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.

Santa Clarita Diet

This week I watched the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet. It revolves around two realtors, Joel and Sheila, their daughter, and a character present in only this episode, Gary. Gary is a realtor that comes to town to begin working at the same place as Sheila and Joel. As the episode develops, you learn, along with the characters, that there is something abnormal happening to Sheila. It starts as a weird stomach pain, continues with a insane amount of vomit, and reaches a terrifying point when she discovers she does not bleed and cannot find her heartbeat. Most might say that it is weird and wrong that Sheila is wanting to sneak around, ultimately eating raw meat and people, instead of get help, however I believe that this decision is the best decision for her.

When people are exhibiting abnormal symptoms, such as throwing up a ridiculous amount, the appropriate thing would be to go to the hospital. When the emergency department takes too long to evaluate Sheila, the next move would be to immediately head to a prompt care or her primary care physician. Instead Sheila does not do this, and I support that. I understand well how important it is to get a health problem diagnosed and treated, especially when you pose a threat to others, however the risks for Sheila’s life to be destroyed far outweigh the benefits to society. She raises concerns about the potential of being trapped in the health care system and laboratories for the rest of her life, which is definitely what would happen to her. She would likely become the focus of many clinical trials, be sequestered for evaluations, and ultimately be deemed a threat to society as she has a hankering for humans. She likely would end up as a viral video or the centerpiece of American news for multiple weeks, making herself and her family miserable with all of the attention and comments on social media. When they go and visit their neighbor who takes a look at her, he gives them a fair diagnosis, that she is dead and undead. This amount of information is enough for Sheila, but not for Joel. He wants to be more informed about what is going on and what he can do to help his wife. While I empathize with the desire to need to know all of the facts, I believe that in some circumstances, just knowing the basics is enough. They know to keep her fed otherwise disaster will occur (which they neglected to do and it was proved). Clearly a change has already occurred and they just need to keep their attitudes up and do what they know will work.

The last few minutes of the episode deal with Gary coming to Joel and Sheila’s house and trying to woo Sheila after what he feels is a missed connection from flirtations the previous night. Majority would say she should have told him off at her house, or the previous night, and reaffirmed her love for her husband. Some might argue she should’ve even gone off with Gary. However I believe she did the right thing. While biting someone’s fingers off and then eating them is never okay, ff she was going to eat anyone, Gary is the best choice. He is new to the area, generally aggressive and looks like he would get along well with the boss of the realtor company, who is a rude businessman. Having two people who are powerful and not exceptionally nice would make the culture of the office negative, and harder for Joel and Sheila to thrive in that environment. While perhaps a change of job or a sit down conversation between Joel and Gary about Sheila would’ve been a better way to handle it, it also would have resulted in more negative emotions and perhaps a fight between the men which is not a productive way to handle conflict. Overall, Sheila and Joel make the appropriate decisions for their family during this time of uncertainty, however I’m not sure how they will recover from the dining of Gary.