sort of person who starts up Netflix only when you know there's something specific you want to watch, you're going to fall through the cracks.
This is how I only found out about Santa Clarita Diet when its second season arrived. ("Second? When was the first?") Now that I have found it, I want everyone else to.
Imagine if Dexter and Desperate Housewives had a kid that went outside and rolled around in The Walking Dead. And it's a half hour comedy. There is nothing on television quite like Santa Clarita Diet. It is unique, and amazing, and hilarious.
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant play husband and wife realtor team Sheila and Joel Hammond. Their lives are thrown upside-down when Sheila becomes undead, an id-driven (but still mostly human) monster that must feed on human flesh to survive. The pair must find despicable people who deserve to be killed, all while hiding their activities from nosy cop neighbors.
The show is ridiculously violent, in a way that goes so far over the top it's actually pretty hilarious. The violence is the only reason I wouldn't recommend the show to anyone and everyone. But if you don't find that off-putting, you're almost guaranteed to like the rest. Seriously, no one I've pushed the show on has disliked it. Most, in fact, have binged the existing 20 episodes faster than I was able to get to them myself.
Barrymore and Olyphant are a great pair. It's especially fun to see Olyphant tackling comedy after a career of mostly dramatic roles. But great as they are, they actually get the show stolen from them on a regular basis by the two younger actors, playing Sheila and Joel's daughter Abby, and neighbor kid Eric. Liv Hewson as Abby and Skyler Gisondo as Eric are as precise a comic pairing as the leads, and the writing is great about giving them meaningful story lines that don't feel like simple, distracting teenage angst.
If the regular cast isn't enough to pull you in, consider some of the guest stars who have appeared in at least one episode: Nathan Fillion, Andy Richter, Ricardo Chavira (not coincidentally, from Desperate Housewives), Thomas Lennon, Portia de Rossi, Zachary Knighton (from Happy Endings), Joel McHale, Maggie Lawson (from Psych), Patton Oswalt, Gerald McRaney, Derek Waters (from Drunk History), and more. An endless lineup of endlessly funny people.
I tried to balance savoring the existing 20 episodes with my desire to binge through them all, but I've reached the end of the road... for now. A third season has already been announced for 2019, and I cannot wait. But you don't have to. If you've never heard of Santa Clarita Diet, or haven't checked it out, do it. Right now! It's a grade A gem of a show.
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