Sweet Tooth (2021) Review: A Gentle End of the World

Is Sweet Tooth worth watching?

Yes. Sweet Tooth is a rare post-apocalyptic series built on kindness rather than cruelty, a storybook adventure with a big heart and a lovely central performance from Christian Convery. It finds wonder in a world that has fallen apart and makes a genuinely affecting found-family story out of an unlikely pairing. The reservation is that its gentleness sometimes blunts the drama, and its villains and world-building are thinner than its emotional core.

What is Sweet Tooth about?

A mysterious virus known as the Sick has devastated humanity, and at the same time babies have begun to be born as hybrids, part human and part animal. Frightened survivors blame the hybrids for the pandemic, and many are hunted. Gus (Christian Convery), a curious boy with antlers and deer ears, has grown up hidden in a remote forest, raised by his father and told never to leave.

When circumstances push him out into the world, he falls in with Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), a huge, taciturn drifter with a violent past who reluctantly agrees to travel with him. Their journey across a transformed America brings them into contact with other survivors, including a doctor searching for a cure (Adeel Akhtar) and a fierce teenager leading a band of hybrid defenders (Stefania LaVie Owen).

Sweet Tooth was developed for television by Jim Mickle from Jeff Lemire’s comic book series and made for Netflix. It is an American production in English. This review covers the complete story: three seasons and 24 episodes released between 2021 and 2024. The show has ended.

A fairy tale told through a child’s eyes

The show’s defining choice is its point of view. Everything is filtered through Gus’s innocence and optimism, so the ruined world looks less like a wasteland than an overgrown storybook, full of meadows, abandoned theme parks and strange new creatures. A warm narration framing the story reinforces the sense of a fable being told.

The production is beautiful to look at, with lush natural locations and gentle, imaginative design for the hybrid children. The effect is closer to a classic family adventure film than to grim apocalypse drama, and that makes Sweet Tooth distinctive in a crowded genre. It also lets the series explore prejudice and fear of difference in a way younger viewers can grasp.

An odd couple worth following

Christian Convery is the show’s great find. He plays Gus with a guileless enthusiasm that never becomes cloying, and his wide-eyed reactions carry much of the series’ charm. Nonso Anozie gives Jepperd a weary, protective tenderness that slowly surfaces through his guarded exterior, and the growing bond between the gigantic loner and the tiny boy is the show’s emotional anchor.

Adeel Akhtar brings real complexity to the doctor, a decent man whose choices become increasingly compromised as he chases a cure, and his storyline provides the series’ most morally interesting material.

Where the softness costs it

The same gentleness that makes the show appealing also limits it. The antagonists, particularly the militia hunting hybrids, are often broadly drawn, and the plotting relies on convenient escapes and reunions. The mythology surrounding the Sick and the origin of the hybrids is less satisfying than the character work, and some storylines feel rushed as the series moves towards its conclusion. Readers of Lemire’s much bleaker comic may find the adaptation too sanitised.

Who should watch Sweet Tooth?

It suits families with older children, fans of fantasy adventure and anyone who wants a post-apocalyptic story that is hopeful rather than harrowing. Three seasons of eight episodes each make a moderate, easy-going binge. There is peril, some violence, death and themes of pandemic and loss, which may upset younger viewers, but nothing graphic by genre standards.

If you enjoy it, consider these next:

• The Umbrella Academy, another Netflix comic-book adaptation about unusual children, with a louder, more chaotic tone.
• Shadow and Bone for a young-adult fantasy quest built around a hero with a gift others fear.

The verdict

Sweet Tooth is an unusually warm-hearted take on the end of the world, a fable about hope and belonging carried by a delightful young lead and a moving central friendship. It sometimes plays too safe and its world-building is thin, but its sincerity and craftsmanship make it an easy recommendation.

Rating: 4/5