Netflix has a habit of breaking hearts. Cancellation is their middle name. But years after the axe fell, people are still obsessing over the Hammond family, specifically Santa Clarita Diet Abby. She wasn’t just the "teenage daughter" trope we see in every sitcom. Honestly, Abby Hammond, played by Liv Hewson, was the only person in that house who seemed to have a functioning moral compass, even if that compass led her to blow up a fracking site.
It’s weird. Most shows make the kids an annoyance. They’re obstacles for the parents. But in Santa Clarita Diet, Abby was the glue. While Sheila was busy craving human flesh and Joel was busy having a multi-season nervous breakdown, Abby was the one actually processing the insanity. She was the audience surrogate, but with way more sarcasm and a better leather jacket.
The Evolution of Abby Hammond
When we first meet her, she’s just a bored kid in the suburbs. Then her mom starts vomiting up a mysterious red ball and eating the neighbors. Talk about a shift in perspective.
Most teen characters would spend three seasons "coming to terms" with their mom being undead. Abby? She just leans in. She becomes the logistical manager of a murder-and-cleanup crew. There’s this specific brand of "Gen Z nihilism" mixed with genuine love that Hewson brings to the role. It makes the character feel real. You’ve got to appreciate how she balances the mundane—like worrying about chemistry tests—with the extreme, like helping her dad bury Gary’s head in the desert.
The chemistry between Liv Hewson and Skyler Gisondo (who played Eric) is arguably the best part of the entire series. It wasn't just a "will-they-won't-they" thing. It was a partnership based on shared trauma and chemical explosives. Eric is the neurotic nerd, and Abby is the fearless catalyst. Together, they represented the collateral damage of Sheila’s condition, but they refused to be victims.
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Why Abby's Rebellion Actually Mattered
In a typical show, a teen blowing up a fracking site is just "rebellion." In Santa Clarita Diet, it was a desperate attempt for Abby to feel like she had agency in a world that had gone completely sideways. Her mother is a monster—literally—and her father is a ball of anxiety. Abby’s radicalization, for lack of a better word, was her way of saying, "If the world is this chaotic, I might as well do something that matters."
It’s also worth noting how the show handled her identity. Liv Hewson is non-binary, and while Abby is written as a girl, there’s a gender-nonconforming energy to the character that felt incredibly fresh back in 2017. She didn't fit the "suburban princess" mold her environment demanded. She was tough. She was blunt. She was, quite frankly, the most capable person in Santa Clarita.
What Most Fans Miss About Abby's Arc
People talk a lot about Sheila’s hunger or Joel’s loyalty. They don't talk enough about Abby’s grief. Because that’s what it is. Santa Clarita Diet Abby is essentially grieving her "normal" mother every single day, even while that mother is standing right in front of her.
There’s a nuance to the performance that hits harder on a rewatch. Watch her face when Sheila gets a bit too "zombie-ish." There’s a flicker of fear, then it’s immediately covered up by a joke or an eye roll. That’s a kid who has had to grow up way too fast. She’s the parent now. She has to make sure Joel doesn’t lose his mind and Sheila doesn't eat the mailman.
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Victor Fresco, the show’s creator, really nailed the family dynamic. It’s a subversion of the Leave It to Beaver trope. Instead of the parents teaching the child how to navigate the world, the child is teaching the parents how to survive their own unconventional life.
The Cliffhanger That Still Stings
We have to talk about that ending. Season 3 ended on a massive bombshell. Sheila bites Joel to save his life (or "save" his life), and he wakes up as a member of the undead.
Where does that leave Abby?
She’s now the only living human in her immediate family. The stakes for her character in a hypothetical Season 4 would have been astronomical. She’d be the one keeping two zombies in check while trying to graduate high school. The tragedy of the cancellation is that we never got to see Abby fully take the reins. She was already the smartest person in the room; seeing her navigate a dual-undead household would have been comedy gold and emotionally devastating.
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How to Channel Your Inner Abby Hammond
If you're a fan of the show, there's a reason Abby resonates. She represents the part of us that stays calm when everything is burning down. She’s the person who looks at a disaster and asks, "Okay, where’s the shovel?"
- Practice Radical Honesty: Abby doesn't sugarcoat. Whether it's telling her parents they're being idiots or calling out Eric's hesitation, she's direct. In a world of corporate speak, being an "Abby" is a superpower.
- Find Your Eric: Everyone needs a ride-or-die who will help them research ancient Serbian myths or buy bleach in bulk. Loyalty is the core theme of her character.
- Question Authority: Whether it's the school principal or a corrupt corporation, Abby doesn't respect rules just because they exist. She respects results.
- Accept the Chaos: You can't control if your mom becomes a zombie. You can control how you react to it. Resilience is about adaptation, not perfection.
The legacy of Santa Clarita Diet Abby lives on in the "comfort show" corner of the internet. Even though Netflix moved on, the fans haven't. If you're looking for a character study in how to write a teenager with actual depth, look no further.
To dive deeper into the lore, your best bet is to revisit the fan-run wikis or the surviving social media campaigns like #SaveSantaClaritaDiet, which, while unlikely to bring the show back in 2026, contains a goldmine of behind-the-scenes trivia and character analysis from the cast's old interviews. Specifically, look for Liv Hewson’s interviews from 2019 where they discuss the "unspoken bond" between Abby and Joel—it adds a whole new layer to their scenes together.