(TV SERIES) Sweet Tooth Season 1 - A Dark and Sometimes Depressing Fantasy Series that got Better as it Progressed

On Friday, this new series was released on Netflix which I was a bit doubtful to give a try since I was not familiar with the character and it looked weird too. But when I read that it was well received by critics, I decided to give it a try and finished in 1 day. All right, let's dive into it.

Brief Story Line

Story was set during the time when the world was hit by a deadly virus while at the same time new born babies were somehow became a hybrid of half human and animal. A deer-boy named Gus (Christian Convery) had to be raised by his father Pubba (Will Forte - Scoob!, Keanu etc) in the forest to avoid being captured by people who believed hybrids were the cause of the virus. After 9 peaceful years though, Gus met with a traveler named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie - Artemis Fowl, Zoo TV series etc) and decided to leave the forest with him. During their journey, they met with a young woman who was the leader of resistance movement and called herself Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen - Messiah TV series etc). 

Meanwhile, a Doctor Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar - Enola Holmes etc) was trying to find cure for the virus while secretly treating his wife Rani (Aliza Vellani) who was one of those infected. At the other side of the country, a survivor of the virus and former therapist named Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez - Devious Maids TV series etc) decided to create a safe heaven for hybrids called the Preserve. However, it also became the target of the ruthless army called The Last Men whose sole purpose was cleansing the hybrids.  

So what would happen to Gus during his journey? Find them all in this first season of fantasy series.

End of Brief Story Line

When I watched the pilot episode, I honestly did not know what to expect and just went with the flow. My first impression in the beginning was it looked like a drama series focusing on the hybrid deer-boy whose life has been hard from the beginning. And as I continued watching, I could not help to feel a bit depressed, especially when the deadly virus was shown to be spreading and resulted to a seemingly post-apocalyptic world.

But when Gus started to interact with Jepperd and later on other people, his naivety and positive sense of the world was refreshing to see. He truly brightened the mood with his attitude and I was really rooting for him. As the story progressed, I thought it got better and better. Once I reached episode 6, I thought it was the best episode of the first season. But somehow, episode 7 got even better. And to top it off, the season finale was actually more awesome. I think this is one of those rare series where it constantly and gradually improved, unlike other series where usually only 1 or 2 good episodes in the middle or it became anticlimactic in the end. 

The series main attraction for me was the wonderful performance by young Christian Convery. I think he played his role perfectly and made audience truly sympathized him. Nonso Anozie was also amazing as Jepperd. It was so heart warming seeing his interaction with Gus. I also enjoyed the performance of Will Forte as the beloved Pubba. His character was one that left a deep impression to me. Btw, the series was narrated by James Brolin (Traffic, Hotel TV series etc). I kept on thinking why his voice did not sound familiar, until later I realized that I was thinking of Josh Brolin, his son.

Sweet Tooth was adapted from comics of the same title by Jeff Lemire which was published through DC comics' Vertigo imprint. Well known works that were released through Vertigo and have been adapted to series are iZombie, Lucifer, Preachers and few others. This would explain the Warner Bros Television logo shown in the beginning as they were one of the production companies, even though it was developed for Netflix. I also noticed the names of Susan Downey & Robert Downey Jr as co-executive producers. 

Overall this series was pretty unique. It may not start as brightly as other series but the improvement as the story progressed was really worth the time. I could definitely understand why it has a very high critical ratings. For me personally though, the virus part was a bit depressing as it felt too close to home with the current pandemic situation. And despite DC comics was mentioned during opening scenes, this is not a superhero series. It is a story about a boy in a journey to search for answers. So if you are looking for a series with this kind of story and its dark attributes, then you could definitely enjoy it. But if a superhero series is more to your liking, then this would not satisfy you. The choice is yours.

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