Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review: If You Already Liked It, Now You Will Love It
Cast: Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramírez
Creator: Jim Mickle
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
It is unfair that Sweet Tooth is not considered one of the most important series in the Netflix catalog, because this adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s comics is brutal, it knows how to combine the best of science fiction, youth adventures, and dystopia, giving us plots that teenagers and older fans of the genre like. Its first season was a small success, garnering audiences that helped it renew for a second batch of chapters that premieres on Thursday, April 27, 2023, on Netflix. Before all of you, Sweet Tooth Season 2, and although the script becomes somewhat heavy at times, it is also appreciated that the plots have settled and that we have grown fond of some characters that go beyond the screen.
Two years ago, a small series was added to the Netflix catalog, almost invisibly. It was evidently seen by enough people to be renewed for a second season, which saw the light of day in late April 2023. Plenty of time for a series of this type, which makes those teeth chatter (we know they are). a few aficionados who quickly bonded to the story of Gus, the ten-year-old boy half child and half deer who goes to discover the world and its dangers. Because Sweet Tooth two years ago proved to be a small hidden gem in the vast Netflix catalog, capable of nailing the tone of the story and above all its little protagonists. The result was a sunny fairy tale, which presented itself in a less harsh and violent way than the Jeff Lemire comic on which it is based. All characteristics that, as we will see in our review of Sweet Tooth Season 2, have remained well rooted in the series created by Jim Mickle, making it a real jewel. Unfortunately, perhaps too hidden, and not very trendy.
Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review: The Story Plot
The threads pick up exactly where we left off at the end of last season, with Gus (Christian Convery) locked up with his fellows and Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) just recovered from his gunshot wounds ready to save that child who, slowly, grew fond of it. Over the two episodes that we have seen, Sweet Tooth Season 2 does not waste much time and proceeds as fast as a train, bringing to the fore the conflict between the Last Men, led by the soldier Abbott, ready to eradicate the threat of the hybrids. In this post-apocalyptic world, the survival of the human race is at stake, even if the hybrids are children who do not know violence, except the ones they suffer.
It is a conflict that also draws the co-protagonists of the story who will cross (or are led to cross) including the scientist Singh (Adeel Akhtar), also under blackmail, who will be forced to conduct experiments on Gus, slowly discovering his origins (and already in the second episode we will learn about several elements that will give a new perspective to the story), the activist Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen) and, of course, Jepperd. The fulcrum of the narrative is precisely a conflict between humans and hybrids that is not resolved only with weapons, imprisonment, and the ideals of the Last Men, but which coincides with the hybrids themselves. In the group of kids forced to give each other a hand to survive and try to escape, we understand their condition of being freaks and something in between. Between being animals and humans, the little ones have to come to terms with their identity and finally feel like themselves, far from the simple labels that the ruined world seems to no longer satisfy.
This week one of the best series that Netflix left us back in the summer of 2021 returns, a year after the state of alarm ended nationwide. It was still a time when the fear of a new devastating outbreak mixed in a confused way with tranquility. Perhaps for this reason, a fiction that a priori could have gone unnoticed managed to reach the hearts of many viewers. And that quiet fear, coupled with all those new strains of COVID-19 we’ve seen lately, are issues that are reflected in the new season of our favorite deer boy. During the new episodes, we don’t just see Gus and a group of cute hybrids trying to escape from General Abbot or Tommy trying to achieve the same goal. In fact, Dr. Adi, who here definitely reveals himself as a kind of anti-villain with complex motivations, is the most important character in the installment. It is because he is the only one who can find a cure in the face of the imminent threat of a new and deadlier outbreak of the disease. And this is something that, despite his horrible decisions, we can’t help but relate to.
Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review and Analysis
Two years may seem like a short time, but if they pass between one season and the next, especially in this period saturated with television products and works, they risk becoming a big risk. We realize immediately, as soon as the first episode of this second season of Sweet Tooth begins, that the time spent in taking back the reins of history and re-entering that world is really a lot. And this is how Sweet Tooth has a much more formidable opponent than its quality (we will talk about it in the next paragraph), and it is the perception of the spectator. Because these series, so well made and also so exciting, are increasingly invisible in the Netflix catalog, which is more attentive to bringing products from a huge audience to the fore. Sweet Tooth is placed in the middle: it is a series that is aimed at the whole family.
