You don't need us to tell you how great so many of the Netflix original series' have been, from House of Cards to Orange is the New Black, Daredevil and many more, they have some top notch award-winning shows under their belt, so they probably did have a flop coming. That, we're afraid, is their latest offering, Santa Clarita Diet.
The show marks Drew Barrymore's first major TV role while she stars alongside Justified's Timothy Olyphant, two impressive names that are a draw in itself to watch. The premise was off the wall to begin with - it's about a suburban mum who dies and comes back to life with a thirst for human blood - yep, we've got ourselves a zombie comedy, folks. A somewhat unique concept for TV that was either going to be great or really, really terrible, unfortunately, it's the latter.
From the get go we are greeted with a painting-by-numbers script. Sheila (future zombie mom) is an uptight housewife that doesn't particularly fancy some morning canoodling, has no interest in going drinking with the neighbours and likes everything just so. I spy a sudden character arc on the horizon! Sigh. Sure enough, Sheila ends up dying in some stomach-churning projectile vomiting incident that leaves her coming back as a sassy, lascivious, blood-craving zombie mom.
Pot-smoking husband Joel and their moody teenage daughter (Liv Hewson) are then faced with the reality of finding a way to feed their resident cannibal through a series of successful and not-so-successful murders.
The problem isn't necessarily with the plot - it's an original premise that could have been the perfect antidote to a TV and movie landscape saturated in undead narratives over the last few years. While the suburban mom-turned-bad has worked well in the past, Weeds, being the prime example. It comes down to bad writing, clunky jokes, one-dimensional characters and as many TV tropes as they could squeeze in, from the angry hospital receptionist to the geeky guy in love with the girl next door.
There's moments for potential greatness, like Sheila's foiled attack on their murder target Loki in episode five which is given a kick ass soundtrack and you briefly get an insight into how good this show could have been with some better direction. They're far too busy trying to blatantly set up every single storyline and plot point like the audience is too brain dead to catch on what's going to happen.
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant's exaggerated performances don't do much to help things along. It's the type of show that would thrive off some dry humour, but unfortunately, they just don't deliver the lines and it comes across as all hi-jinx and slapstick for the most part.
American sweetheart Drew Barrymore is one talented lady with a rake of producer credentials to her name and while she doesn't make too many on-screen appearances these days, she's working hard behind the scenes and also serves as an executive producer for this series. Which is a good thing, because can you honestly remember the last good movie she was in? Or a movie where she showed any range... at all? E.T.... we'll give her that.
Timothy Olyphant on the other hand, well, we don't even know why he's there. The Justified and Deadwood star is obviously trying his hand at comedy, but we're not buying it. Stick with what you know, Olyphant.
At times, there's a slight Desperate Housewives feel to it, with Carlos Solis even thrown in for good measure, but those moments only make you miss the sharp writing and endlessly watchable characters of Wisteria Lane.
Santa Clarita Diet seems to be gaining more positive reviews from an American audience, so perhaps it's just not to our style of humour over this side of the pond. Maybe we're being too hard on it, maybe it's just some silly fun and we should go with it, unfortunately, we'd rather eat our own hand than watch another episode.
