Entertainment

Saeed Adyani/Netflix

The 'Santa Clarita Diet' Trailer Is Delicious

by Megan Walsh

Some might say the zombie genre is overrun and oversaturated: the last ten years have seen every possible iteration of the undead, from comedies like Warm Bodies to procedurals like iZombie to the serious melodrama of mammoth hit The Walking Dead. Netflix is about to offer something new that still fits right in with the lighter zombie fare that has come before: Santa Clarita Diet stars Drew Barrymore as a peppy suburban mom who just happens to need to eat brains to stay alive. It's a weird and refreshing take on an old classic, and now you can get a taste of how it plays out because the trailer for Santa Clarita Diet is here.

The series follows married couple Sheila and Joel (Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant), whose life together seems perfectly average until they're thrown a major undead curveball. But instead of ruining their lives, Sheila's transformation seems to improve things and even brings the entire family closer together. Sheila has a new lease on life, boundless energy, and an unexpected confidence that she wouldn't give up. Luckily her family loves her as much as ever, and they're going to do whatever they can to support her – and her peculiar cravings. Which means killing people. A lot of people.

Sheila needs to learn to control her flesh-eating urges, but luckily she doesn't have to do it alone. Her husband and two kids are there to help navigate her new dietary needs by working together to keep things running smoothly. To accomplish that, they decide to only kill people who deserve it. As Joel says, "I guess the prototype would be a young, single Hitler," to which Sheila exclaims, "God, we'd be heroes!"

In addition to acting in the series, Barrymore and Olyphant are producing the show alongside series creator Victor Fresco. Fresco is known for similarly strange comedies like Better Off Ted, which was beloved by its fans even if it wasn't necessarily a ratings smash. Ratings aren't usually a concern for Netflix, and that may allow Santa Clarita Diet to be delightfully weird without worrying about the consequences.

The trailer for Santa Clarita Diet has a zany sense of humor that may be broad, but seems to have a real heart (that it just might end up eating later on). It promises to take a familiar genre and breathe new life into it, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Santa Clarita Diet will be available to stream February 3 on Netflix.