It may not be enough. That world and that interest in the characters appears as a specter of a forgotten past, so much so that it takes a while – unless you have prepared yourself with a rewatch – to re-enter the dynamics and relationships of the different characters. The post-apocalyptic world of Sweet Tooth continues to be fascinating, but the feeling is that of having lost along the way what made it so special and particular. The series is no longer surprising, except in those moments in which it caresses the viewer’s heart, with simplicity and that pure vision of the world, at a child’s height, which is often forgotten.
However, if we look at the quality of the series, we really cannot remain indifferent. With a particular look that manages to marry digital effects with animatronics and live action, Sweet Tooth manages to give a hard, dirty but full of wonderful atmosphere. The cast works well, even if it must be said that the real champions are the young actors, capable of immediately characterizing themselves with a joke, a look, or a way of putting themselves. The screenplay is no exception which, although not perfect, knows how to build an irresistible fairy-tale dimension, with the voice-over that gives an atypical sensation of narrative pleasure.
While settling on certain stylistic features typical of Netflix (incredible how season 2 somehow seems flattened compared to the first cycle of episodes), Sweet Tooth Season 2 raises the quality of the streaming platform, so much so that we really hope to be able to avoid – for once – the sad news of a cancellation. Because we need series like Sweet Tooth, different in their simplicity, unique in the way they excite, and pleasant like a hot herbal tea just before bedtime. I am not a person who loves this narrative device, but in Season 2 of Sweet Tooth, they work and provide content at the plot level. As I will explain later, the script is conservative, and it is in these returns to the past that progress is made in the plot, and we make interesting discoveries.
The effort of Netflix and DC to make a series for all audiences is noticeable, but not without resorting to violence and foul language when necessary. It is not a forbidden series for the little ones in the house, but they will have a hard time in some sequences. At least, the script does a magnificent job of finding the perfect balance between light and dark, between science fiction and the complexity of the genre, and constant homages to the adventure genre of the 80s and 90s that the youngest of the house liked so much. To the introduction of flashbacks, we add the feeling that the plot of Sweet Tooth does not advance as fast as in the first season. What’s more, it’s those returns to the past that I liked the most about a fairly conservative second batch of chapters. In the main timeline, some subplots contribute little and characters come and go, giving the feeling that 8 chapters of 1-hour duration were perhaps too many.
The second season of Sweet Tooth continues to offer a more endearing look at the apocalypse than usual, although it is true that this is a delivery whose darkness is more overwhelming at times. And is that all that tragic context that surrounds the characters and their acts, emerges here with much more force because basically we are shown the most violent side of them. However, despite the clear differences between the few remaining inhabitants of the world, the series continues to try to make the good out of all the horror we witness. It is also true that it feels somewhat repetitive as if there was no need or rush to advance the plot too much, since the five episodes that we have been able to see take place almost entirely in a single setting. In fact, to break this monotony, throughout the chapters, we learn much more about the events that led to the tragedy through flashbacks. Nonetheless, the series remains highly entertaining and manages to blend action, adventure, drama, and humor once again with great skill.
Sweet Tooth Season 2 Review: The Last Words
Sweet Tooth Season 2, confirms the fairy-tale and delicate quality of the first season, resulting in a series capable of exciting with little and with a successful visual contribution. The cast of young protagonists stands out. However, the years that have passed between the two seasons may no longer capture the audience as they once did, risking that Netflix may not renew this jewel of serial storytelling. Sweet Tooth Season 2 is made to please those who already enjoyed the first one. There is no radical change as happens with other series, but at least the spirit of wanting to be a different, well-produced Netflix product for all audiences is maintained. At a time when series become adults almost by obligation (like Stranger Things), a project like Sweet Tooth is always appreciated.
