Santa Clarita Diet: Season 2
April 17, 2018 7:27 PM - Season 2 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Things get ratcheted up.

I was really surprised about liking season 1, but dismissed it as a fluke. Season 2 turns out to be just as funny. I'm only nine episodes in, but don't care, season 2 is awesome.
posted by skewed (15 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best zombie show I've seen in several years. Your review has convinced me to give season 2 the go signal. I may report back.
posted by some loser at 7:56 PM on April 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


S2 is an ambitious expansion of the universe that manages to remain entirely consistent to the "rules" we've already observed. And the cast is clearly even more comfortable with each other and having entirely too much fun (viz, the "realtor / real-a-tor" thing -- that has to have been a writer's room joke that the stars were okay with putting out there).

Joel and Sheila's relationship is the best on television today, without qualification. However, Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant are not, in any world, close enough to equivalent that they need to do the diagonal credits trick. This is a Barrymore show with Olyphant in the second lead.

The exchange with Joel McHale about his and Olyphant's height had me absolutely paralyzed with laughter.

So if you're reading this because S1 was in your My FanFare or whatever and you're not sure whether to commit to S2: Do it.
posted by Etrigan at 6:21 AM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


Finished it up last night, much more satisfying end to season 2 than season 1. I only watched the first episode like five days ago, so now I'm pretty bummed at waiting another year to see season 3.
posted by skewed at 5:05 PM on April 18, 2018 [2 favorites]


I binged it a week or so ago. Who knew in Season one I would miss Gary’s head?
posted by supercrayon at 5:54 PM on April 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


Me too, I literally just discovered this show last week, and honestly it was on the strength of Timothy Olyphant's interview on Seth Meyers(1,2). I only really knew him as a serious actor person, I never expected someone with genuine comedic talent.

And I miss watching Drew Barrymore, so it's been great. I just finished the last episode last night, and S2 really left me gasping at points from laughing. I don't know if I want to ship the kids, but I really appreciate how much the core relationships stabilises all the plot points, and makes them more deranged just in comparison.
posted by cendawanita at 7:29 PM on April 18, 2018


This is a much, much stronger season with the gross out gore turned more comic and Olyphant hitting every joke like a bell. Pure delight.

I also love how they model like a really good supportive marriage while also killing people.

“Confirm a theory I have, am I a severed head?”
posted by The Whelk at 8:51 PM on April 18, 2018 [7 favorites]


I think my favorite part of this show (out of many many contenders) is seeing every time Joel constructs a bafflingly implausible lie out of thin air and then squirms as all the bystanders squint for a while before accepting it, or at least not feeling the effort to press it any harder. "Sheila's taking a nap! In the hallway!"
posted by FatherDagon at 8:18 AM on April 19, 2018 [7 favorites]


Can confirm, only 2 eps in, and I'm already wishing the episodes were longer and that there were more in my queue!
posted by some loser at 8:21 PM on April 19, 2018


I do love Shelia and Joel so much. In fact, in a recent disagreement, my husband pointed out that he had only equivocated and not apologized and he was sorry. He learned that from Joel and I'm so proud.

Seriously though, it's so bizarre to have such a good example of how to be in a difficult time without being horrible to each other that I'm just bowled away at the simplicity of how they treat the relationship.

Also, I no longer will eat clams in any form.
posted by teleri025 at 12:57 PM on April 23, 2018


Sheila and Joel are the center of the show, so their great marriage gets the most focus, but on rewatch, this show likes to model strong friendships as well. Post-zombification Sheila is much more supportive and affectionate toward her neighbors, and becomes friends instead of acquaintances with them; Joel and his neighbor Rick have a solid friendship that is threatened because Joel isn't sharing what's really going on in his life; Eric and Abby spend a couple of episodes squabbling about how friends should treat each other before getting back on track and following their own advice; and lastly, Gary, who was a horrible person in his first life because he abused his power over others becomes utterly powerless as a severed zombie-head and learns respect others and listen to them, and creates a genuine friendship with Joel.

Other thoughts on rewatch:
I don't know why this didn't jump out at me earlier, but wtf is up with Gerald McRaney doing a single-scene guest spot?

Doesn't make sense that Gary didn't go feral while buried, and they have failed to show how or if he eats now, but whatever. We also don't know where his spider is.

They make a specific effort to show that Ramona left behind her spider-creature when she went to Seattle, and that Joel killed Gerald McRaney's spider-creature, and that Sheila and Loki's are preserved. We also saw the zombie-rats in season one through up a similar ball. So I'm guessing that they'll be doing some experimentation on them next season.
posted by skewed at 8:52 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]


That was fun! I really liked Season 1, but I liked Season 2 even more.
posted by mochapickle at 11:46 AM on April 27, 2018


Season Three is a go.
posted by Etrigan at 11:39 AM on May 8, 2018 [3 favorites]


Doesn't make sense that Gary didn't go feral while buried

I think it fits with what the show has said regarding the effects of the infection. The other people we've seen that have become undead have had many positive changes, other than the death part.

Sheila has become less timid, more energetic, and is much more present. Ramona wanted to chill out and relax, and that is what happened after she became undead.

We don't know much about Colonel Dad except that he makes (er, made) really fantastic danishes. He's also the furthest along in terms of state of decay (other than buried Gary), and while he eventually confronts Joel, it's after he realizes that Joel is hunting him.

Gary said he had a lot of time to think and came to realize many things about how he lived. His genuine concern for his niece and friendship with Joel don't match how he was before he was killed and eaten.


This does undercut the fear of what would have happened if the infected clams had been distributed throughout the region. It wouldn't have been as bad as with some other zombie mythologies, but it still would have been awful.
posted by mountmccabe at 5:11 PM on June 11, 2018


Also I just loved season 2. The wrap up of the problems from the season one finale was a little cheap, but so was that ending.

The show is consistently funny, and I had to pause the show during the Queen of England joke sequence because I was laughing so hard I couldn't hear. And I love how well every step worked because it fit the character and what was going on with them (starting with Gary using the line in the first place).


I find it a little weird that the time span of the show has only been a few weeks or a couple months. And part of the conflict is that nothing is getting back to normal making it seem like jumping ahead several months or more would be unreasonable. That being said the show doesn't seem that concerned with existing in a coherent reality and while a jump would seem weird, so does everything else.
posted by mountmccabe at 5:26 PM on June 11, 2018


I just binged season 2 and yeah it's really a great continuation from season 1, probably even funnier.

The world-building definitely expanded a lot, and I love that they're still referring to the book from season 1!

But my favorite thing from the show is really the relationships. There's almost no wasted dialogue, and every line has a real purpose to either the plot or to character development, all the while delivering really great jokes. It fleshes out the characters and making them all so believable and charming, even down the ball-spider zombie hunters having a passionate moment after blowing up a clam farm.
posted by numaner at 12:54 AM on October 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


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