My Review of "Sweet Tooth"

Sweet Tooth is a pretty high production valued TV series. It was recently released on 2021 on Netflix. There's much talks about this TV series because of the people behind the scenes but that doesn't always make a great TV series. I see a lot of potential in this TV series but I don't think you should watch it until the second season has been completed and I'll tell you why.

The show starts off with chaos because of a world wide pandemic. Already it's sounding too close to home. Everyone around the world is getting caught with this new virus that kills them in a matter of moments. There really isn't a vaccine for this disease and it's run rampant around the world for years. We're told that one of the byproducts of this virus is that children are now being born as hybrids. At least that's what they call them.

The hybrids are basically half human and half animal. Each child takes on a certain percentage of human attributes and animal attributes. Everything is at random so you don't really know what your child is going to be born as. As you can imagine something that looks so different will be hunted down. There's a huge distain for these hybrids. Many of them are hunted down.

This is where our main protagonist Gus gets introduced. Gus is a hybrid that's being raised in the wilderness by his father. They live there for years and in the wilderness his father teaches him to be self sufficient but fearful of the outside world.

Gus is however a hybrid of human and deer. His deer side of him is always inquisitive and curious. Before long, Gus starts to question what the outside world really is and wants to explore the world outside the confines of their living space. As Gus continues to explore clues into the outside world start to pop up.

Eventually some paramilitary groups find out about their location and Gus' father has an unfortunate accident that leads Gus to fend for himself. It's a crazy world out there and he's adamant to learn more about himself and what is actually going on.

There's a lot of adventure and exploration in this TV series and it kind of reminds you of some sort of downscaled modern Lord of the Rings adventure. Gus will meet some friends down the line and learn about the different motivations with various groups of humans around the world.

Each of the characters are fleshed out only later on in the TV series and this series really loves to keep everyone in anticipation of things. Everything is a secret that they keep dangling a key to unlock it. For example there are a few other characters in this show that don't really meet Gus but you know they have some sort of significance to the story eventually.

The problem is that the connection only makes sense at the very last episode. It almost seems like an 8 hour long introduction to characters. I really wished they figured out ways to truncate a lot of the intros. For me it didn't feel like there was much substance to the first season. It's sort of like a bread sandwich. There's no meat or toppings to the series.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the show. There are a lot of very interesting concepts that they put in it. I liked the whole concept of the plot. It's an innovative idea of how to build a show on morality. Although, a lot of the characters in this show are quite cartoon like. It made me feel as though this is a show catered to children. Especially when they go into the whole adult vs child aspect. Kids do know they will become adults eventually right?

Then they have some more complicated moral dilemmas that concern the value of life, the concept of family and existential issues with individualism. A lot of it has been told in a way everyone can relate to but the tone of this show was all over the place with me. Even the characters were a little off. I found that they'd flesh out a lot of the characters only at the end. Throughout the show they all seemed to be one dimensional characters and then we see their real motivations and backstories at the end of the show.

The problem with this is that it they end it on a crazy cliffhanger and I hate that. Why don't you tell a story first and then give us a cliffhanger for another one later. I don't like telling people to skip until the next season because if they don't watch it this season then they might cancel the show due to low viewership. It would be a tragedy not to hear what happens next but I think the popularity of this show will guarantee a second season.

Overall, I did enjoy the last half of the show. Unfortunately the first half was a bit weak for me. There were moments where it felt like it was dragging onto some drama when they really didn't need to do that. It was at times grating for me. I have to give this first season a 6 out of 10. This show has a lot of potential and I can see how it can be great in the second season. I just hope it is.