Someone on a fan board said that Skyler Gisondo's character on
The Santa Clarita Diet, Eric Bemis, is gay, but after a glance at the fan wiki, I can't see how. He has a will-they-or-won't-they romance going on with Abby, the daughter of the zombified Sheila Hammond, that lasts through three seasons before becoming canonical in the series finale; plus he has sex with other women and female zombies. But I'm game, so I'll review the first episode.
Scene 1: Establishing shots of the stereotypic "idyllic" Santa Clarita. Heterosexual husband Joel awakens and sniffs Sheila, signaling how aroused he is, but she only likes to do it in a romantic setting -- no "humping."
Anyway, time for breakfast: toast and a green liquid. They have two different conversations without interacting with each other. Teenage daughter Abby enters and demands a car, because they live in the middle of "freakin' nowhere." I know the feeling.
Suddenly Sheila keels over with sharp pain in her stomach. Abby wants to know if she's dying, but she insists that it's food poisoning.
Scene 2: As everyone leaves for the day, they run into snoopy heterosexual neighbor Dan (Ricardo Chavira, left), and his wife. They want to know why the light in the study was on all night; didn't Dan and Sheila have sex? No, Sheila couldn't sleep, if it's any of his business.
Dan points out that he's in the L.A. Sheriff's Department, far superior to the "dickless" cops, like Rick (Richard T. Jones, below), who happens to be walking by with his wife and baby. Geez, they are establishing that everyone is heterosexual at first introduction. What are they afraid of?
Dan calls Rick "honeybunch," suggesting that he is a woman because he has such a feminine job.
Being a cop is feminine? Then: "Suck me!", an insult, because of course gay sex would be terribly humiliating.
The men all leave, while Dan's kid Eric (Skyler Gisondo, top photo), in his Mom's car, gazes wistfully at Abby. Mom tell her, "He worships you. You're the queen of his spank bank." So much for Eric being gay. Wait -- did his mom just tell his crush that he masturbates while thinking about her? How would she know? Why would she think this information was important to share?
She then invites Sheila for a girl's night out which may or may not involve "banging dudes." Sheila refuses.
Are we done introducing the heterosexual characters yet? I'm getting bored.
Scene 3: Whoops, more players. They're really piling on the cast: A realtor, Sheila runs afoul of her mean-tempered, sexually-harassing boss and Gary West (Nathan Fillion, left), her new coworker. "Sell the Peterson house! Do it today!"
Scene 4: Sheila and Joel showing the house to a heterosexual couple. Disgust alert: suddenly she throws up green gunk. Joel pushes the couple into continuing the tour, and Sheila goes to the bathroom to vomit.
When the couple finally manages to leave, Joel checks: Sheila is unconscious in a bathroom splattered with green gunk. No pulse: dead. Joel hugs her and says "no" while grinning enthusiastically. Now he can call off the hit man? But she awakens and feels fine.
Scene 5: They've been waiting at the Emergency Room for three hours, due to being low priority ("Your wife threw up."), Joel gives up and drives Sheila home. She sniffs him. Weird -- a lot of sniffing in this show.
Gary, their new coworker, appears with get-well flowers. He called a cleaning crew to take care of the mess in the house. Sheila thanks him; Joel is jealous and possessive.
When she leaves, Gary reveals that the homeowners disliked their house being vomited on, and fired Sheila and Joel. They will be working with him now. Listing poaching -- the biggest sin in realty.
More after the break
