“I only eat the foods that deserve it,” says Drew Barrymore in an ad reminiscent of many-a-celebrity-endorsed product. Barrymore appears in a red dress, against a white backdrop, and sassily talks directly to the camera, advertising a new diet. That diet happens to be human flesh. And this ad is actually one of two teasers (the other featuring Timothy Olyphant) for the upcoming Netflix comedy series, the Santa Clarita Diet, which only last week, a month in advance of its premiere, was revealed to be a zombie comedy. The ads aired during the Golden Gloves.
USA Today recently reported that Barrymore and Olyphant play a married, suburban couple — but that Barrymore’s character has recently become… undead. The two are realtors, and they continue to live their life/un-death as such, with the new addition of needing to procure human flesh for Barrymore’s character, Sheila. (It sounds reminiscent, only in the way that it’s a my-lover’s-a-zombie comedy, to the recent Aubrey Plaza comedy, Life After Beth.) Barrymore told the publication about how the series’ creator, Victor Fresco, had brought the idea to her, and how she’d contributed some of her own thoughts. She explained that when it was first presented, she was going through her third divorce and her “personal life was falling apart,” then says she suggested:
What if [Sheila] finds herself, and we do this sort of Cro-Magnon type of evolution with her over the course of the 10 episodes. No gimmicks, no prosthetics, just an awakening… I just really enjoyed just shedding a snakeskin with her, so it became a really fun obstacle that I wasn’t even planning for but seemed so conducive and fun and healthy for my own life.
Watch the teasers: