The series is following N. Jemisin wrote in a recent Twitter thread. Her point in the thread is that science fiction writers have often invested in allegories about racism and oppression. Mutants are persecuted in fiction just like black people or gay people are persecuted in real life; aliens colonize Earth like the UK colonized other countries.
Yet, Jemisin says, there are still few characters of color and fewer writers of color in the genre, while on the big screen, mild calls for greater inclusivity are met with backlash and outrage. People who want to confront bigotry and hatred need to be direct, Jemisin concludes.
But the series is unusually forthright in its politics, and while it does use analogies, it sinks its teeth into real-life bigotry as well. She and husband Joel Timothy Olyphant spend the rest of the series grappling with the implications for their marriage.
Con: she keeps murdering the neighbors. In season 3, Sheila gets angry when people refer to her as a zombie, which she thinks is insensitive. And she gets angry when she thinks Joel finds her diet, and her not-quite-living body, disgusting and gross. The prejudice she faces could be read as an allegory for LGBT life, or living with a disability, or as a minority. But using metaphors to address bigotry can be inherently demeaning. But Santa Clarita Diet has buttressed its allegory with open politics.
It also includes LGBT actors. Having queer representation in front of and behind the camera helps make the analogy less presumptuous. There are a number of secondary characters of color, including Anne, but the show could undoubtedly do better on that front. Santa Clarita Diet also confronts bigotry, though, by outright making real-life bigots its villains, and its prey. The Nazis make horrible, bigoted comments about Jews and people of color, as Nazis will.
