Spoilers for Santa Clarita Diet ahead.
Comedy horror. A sardonic teenage girl recovering from the death of her mother. Drew Barrymore being covered in blood.
It's a combination that probably calls to mind the best horror film of the 1990s – but it's also one that features heavily in Netflix's 2017 show Santa Clarita Diet. The premise of the show is nothing new: Santa Clarita realtor Sheila Hammond mysteriously dies and becomes undead, retaining her memories and humanity (for now), but completely driven by her id, and only able to eat human flesh. She and her family must adapt to her new life, and attempt to find a cure. The show was cancelled in 2019, but it remains one of my favourite "zom coms" – in particular, these five episodes.
5. Season One, Episode Ten: Baka, Bile, and Baseball Bats
Season one starts off a little slow, but by the time it gets to the finale, the show is off and running. In this episode, Joel attempts to get Serbian bile, which they need to stop Sheila from going feral. Meanwhile, Abby and Eric try and help Doctor Cora Wolf to prepare the remedy. The episode has a lot of good laugh-out-loud moments – like Abby doing a bit where she pretends to have convulsions four separate times – but it also has higher stakes than we've seen in the show so far, and it ends on a cliffhanger that leads into the second season.
4. Season Two, Episode Four: The Queen Of England
This episode is probably most memorable for the scene where Abby hits a classmate in the face with a lunch tray after he publicly belittles his ex-girlfriend. This episode is a key part of Abby's journey to come into her own and get comfortable with the ways her life has now changed. It also features Lisa being an awkward mom, Nathan Fillion as Gary the talking head giving some expert advice, and a dinner party gone horribly wrong.
3. Season Two, Episode One: No Family Is Perfect
This episode picks up where the season one finale left off, and it starts the way any good episode should: with a montage of everything going wrong, set to The Turtles' Happy Together. The episode features Joel spending time in a mental hospital, Abby taking over the search for bile, and Sheila saving Abby from a man who's harassing her. It also introduces the character of Ron, who's equal parts endearing and annoying.
2. Season Three, Episode Six: The Chicken And The Pear
Joel making an application video to be a knight of Serbia may be one of my favourite sequences in the whole show. This is also the episode where Jean becomes an enjoyable character, instead of just being curmudgeony. Abby kills an undead person for the first time, continuing her character arc of becoming more confident and adapting to her new life.
1. Season Three, Episode Ten: The Cult Of Sheila
This is the last episode of the show, and while I wish it hadn't been cancelled – especially since it ends on such a cliffhanger – I think it was a perfect note to go out on. Jean, Ron, and Tommy rally around Sheila, Abby figures out her feelings for Eric, and Joel wiggles a chair a lot and falls over. The episode is tense, but heartwarming and funny, perfectly encapsulating the show in its entirety.
Have you seen Santa Clarita Diet? What are your favourite episodes? Let me know in the comments!