A "Normal" Family

I watched most of the first season of Santa Clarita Diet this week. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to watch as I scrolled through the Netflix Originals, but I ended up with Santa Clarita Diet. I usually don’t like shows with zombies, but I got sucked into this show. I didn’t think I would be able to learn anything from it either, but to my surprise, I was able to take something away from the show.

Throughout the show, the daughter of Sheila and Joel, whose name is Abby, constantly asks her parents if their lives will ever go back to normal. What Abby is talking about is if the family will be able to function as they used to, before her mom, Sheila, turned “undead.” A side effect of Sheila being undead is that she can only eat raw meat. She, at first, was fine with eating raw hamburger and chicken, but after she got a taste of human flesh, that was all she could eat. Her mom also has an urge to kill people when she is hungry and hasn’t been able to eat in a while, which Abby, a young sixteen-year-old, is having a hard time getting used to. So Abby wants her mom to be able to eat, but also be able to be a normal mom who doesn’t kill people and eat them.

My thought on Abby’s question about if her family will ever return to normal was, “is any family normal?” I think every family has their “norm,” but every family is different. Each has their own members who have their own personalities so each family unit is different.

I will probably end up watching the rest of Santa Clarita Diet, but my guess is that they will find a new normal amidst their mother and wife being undead. I finished episode eight, and the next episode is called “The Book.” In previous episodes, Joel, the husband, and father, discovered there is a book that possibly has a cure for what Sheila has. My guess is that Joel goes on a mission to find the book to help his wife return to their normal.