The latest in the Alien franchise, the upcoming television series, Alien: Earth, will finally be released this coming August. Alien: Earth is a prequel series set two years before the events of Alien, and it follows a group of people, synthetics, and one hybrid who cross paths on Earth after a space vessel lands there. One of Alien: Earth‘s stars includes Timothy Olyphant, who has starred in two beloved television Westerns: Deadwood and Justified.
Believe it or not, Alien: Earth will not be Olyphant’s first horror series. After Justified, Olyphant starred alongside Drew Barrymore in the Netflix horror-comedy series, Santa Clarita Diet. The show was sadly cancelled after just three seasons, but Santa Clarita Diet is an excellent suspense-infused sitcom that is right up there with the very best of the subgenre, alongside What We Do in the Shadows and Based on a True Story, and is proof that Olyphant belongs in more horror.
What Is Netflix’s ‘Santa Clarita Diet’ About?
Santa Clarita Diet follows Sheila and Joel Hammond, a husband and wife realtor duo who live in the suburbs of Santa Clarita. They live a quiet but happy life, as they compete with other realtors in the same area, and raise their teenage daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson). Sheila and Joel’s lives change forever when the put-together and risk-averse Sheila suddenly starts exhibiting some odd behaviors. First, Sheila projectile vomits much more than any human body can, and then she dies and immediately comes back to life. Next, Sheila starts acting spontaneously by buying a new car on a whim and going out clubbing. She also no longer has a pulse, and bleeds black goo instead of blood. With the help of the Hammonds’ neighbor, Eric (Skyler Gisondo), they realize that Sheila is a zombie (although she prefers the term “undead”).
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At the end of the pilot episode, Sheila accidentally kills and eats her first person: her and Joel’s creepy new coworker, Gary (Nathan Fillion). From there, it is clear that Sheila’s undead existence is going to be very different from her regular life, but Joel and Abby quickly adapt and show Sheila that they have her back. Throughout Santa Clarita Diet‘s three seasons, the Hammonds adjust to Sheila’s new condition, as well as the fact that she now has to kill and eat people to survive. This means that Sheila’s family has to help her find targets and cover up her kills, as well as try to keep her from deteriorating any further after her symptoms worsen. They deal with a number of close calls as the people around them become suspicious about the string of recent deaths, and they also learn a lot about undead lore (which is wonderfully inventive and silly in Santa Clarita Diet).
Timothy Olyphant Brings a Fun Energy to the Horror Series
Unlike Alien: Earth, Santa Clarita Diet is first and foremost a comedy series. It follows a typical sitcom structure, and sees the Hammonds deal with a number of classic sitcom antics (with a twist, of course, that more often than not includes covering up kills and dealing with dismembered bodies). That said, Santa Clarita Diet proves that Olyphant’s television capabilities expand way beyond TV Westerns. Joel is often played as the silly counterpart to Sheila, who gets freaked out by all the gore, and who is constantly afraid of getting caught. Nevertheless, Joel is devoted to Sheila, and he crosses a number of lines that he never thought he would in order to protect her.
Early on in Season 1, Eric’s stepfather, a nosy and unkind sheriff named Dan (Ricardo S. Chavira), finds one of Gary’s fingers while snooping in the Hammonds’ yard. Dan thinks that Joel is the one who killed Gary, and has no idea that Sheila is actually the one who did it, let alone that she is undead. Dan then tries to blackmail Joel into killing people for him twice, and ultimately, Joel and Sheila reach the point where they can’t take this anymore, and take matters into their own hands. This shows how Olyphant can run wild with his emotions in an instant, something that’ll be essential for FX’s Alien series.
Timothy Olyphant’s Joel Has a Strong Character Arc in ‘Santa Clarita Diet’
Because Santa Clarita Diet was a Netlfix show cancelled too soon, Joel’s character arc was halted right when it was starting to get especially exciting. Still, Joel’s character development throughout the series is really compelling. He starts as a normal guy who only worries about the broken toaster oven knob and how to get to sell the good houses at work. When Sheila becomes undead, though, Joel kills both people and zombies, covers up the deaths, and becomes a bolder and more decisive version of himself.
Joel is still often Sheila’s more reasonable counterpart who talks her down when her hunger almost makes her rashly kill people without thinking about what comes next. He often overreacts to more of the disturbing aspects of having an undead wife, although he tries to reel this in a lot in order to show his support for Sheila. Joel’s moments of intentionally killing and lying to protect Sheila are his most interesting. It is in these moments that Olyphant’s depth as a horror actor really comes through, and this will certainly carry over into Alien: Earth.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2018
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Victor Fresco
- Directors
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Victor Fresco
- Writers
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Victor Fresco
