Timothy Olyphant Played the Most Wholesome Husband in This Netflix Comedy

The Big Picture

• Timothy Olyphant shines as a devoted husband and father in the darkly comedic show, Santa Clarita Diet .
• Joel Hammond proves he's the ultimate ride-or-die, supporting his zombie wife in her murderous escapades.
• Olyphant's portrayal of Joel showcases his loyalty, humor, and love for his family in this uniquely twisted zombie series.

Timothy Olyphant is no stranger to the small screen, having had major roles on shows like the recently revived Justified and Daisy Jones & The Six, and guest spots on classics like The Office and Sex and the City. Basically, if you need a charismatic, faintly rugged man with smoldering eyes to elevate your program, Olyphant is your guy. One of his best roles, however, comes in the unexpected form of a mildly neurotic but totally lovable murderer in the sadly short-lived Netflix comedy, Santa Clarita Diet.

Santa Clarita Diet

Sheila and Joel are married real estate agents who live and work in Santa Clarita, California. When Sheila dies, their lives take a dark turn.

Timothy Olyphant Plays Drew Barrymore’s Killer Husband in 'Santa Clarita Diet'

Santa Clarita Diet follows the lives of mild-mannered realtors, Joel (Olyphant) and Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore), whose mundane but comfortable existence is totally upended when Sheila suddenly joins the legions of the undead and develops a ravenous hunger for human flesh. While Joel is understandably horrified by this cannibalistic curveball, his devotion to his wife never wavers, and he becomes a nervous accomplice in all of Sheila’s murderous escapades. As he balances trying to be a good father and trying to keep his zombie wife from winding up behind bars, Joel consistently proves himself as the ultimate ride-or-die husband — literally.

In the first episode of Santa Clarita Diet, before his life is consumed by undead shenanigans, Joel is perfectly content with his mellow, vanilla wife and his mellow, vanilla life. The Hammonds live in an idyllic suburban mansion sandwiched between two cops (what could go wrong?), and Joel spends his days showing houses with Sheila and adding some spice to his life by taking toke breaks on his way into work. One day at a showing, Sheila throws up an unprecedented amount of vomit and appears to be dead and Joel is devastated, cradling his wife’s bile-covered corpse until she suddenly wakes up. When he learns that this post-puke version of Sheila is in fact undead, he’s pretty freaked out but still stands by her, even when they soon learn that Sheila’s new digestive system can only tolerate a people-based diet.

In 'Santa Clarita Diet,' Joel Hammond Is the Ultimate Ride-or-Die

In this action-packed series premiere, we already learn everything we need to know about Joel. He loves his family more than anything, he’s almost pathologically loyal, and he will sooner take his anger out on an unsuspecting toaster oven than on his wife, even when she’s murdering unsuspecting real estate agents and leaving body parts strewn out across their backyard. Gary the gropey realtor (Nathan Fillion) may be the first body that Joel helps Sheila get rid of, but he is certainly not the last.

As Santa Clarita Diet goes on, Joel continues to support Sheila, refusing to break up the dream team even when she offers to leave. He takes “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” to a whole new level, and resolves that if his wife is going to have to kill people, he’s going to help her. Armed with plastic ponchos and Sheila’s snapping jaws, Santa Clarita’s favorite husband-wife realtor duo become Santa Clarita’s deadliest undercover vigilante duo as they track down all the “young, single Hitlers” they can find in order to satisfy Sheila’s hunger in the most morally justifiable way they can think of. When the Hammonds’ obnoxious neighbor Dan the deputy (Ricardo Chavira) uncovers their murderous ways and threatens to break up Joel’s family, Joel takes matters — and a shovel — into his own hands and kills Dan himself, proving that even if the moral high ground is getting more and more precarious, there’s nothing Joel won’t do for those he loves.

Joel Is a Devoted Dad to Liv Hewson’s Abby on 'Santa Clarita Diet'

Now, as good of a husband as Joel is throughout Santa Clarita Diet, he’s just as devoted to his daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson). While at first Joel and Sheila try to shelter Abby from the madness of their new lifestyle, they eventually learn that honesty is the best policy, and let her in on this juicy family secret. Abby proves herself to be shockingly resilient at dealing with the trials and tribulations of Mombie-Gate, but whenever she gets too overwhelmed, Joel is there to listen. When Abby wonders if Sheila can still feel love in her undead state, he reassures her, but admits that he’s just as freaked out by the whole situation as she is and that he doesn’t have all the answers.

Joel also serves as a father figure for their next-door neighbor Eric (Skyler Gisondo), a.k.a Abby’s closest friend, and Dan the dead deputy’s geeky stepson. Eric is the Hammonds’ go-to undead expert because of his knowledge of comic books and the paranormal, and due to his strained relationship with his stepfather, he sees Joel as a mentor and desperately seeks his approval. While Joel isn’t quite so attached, he still obviously cares about his odd little friend. Joel’s affection for Eric is most apparent in Season 1, Episode 9, when the two go to a paranormal convention together to try and find information on Sheila’s condition. On their way out of the convention, Joel pretends to be a CIA agent escorting Eric out of the building in order to make him look cool in front of his nerdy colleagues. Even when he’s under insane pressure to keep it together in crazy circumstances, Joel always manages to prioritize the well-being of those around him and make sure that they’re okay (he keeps Gary’s reanimated head in their basement and hires him to work for their company in Season 3, for God’s sake).

'Santa Clarita Diet's Joel Is One of Timothy Olyphant’s Best Performances

Now, even after becoming the world’s sweetest serial killer, Joel’s most fascinating dilemma on Santa Clarita Diet comes about in Season 3, when Sheila suggests that he also become undead so that the two of them can spend eternity together. While at first, he’s hesitant, he eventually agrees to Sheila’s offer and says that he’ll consent to be zombified after Abby goes off to college. However, when Sheila’s bile-born-ball friend Mr. Ball Legs crawls into Joel’s ear and begins to kill him, she makes the executive decision to bite Joel so that he can be reanimated. Even on a show bursting at the seams with murder and murder cover-ups, perhaps the most criminal part about Santa Clarita Diet is that the show was canceled after its third season, so we never got to see zombie Joel in action.

While we can only imagine the craziness that would have ensued once Joel and Sheila were both on the hunt, we can still appreciate the wholesome husband that Timothy Olyphant gave us in this wonderfully unique take on the zombie genre. Whether he was making his wife “spaghetti and meatballs” out of striated biceps and chest meat or collecting a bucket of vomit from an old Serbian woman, Santa Clarita Diet’s Joel Hammond was a doting family man and just generally a glass-half-full kind of guy, even if that glass was shaking in Joel’s anxious, trembling hands. Even when faced with decaying limbs, talking heads, and a truly astonishing amount of vomit, Joel never failed to take care of his wife and daughter, and cemented his status as one of Olyphant's best and most bizarre characters.

Santa Clarita Diet is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX

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