If you haven’t heard of it before, “Santa Clarita Diet” is a Netflix horror comedy of the zombie subset that puts a freaky twist on the typical, everyday suburban family.

That twist appears when Sheila Hammond, a great wife, mother, and realtor, becomes a member of the undead after throwing up an enormous amount of vomit. The show is fast-paced, funny, a quick watch, and packed with a talented cast, but it’s not just these things that make the show both easy to watch and extremely addicting.

Although the show just came out with a second season, which is just as fun (if not more) than the first, we’re going to hop back all the way to the first episode. In this episode, after Sheila turns undead, she, her husband Joel, and her daughter Abby seek the help of their neighborhood “creep” aka one of Abby’s classmates, Eric, who is very interested in the paranormal. He explains after examining Sheila, that one major thing everyone knows about the undead is that they are driven by their “Id.” The Id is a term coined by Sigmund Freud and it is one of the three parts of a person’s personality; the other two are the ego and superego, but we don’t need to know about those right now. The importance of the Id is that it is the first part of a person’s personality to develop and it is driven by the pleasure principle, also coined by Freud, which is the concept that any desire we have must immediately be satisfied.

Now, the Id gets buried pretty quickly as people grow up, but that’s no longer the case for Sheila. She is controlled by her Id the second she becomes undead and in the show that appears in ways like having a lot more sex, buying a brand new car without considering the costs, cursing at inappropriate moments, being bold with her boss, and oh yeah, eating her terrible coworker.

(Photo © Saeed Adyani)

The interesting thing about all of this “Id”-ness is that Sheila’s new personality is not exclusive to her. In fact, the act of being driven by the Id soon becomes the norm for many of the characters on the show. Abby becomes rebellious in the form of skipping school and stealing motorcycles, and Joel (although often the voice of reason) has his moments by killing his irritating neighbor and learning to enjoy the moment and even slamming the toaster oven in the backyard after getting frustrated with it. Even some of the neighbors experience this phenomenon, by trying to follow an artist on a world tour, starting an affair, and buying their own brand new car. Sheila plays a part in some of this, encouraging the people around her to be themselves and take a chance, but it almost seems as if her new attitude is contagious (don’t worry, nobody becomes a zombie this way, this show follows the zombie genre rules).

This is wear the show develops it’s appeal, along with the outrageously ridiculous antics and funny back and forth bickering. It takes a suburban setting and, instead of having everyone be controlled by their ego (which is what you normally work under, it is the you that makes realistic, everyday decisions), has everyone controlled by their Id. Those moments of tension between you and those neighbors you don’t like or the curse words you have to hold in to avoid yelling at school teachers who are bad-mouthing your kid? Those moments don’t exist in this show, or at least they’re the moments that this show treats differently.

It’s a reprieve from the every day, a show that lets you live out all those things you’ve wanted to do but never could because of obvious, ethical reasons that your ego made sure you paid attention to. And no, I don’t mean murdering and eating that asshole you got into a car accident with. I mean getting revenge on that jerk who’s wrongly embarrassing his ex-girlfriend on social media by slapping him in the face with a plastic lunch tray, which Abby does in season two. The gore and zombie plot and related jokes are just a huge, entertaining plus.

Looking at season two, it can be argued that the series continues as Sheila regains her ego and everyone comes off their “Id” high, since much of Joel and Sheila’s time is spent trying to make themselves better people. Which, obviously, throws them into even crazier situations.

Of course, this theory can only grow more solid if the show continues into the third season, which hopefully, will happen seeing as the second season ended on a hilarious note that creates the expectation for a continuation and there are some loose ends to tie up. In the meantime, make sure to catch up on season two on Netflix and if you haven’t watched it all, put it on your list in order to get your healthy dose of id-riddled fun with the Hammonds.

(Photo © Saeed Adyani)