REVIEW #86 Sweet Tooth (2021)

Sweet Tooth is a Netflix series based on the DC comics by the same. After a sickness has wiped out a lot of the human population, babies are born half human half animal. Sweet Tooth (Gus) sets out on an adventure through this post-apocalyptic world in an attempt to find his mother, meanwhile he is hunted for being half human and half deer. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

Christian Convery plays Gus AKA Sweet Tooth and delivers a great performance which really surprised me considering he is only 11. Gus faces many challenges throughout the series which meant Convery had to portray a whole range of different emotions to authentically deliver his character, which he did well. You really connected with his character and was so invested in his journey, which is a credit to his performance. Nonso Anozie plays Tommy AKA Big Man and I am a big fan of his having enjoyed his performance in the series Zoo. He plays the sort of reluctant protector of Gus but his character has so many layers that the audience gets to see as the series goes on. He does well at portraying a man who has faced the full brunt of this sickness and someone who is on a redemption mission for his past behaviour which will hopefully get explored further in the 2nd season. James Brolin is the narrator of the series and I really enjoyed that aspect, his voice was perfect for that role and it did compliment the episodes. The acting across the board is actually pretty good, especially when there are a lot of flashback scenes because the actors had to portray what they were like before and then how that character has drastically changed to adapt to this post-apocalyptic world. Which they all did well!

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

I did hold off on watching this series first of all because I wasn’t sure about the storyline after watching the trailer. I am a big fan of films/series set in a post-apocalyptic world but the sort of half breed baby aspect I was a little hesitant about. However, that being said I was won over within the first couple of episodes. I don’t want to give too much away but the producers did really well at guiding the audience through the story, revealing slowly what caused the sickness and this gets you really hooked and it’s why I finished Sweet Tooth in pretty much one sitting! The flashback scenes were a nice addition to the series because it emphasises the impact of the sickness whilst providing some good character exploration. 

Everything is so nicely linked as well, it follows Sweet Tooth but also another character Aimee as she is setting up a safe place for the half breed children where they can be protected from the hunters. Each episode links those two journeys more and more and the connections between the characters are very well thought out. The one criticism I do have is the fact that I was confused by the impact of the sickness in different areas. There’s towns that look normal and not post-apocalyptic at all, compared to other areas that look completely uncivilised. So I think there was a little inconsistency there, perhaps that will be explained in season 2. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

There were some really nice scenes in this series, a lot of it is filmed in the wilderness so it had large forests and mountain scenery and that looked really good. The narration aspect was a nice way to complete the scenes as I mentioned earlier, providing any extra information that the audience needs to understand the story. The special effects were nice and subtle, for example the animal features on the half breed kids were actually pretty realistic and by being realistic the audience could connect to those characters. If the CGI was really poor the audience would lose interest and that investment in the characters is a crucial part of this series and it’s what gets you hooked. One scene that stood out in terms of cinematography was when Sweet Tooth is knocked out after he falls from a bridge and it transitions into a dream sequence which was executed really well. The camera sort of tilts round gradually, meanwhile the weather changes from nice and sunny to frosty and snowy which I thought was a nice way to portray that transition which made it really clear to the audience. There is a scene with a tiger in it, this is probably the one part that didn’t look that realistic to me but overall the effects and cinematography were good!

OVERALL (8/10)

I didn’t expect to enjoy this series as much as I did but I got invested in Sweet Tooth’s journey pretty quickly and the side plot of discovering how the sickness started also gets you hooked. The acting is pretty good across the board with 11 year old Christian Convery stealing the show and the chemistry between him and Nonso Anozie is great, as we see their characters bond over the 8 episodes. There is some nice cinematography throughout, I particularly enjoyed the wilderness setting because those scenes looked great! I do question the consistency a little because some cities look abandoned and derelict but some look untouched but there isn’t any explanation on why there is such a stark contrast. I enjoyed all the clever links between every character, they all have some sort of subtle connections that the audience can piece together more and more as the series goes on. I would definitely recommend Sweet Tooth, it’s on Netflix so be sure to check it out and let me know your thoughts. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan