the suburban horror similarities between santa clarita diet and the americans

what lurks behind the front door of the perfect suburban residence has provided a wealth of inspiration for television, film, and literature. The well-manicured lawn, the white picket fence — the housing equivalent of curated Instagram feed. These are the aspects that are on display, but nothing is ever quite as it seems. The twitch of a curtain means someone is watching. The home is a sanctuary that can get penetrated at any time. Paranoia begets paranoia. Horror is one genre that has taken this notion of suburbia and run with it, from episodes of The Twilight Zone to Halloween.

A model home doesn’t mean model living. Sometimes the perfect family set-up is the cover, and sometimes the perfect family is brought closer together by the very thing that threatens to crush this conformity. The Americans and Santa Clarita Diet aren’t similar on the surface, but if you look closer and step behind closed doors, you will see that the spy thriller and zombie comedy are not all that different. Horror permeates each residence; the home is both haven and the scene of the crime.

High school sweethearts married for 19 years, Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant) are the picture of domestic bliss on Santa Clarita Diet. Together they sell the American Dream as real estate agents and they appear to have it all, until Sheila throws up her entire body weight in the master bathroom of one of these properties, dies and then comes back as a zombie. Joel and Sheila have been a team throughout most of their lives, and Sheila’s new zombie status does not change that.

This is not your Romero-style undead creature, motivated by nothing but a hunger for flesh-and-blood without the ability to articulate beyond groans. Instead, Sheila pretty much looks and sounds the same, but as with traditional zombies, she is in part driven by her appetite. Her id is in control, which means she has little self-restraint. This leads to some very awkward and bloody situations.

from syfy http://bit.ly/2YzadXH