It’s a second Friday and time for a review. I am a horror fan. Not like I used to be. There was a time in the eighties in which almost my entire literary diet consisted of Stephen King. Still, come October, I always do my Thirty Days of Horror Films. All scares, all the time. I have done multiple versions of vampires, 50s creature features inspired by the Cold War, originals and their remakes, horror comedies (admittedly my favorite subgenre at the moment), B horror, and on, and on.
Typically, however, I don’t like the zombie genre. Some of the films I adore. The original Night of the Living Dead (and the beginning of the “we can have hero Black guys as long as they die” genre). 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead both slay me, pun intended. A matter of fact, thinking about those movies I’m gonna pause and close my balcony door. Ok, I’m back. So, I’m not opposed to zombie films, books, etc. As a matter of fact I highly recommend World War Z – the book, not the movie. The movie was actually pretty good for the genre but the only thing it has in common with the book is the title.
It’s just that one, living in a post zombie apocalypse world doesn’t appear at all appealing. I mean, no apocalypse is fun but the zombie apocalypse looks unrelenting. Like, once that happens there is no recovery. This is your life now. Finding the things that make life worth living, the things that make the pain and sacrifices worth it, seems damn near impossible. And who in the hell would want to bring a child into that world? Two, in my heart of hearts, I am quite aware that in such a world I would be a zombie. Which is why my zombie watching tends to lean to stuff like Warm Bodies, iZombie, and the Santa Clarita Diet. Shows from the zombie’s point of view.
On Netflix the Santa Clarita Diet, SCD, stars Drew Barrymore. Drew Barrymore is only a couple of few years younger than I am and I grew up watching her on screen. I like her. Digression: When it comes to celebrities I think of them as personas, which I try to separate from their characters. Personas, because we are always the audience regardless of the illusion of intimacy. Separation, because my dislike of a persona can infect my view of their work. For example, I have never been able to stand Woody Allen. Can’t watch a movie with him in it. Anyway, SCD is a Netflix horror comedy which focusses on Sheila Hammond. Played by Barrymore Sheila is a suburban real estate agent, wife, and mom, who turns into a zombie.
It’s a gross out zom com and the whole zombie mythology seems like something they got out of an awesome Cracker Jack box… Do they still make Cracker Jacks? One of the things I enjoy about SCD is the suburban American blandness of it all. Both Barrymore’s Sheila and her husband Joel, played by Timothy Olyphant, want three things: one, to get what they want. Two, to be seen as good people while getting what they want. At a very distant number three is to actually be good people.
What they want, particularly Joel, is to be a normal family. This means keeping Sheila functioning in her undead state. Which means murdering people so that she can feed. It is here where we see the strength of Joel and Sheila’s marriage. The two are in constant communication and provide each other with unconditional support. And when I say unconditional, I mean it. Due to the nature of zombism as developed by the wacky minds behind the show, both mentally and physically, Sheila is a very different person from the woman Joel married. Even putting aside the craving for human flesh. Given the circumstance it would be completely understandable for him to grab their kid and run. Instead the two remain each other’s ride or die through some extreme and truly gruesome circumstances.
Joel, Sheila, and their daughter Abby (played by Liv Hewson) are deeply and admirably loyal to one another and will do whatever it takes to keep mom fed and her secret safe. At a distant second comes dealing with the moral reality that they’re committing murder. This is brilliantly, and hilariously, illustrated in season two with Sheila’s “lobster tank” of Nazis. Just watch it. In truth, despite the fact that these characters are so very likable, they are at least as intensely selfish as they are loyal. In their efforts to keep their own family intact they are perfectly willing to destroy other people and their families, making them at minimum amoral, if not actively immoral. The Hammonds are not good people.
So, it’s a good thing that being seen as good people is far more important to them than actually being good people. This is an aspect that I find fascinating because as middle class, white, suburbanites being perceived as “good people” – without doing the work of actually being good people, is a given. This family gets a presumption of innocence that people of color simply do not get in the United States. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not but the show’s creators continuously illustrate how this family’s white privilege helps them literally get away with murder.
Other reasons to watch SCD include Skyler Gisondo as the Hammond’s nerdy neighbor Eric. A weirdness expert the aplomb with which he handles not only the fact that his neighbor is now a flesh eating zombie but the after effects of her meals is just awesome. His character is very under appreciated. Particularly by his crush, the Hammond’s daughter Abby. Abby in her own teenaged way, is as dedicated to the perception of normality as her parents. She’s also the only one who seems to really get how abnormal their situation actually is. And then there is Nathan Fillion’s talking head. Just watch it.