Tuesday, December 29, 2020

(TV SERIES) Sweet Home Season 1 - Intense, Suspenseful Sometimes Melodramatic Monster Action Series based on Popular Line Webtoon

I have noticed this series a while ago but chose to skip it as I was finishing other series or watching new movies released on various platforms. Few days ago though, my wife's friend asked whether I had seen this and I decided to give it a try, since the premise did seem interesting. OK, let's head down to the series now.

Brief Story Line

Hyun-soo (Song Kang - When the Devil Calls Your Name, Love Alarm TV series etc) was a suicidal high school student who just moved to a new apartment. One day, the apartment was suddenly put on lockdown along with other buildings, in what appeared to be precaution due to monsters attack in the whole country. A very composed and calm man named Eun-hyuk (Lee Do-hyun - 18 Again TV series etc) realized the best way would be to keep themselves safe in the apartment and tried to keep everyone inside including his rebellious younger sister Eun-yoo (Go Min-si - Secret Boutique TV series etc). 

Meanwhile Yi-kyung (Lee Si-young - Killer Toon, Liver or Die TV series etc), a former fire fighter who was in the apartment was trying to seek help from outside. There were many tenants from different background who were trapped inside the building, including a bass player Ji Su (Park Gyu-young - It's Okay to Not Be Okay TV series etc), a Korean language teacher Jae-heon (Kim Nam-hee), a middle aged man who lived alone Du-sik (Kim Sang-ho - Kingdom TV series etc), the terminally ill Mr. An (Kim Kap-soo) with his nurse Yu Ri (Go Yoon-jung) and few others. In addition, there was a mysterious guy who looked like a gangster named Sang-wook (Lee Jin-wook - Miss Granny, Glass Castle TV series etc) whose intention was unknown by the rest of the tenants.

To make things further complicated, apparently some of the monsters were already inside the apartment endangering the safety of everyone. So what would happen to all of them and what was the reason for this catastrophe? Find them all in this suspenseful, violent & sometimes dramatic action series.

End of Brief Story Line

Watching this series from the beginning I could not help to feel a familiarity with zombie movies/series in the sense that a group of people were being hunted by monsters (as opposed to zombies) plus the strong post-apocalpytic situation. However, as I continued further, there was a distinct difference between the monsters here and the zombies (and not just on the appearance, but it's better if you find it out by yourself). This difference signified the contrasting direction of the story development.

In the series, the large group of people living in the same apartment building were the stars of the show. The dynamic among the residents were interesting to watch as they struggle to survive in the almost impossible situation. The drama & tension were enhanced by the appearance of people from different age group and their characters. Once you got suicidal teenager, a mysterious tough guy, middle aged men, old couples, children, single parent and many other types of people in the mix, it surely would be a recipe of either disaster or unexpected close relationship.

The monsters in here were of different kinds but mostly very dangerous. The residents have to use all their abilities, strength and wits to overcome their attacks. The special effects of the monsters were great when they were in the dark, but once they were shown under the bright sun, the computer graphics became too obvious. But mostly I was quite satisfied with the special effects. I noticed during the closing credits that the monster effects were done by various companies (after reading more details on the internet, apparently they were experienced in creating effects for movies & series like Avengers and Stranger Things) so the quality in general should not be in doubt. 

The first season had 10 episodes with duration of around 44 to 59 minutes. I loved the 7th-8th episodes as the fight with monsters were truly intensified in here, especially after few episodes earlier were focusing more on drama. I also thought that 9th episode was different compared with the others but what truly excited me was the finale as there was 1 scene which I thought was totally awesome and dramatic at the same time, plus an ending which made me thrilled and looking forward to second season (I hope they would do it as by the time I wrote this post, there has not been any confirmation it will be continued). 

The series was based on successful Line Webtoon of the same title by Kim Kan-bi and Hwang Young-chan. According to information I read, there were new characters created for this series. After completing this, I thought that the main lead was definitely Song Kang as Hyun-su, but apparently there were 3 main cast while the rest were recurring characters. I liked some of the characters but my personal favorites were the mysterious Sang-wook, the teacher Jae-heon, the middle aged men Du Sik & Mr. An for various reasons. 

Overall this was an entertaining series. A different type of monsters as opposed to typical zombies were the main attraction in here, although I would have probably liked it better if there were more monsters to make the series more suspenseful and intense. Many of the characters were like ordinary people in real life making it convincing in term of story. There were well amount of drama & heartfelt moments (sometimes melodramatic) which would satisfy people who love this kind of attributes in a series. I am pretty sure that if my wife watch this, she would be emotional in many scenes. So if you like to see drama action of people surviving against monsters, then this would satisfy you.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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