Bad news for fans of Drew Barrymore, Suburban Devourer Of Flesh tonight, as Netflix announced that it’s going off of Barrymore’s Santa Clarita Diet for good. Created by Victor Fresco—still probably best known to niche sitcom nerds as the mind behind Better Off Ted—the series starred Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as a pair of dorky parents trying to make the best of Barrymore’s newfound (and insatiable) desire to chow down on human flesh.
The self-titled “zom com” debuted its third season late last month, with Fresco noting at the time that he had no clue whether the show would be brought back for a fourth. As it happens, though, tonight’s cancellation news came just as The Hollywood Reporter dropped a new bit of speculative analysis about Netflix’s recent ordering strategies, suggesting that three seasons is the new ideal for the streamer’s offerings. (At least in part because that’s the point where back-end royalties really start to pile up.) Santa Clarita is just the latest show Netflix has knocked off at the three-season-or-sooner point of late, most notably the late, lamented One Day At A Time.
In any case, that’s it for Santa Clarita Diet, a show that often struggled with maintaining a light, breezy tone in contrast to its absolutely massive bodycount. At least it went out as it lived: Violent, goofy, and absolutely weird as hell.