In 2019, Netflix execs made one of the most controversial decisions in the streaming giant’s history by canceling one of its most acclaimed original shows, “Santa Clarita Diet.” As the streamer’s first zomcom, the series dove into the question plaguing teenagers and husbands everywhere: What if your favorite housewife suddenly turned into a zombie? Surrounding legends Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant with an all-star ensemble of Liv Hewson, Skyler Gisondo, Natalie Morales, Joel McHale, Nathan Fillion, and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, the show paired zombie-rific horror with classic sitcom beats of adolescent hijinks and suburban yard-watching paranoia. As far as fun-loving satires go, “Santa Clarita Diet” was a bloody good time.
Created by Victor Fresco, who made his name with cult classics like “My Name is Earl” and “Better Off Ted,” the show follows couple Sheila (Barrymore) and Joel (Olyphant) Hammond as they face off against the dangers of raising a teenage daughter, navigating the Southern California real estate market, and confronting late-onset zombieism. With a final batch of episodes released as part of Netflix’s 2019 original content push, Season 3 earned glowing reviews, including a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
Despite this success, however, Netflix unceremoniously canceled the popular show, much to the chagrin of its cast, creator, and fans. Because Netflix infamously holds its viewer numbers under lock and key, the reason for the show’s untimely demise is anyone’s guess. However, most prognosticators believe that it was a casualty of Netflix’s business model, which has earned it a reputation for canceling acclaimed shows prematurely. With a cliffhanger ending that left plenty of meat on the bone, fans continue to lament “Santa Clarita Diet” as a show that died too soon.
An untimely finale
Prior to the cancellation of “Santa Clarita Diet,” Netflix had already earned a reputation for prematurely pulling the plug on content. Fresco, for his part, was fairly open to the media about the possibility, forewarning that the show could be facing the chopping block when he told The Hollywood Reporter, “We’re aware that the show gets more expensive every year; we’re aware of what seems like templates of [Netflix’s] studio stuff now. It looks like mostly three-season stuff.” In retrospect, the possibility was clearly in the writing team’s minds as they crafted the third season, delivering an unbelievable cliffhanger. In an interview with The Guardian, Fresco stated that “We had an inkling it might not come into a fourth year … We didn’t want to make it easier for them to cancel us. We thought ‘Why are we doing their work for them?'”
Unfortunately, Netflix called the show’s bluff. As Olyphant lamented in an interview with GQ, it was as if streamer executives said, “You guys wanna go out on a cliffhanger? Go out on a cliffhanger. We’re Netflix. We got something else coming out the very minute this thing ends from countries all over the world.” Despite its creators clearly being aware of the possibility, the cancellation struck a chord with its creator, who was reportedly “blindsided” by the decision. According to Fresco, the team behind “Santa Clarita Diet” learned of the show’s demise when Netflix began dismantling their sets in the middle of editing the third season. As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once claimed, “It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
The cost of doing business
In an interview with The Guardian, Fresco lamented that most Netflix shows have “at best, a three-year run.” The reasoning behind this is twofold. The first, Fresco explained, is because Netflix structures its contracts with yearly incentives, which creates “a huge disincentive” to pick up later, costlier seasons. Second, Netflix’s algorithm-centric model encourages cutthroat programming decisions. As Fresco claimed prior to the sitcom’s cancellation, “I like to say the humans there seem to love the show; I don’t know how the algorithm feels about us” (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Cast members were effusive in their praise of the show. Drew Barrymore, for instance, credited “Santa Clarita Diet” with her return to the screen, claiming the show’s script “was so good that it forced me to go back to work” (via Glamour). “Of all of the characters I’ve ever been,” she later wrote in an Instagram post following the cancellation, “Sheila Hammond is one of my favorites.” Her co-star, meanwhile, claimed in the same statement that he “loved working on the show” so much that he would “continue coming in and doing scenes. If they don’t want to film it, that’s up to them.”
Ultimately, fans will be left to speculate about the show’s conclusion. Written with 5 seasons in mind, Fresco’s gory suburban hit leaves plenty to flesh out. In a now-deleted Twitter post, Fresco teased an audacious storyline for the show’s conclusion that would have seen “Joel possessed by Mr. Ball Legs” before he and Sheila’s “love for each other goes on forever.” And while fans will likely never see the end of the Hammond family saga, its first three seasons are absolutely worthy of devouring. Perhaps if enough viewers return to the sitcom, Netflix will use the revenue from its recent price increase to bring it back from the grave.
