Sweet Tooth - Season 1 - TV Review

In media the end of the world is a horrifying experience. From zombies, half-naked marauders, cannibals, mutated wildlife, and radiation poisoning are a few of the many things that bring up the end of the world. Kind of understandable why apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic settings are some of my favorites in media. They push characters to their limits, forcing people who live a relatively peaceful life to extremes and if they don't adapt enough they die. But what if humanity went out more peacefully? Like Thanos's snap from the MCU or if a virus worse than COVID-19 appeared and wiped out millions around the world in a matter of weeks? There would a fight for survival, but with a lot less dangers other than other humans. This brings us to the newest post-apocalyptic show to hit mass media: Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth is a TV show based on a comic series of the same name. It takes places 10 years after a mysterious virus began to ransack the Earth, killing off most of humanity. But just as the virus began to wreak havoc, babies that were being born suddenly began to be born... part animal? Children that were part dog or part bird or part anything began to be born. One of these kids, called Hybrids, is named Gus (Christian Convery), a deer boy raised out in the wilderness by his father, Richard (Will Forte). Soon after his ninth birthday though Richard contracts the deadly disease that had wiped out so many others and dies, leaving Gus all alone. But a year later, after an encounter with some bandits, Gus meets Tommy Jeppard (Nonso Anozie). Unable to live in his home without knowing whether his mom is still alive or not, Gus joins with a reluctant Tommy and the two form an unlikely bond as they travel across America to find Gus's mother.

Looking into the original source material it seems this live-action adaptation was toned down some from its darker version. Now normally I'd be upset by that, but the reasoning behind it actually is a pretty good one: There is an over-saturation of dark, dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories in media. Think about it, think of story like this that isn't incredibly violent, brutal, and full of death and dark themes? We've had lots of these stories from Mad Max to The Walking Dead and seeing a new type of apocalyptic show with a lighter tone was actually a really pleasing experience for me. I can honestly say this is a PG13, or even just a PG, apocalypse show. There has been no graphic violence in this first season, hardly any blood, and no moments that are worth covering your eyes for because they're so horrifying.

But even with this change you have to have good writing. I'm glad to say that Sweet Tooth's first season has pretty good writing to it! There are several different plotlines to follow for the show beyond Gus and Tommy (also called Big Man by Gus). Another plotline involves Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez), a former therapist, and her adopted hybrid pig daughter, Wendy (Naledi Murray), taking in other hybrids to protect from the Last Men (this world's main antagonists). And then there is Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar), a doctor desperate to cure his wife, Rani Singh (Aliza Vellani), of the virus and make a cure. All of them connect to each other in some way and while Gus's storyline with Big Man is the most engaging and shown story they're all interesting to watch. I do wish though that there was more depth to the non-Gus storylines because they had some interesting moments in them.

There were a few other problems though. For Aimee and Eden's story it begins earlier in the timeline, but that never fully explained to the audience. Aimee adopts Wendy when she's just a baby and the hybrids only start appearing once the virus appears. This is made worse in that this start is shown when Gus and Tommy are starting their adventure, so when in the next episode Wendy is now 9 years old some people will be scratching their heads. I also think that the main villain of the series right now, General Abbot (Neil Sandilands) could have been developed more because right now he's mostly just a mustache-twirling villain. He needs to do more than just be creepy and menacing and who orders people about, we need to see him personally do evil and/ or morally questionable things.

A big positive the show has is the child performances. Since children are one of the main plot points of the show the child acting would need to be strong for this show and it is. Christian Convery is excellent as Gus, having a childish innocence and accidental trouble-making to him while not being annoying to the audience. He drives the plot very well and there is an interesting mystery about him later on in the show. Seeing him not know about things as simple as caramel or "I Spy," was very sweet to watch and really made me like him. There are also great child performances from Naledi Murray and Stefania LaVie Owen, who plays a girl named Bear. With me having strong parental instincts (even though I'm a single man with no children) I was very passionate for the safety of these children. Even though this is a lighter-toned show than the original comics I still just wanted them to be safe and happy.

I also got to give props to Nonso Anozie and his excellent performance as Tommy. The last movie he was in was Artemis Fowl and that was... a complete disaster. Here in Sweet Tooth though he's able to put on a much stronger, more memorable performance. At first he's not that talkative and very unwilling to help Gus out, but even with that you see sparks of kindness in his heart and it was so great to see it slowly come out. Plus he did some pretty good action scenes. All the adult actors did good jobs with their performances but Nonso Anozie, along with Adeel Akhtar and Dania Ramirez, were really good!

The show though does have a big problem that cannot be ignored: The special effects. They're not terrible, but so often the backgrounds and digital effects were noticeable. I tried to look into what the budget for the show was with no success, but I feel it should have at least been better than what we got. I didn't mind it too much since CGI technology has advanced so fast we're expecting realistic as possible effects in every live-action media and video game. Also the story kept me invested enough to not really mind the effects. But they still were bad enough that I think people are still going to complain about it online.

Saying this though I did like what they do for the hybrids. I believe it's a mix of CGI and makeup, but the way some of them look is really cool. Gus's antlers and deer ears looked really realistic, making him still like a human boy, but also something more than that. Also Wendy's pig ears and nose were excellently shown. There other kids with more animal life features than these two and these can be almost entirely animals that stand on two legs, like Bobby the gopher boy(?). Don't worry people, they don't look horrifying, this isn't like Cats, but they can look odd with some of their designs.

This leads us to our final topic of the review. One of the main themes of Sweet Tooth is parenthood, specifically towards children that aren't biologically your own and what that can mean the child and the adult. I have had some interesting friends over the years, some adopted while others were unexpected children. Sometimes it can be hard to raise and love a child that isn't your own and Sweet Tooth shows that pretty well. It honestly improves the lighter tone the show takes with its focus on parents and their children. This subject in the show got tears out of me multiple times because of the sacrifices these guardians make to protect the kids under their wings.

Sweet Tooth has had a great first season. While the writing could be better in a few places, the tone is lighter than in the source material, and the CGI could be massively improved, the story overall was pretty good and the performances across the board were great! I believe this show is worth additional seasons since it has captured the hearts of a lot of viewers and it has some unique traits worth expanding on. It just needs to keep up the writing and improve upon the effects and we'll have a pretty dang good show.

Tentative Score: 7.5/10

At long last Robert Downey Jr. gets a break! Almost all the other Avengers have gotten their taste of glory after leaving the MCU/ becoming less involved with Marvel expect Downey. Until now!