The first trailer for Santa Clarita Diet, Netflix’s comedy about an undead suburban real estate agent, is here and it’s definitely weird.
The show stars Drew Barrymore as Sheila, a normal woman living in Santa Clarita, a city within the county of Los Angeles, whose life changes completely when she dies ... and comes back to life. Although she’s technically dead, her life has actually improved dramatically. She has more energy, she feels happier and, as she tells her husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant), she can function at high speeds on just two hours of sleep.
Santa Clarita Diet was created by Victor Fresco, who some comedy nerds might know as the creator of Better Off Ted. Like Santa Clarita Diet, Better Off Ted was a strange, offbeat comedy. Those familiar with the series will notice similar traits in the trailer for Fresco’s new show. The acting feels exaggerated, the writing is sharp and the characters are almost cartoonish, but it’s a form of comedy that has worked for Fresco on a number of series he’s worked on.
Although Santa Clarita Diet is about the undead and one woman’s attempt to figure out how to maintain her new flesh-eating lifestyle all the while remaining a decent mother and upstanding citizen, it’s not about zombies. In the trailer, the characters are quick to point out the term zombie carries a negative connotation so they’d much rather refer to Sheila, whom they still love despite the lack of a heartbeat, as simply undead.
Santa Clarita Diet seems to be another example of a weird series that fits perfectly in Netflix’s block of original programming. It’s not a series that many networks, aside from FX or IFC, would take a chance on, but it also looks like it has the potential to be one of the better original series this year.
Santa Clarita Diet will be available to stream in full on Feb. 3.
