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Sweet Tooth Season 1 Review

Sweet Tooth is a fantasy streaming series that premiered its first season on Netflix in 2021. It’s a very enjoyable fantasy for children and adults alike.

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“You keep that edge, Sweet Tooth“

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A virus appears that kills off many people (very timely for the pandemic era today) while also leading to many children being born with animal parts – the so-called hybrids. Instantly, I was hooked with the very first episode. The world building is incredible and meticulously detailed and believable throughout. I loved all of the elements here with the ideas and themes being particularly sophisticated.

The chicken and egg idea was great as the virus may or may not be responsible for the hybrids’ arrival and nobody knows that. The treatment of the sick patients by using the hybrids’ blood made for a very disturbing narrative while the question of who is more important – hybrids or humans – made for a fascinating, thought-provoking watch as the two literally stand against each other biologically speaking.

Although the first season is still very much the beginning with the meat of the story hopefully arriving in the next season, I was still captivated by most of this season with only a couple of episodes being padding and in certain parts filler-like. The pacing should have been brisker, but it led to better characterization, which I will never complain about of course.

The idea to split the narratives into three mostly paid off. It was problematic in a sense that not all were as engaging and the darkness varied with each one, so the tone was all over the place. Still though, the three main storylines all coalesced into a coherent whole in the finale, and I was happy how it all turned out myself.

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Gus is a very endearing protagonist, highly realistic in his bratty and inquisitive behavior. In fact, he is one of the most realistic kids in the media in quite a while as he always talked like a child and never like an adult, which I highly appreciated. Nonso Anozie gave the best performance on the show in the role of Jepperd. He is a terrific character, very well developed and quite funny. The two have a wonderful friendship and a lot of their dynamic is the heart and soul of the show.

The Singh family’s arc was very emotional and the main conflict of ethics was powerfully portrayed. I am looking forward to the second season the most to see what happens with these two. The mob mentality of the neighborhood was particularly resonant for post-pandemic audiences today.

James Brolin’s narration is excellent, but admittedly the one point where the show becomes too childish. Sweet Tooth can be dark, but for the most part it tries to stay away from the darkest of its elements. I liked Bear quite a bit, but the episode with her clan was a bit rushed in my opinion. General Abbott is for now undercooked, but quite menacing in his voice and stature.

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The show was filmed in New Zealand, but it still looks American and seeing the various natural landscapes was beautiful. The photography is terrific, the score is good and the direction is fine, but the pacing and structure have their issues. I loved the flashback episode that answered a lot for us in terms of Gus’s origins, but still the season finished with too many questions unanswered.