The third season of the Drew Barrymore comedy premieres Friday.

The bulk of “Santa Clarita Diet’s” third season premiere is spent deciding how to best kill, eat and hide the remaining pieces of a dismembered neo-Nazi — but in a funny, endearingly heartwarming kind of way.

In its latest run, premiering Friday, Netflix’s comedy series starring Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant has settled into a confident rhythm of lunacy that’s downright delightful.

It’s never lost on “Santa Clarita Diet” and its cast how ridiculous this show truly is – a self awareness that’s used as a power rather than a crutch.

As real estate dream team Sheila and Joel Hammond continue to wrestle with the consequences of her unfortunate transition into a fabled Serbian undead being – neither zombie nor alive – and hunt for bad people to feed her appetite, the show deploys a sharp wit and hilarious voice that walks the line between slapstick and black comedy.

“Santa Clarita Diet” started by concealing its premise, allowing viewers to get in sync with its funny and sincere brand of humor, something that struck a tonal imbalance by the end of season one as Sheila grappled with her family and her new fate.

But in season three, the show has shed any misgivings or hesitations about its bizarre premise and committed fully to a zany, unabashed enjoyment of the weird little world of horror its built. That’s saying something for a show whose pilot was predicated on the most comically vile vomit scene ever committed to the small screen.

This season, on top of the daily grind of having to outsmart an ancient Serbian order hellbent on hunting down Sheila and the undead like her, the Hammonds are also having trouble keeping Deputy Linda (Natalie Morales), their personal warrior for God who thinks Sheila’s insatiable hunger is a divine message, from going too far in the name of the Almighty.

The gears of this delicate formula of sincere heart and comical horror would likely grind to a halt if not for the proven, consistent chemistry and side-splitting rapport between Barrymore and Olyphant. Barrymore, in particular, might enjoy chewing on the scenery more than Sheila likes gnawing on human flesh.

She’s undead with a thirst to finally live, a fearlessness that only comes with immortality and an infallible desire to be a good mother and wife.

Meanwhile, he shoulders the mortal burden of caution for the both of them, wields sarcasm like a broad shield against the horrors of the world and often finds himself risking everything to keep his family together.

Although only one half of the couple still has a pulse, they are a thing of beauty, a symphonic and strong relationship that treats death and cannibalism as mere bumps in the road that can be weathered together – even if some are more jarring than others.

Their biggest test comes in season three when Sheila, now aware of her immortality, offers to infect Joel so they can live together forever – a proposition he’s not sold on. But even that choice gets at the heart of the show’s mission statement of what it takes to balance the things we take with the sacrifices we make along the way.

Sure, it's comical to see arms flying and Barrymore with blood dripping from her chin as she shoots a cute, innocent smile to Olyphant after going rabid on a neighbor’s misogynistic husband.

But there’s also a social conscious buried in the blood that seeks to find the humor, the heart and the value in the cruel, unjust world we live in.

That might sound crazy for a show about eating people, but “Santa Clarita Diet” is more than just surface tissue.

Once you bite a little deeper, it’s quite tasty.

Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com. Hunter is a member of the Television Critics Association.