Sweet Tooth:
The Complete First Season
review by Bobby Blakey
In 2021 Jeff Lemire’s Vertigo series Sweet Tooth was brought to life with an new series on Netflix. The series stars Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, Stefania LaVie Owen, Dania Ramirez and voice over narration by James Brolin. Could the series manage to bring LEmire’s unique story to life or will it be too wild to work?
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Sweet Tooth follows the world ten years after "The Great Crumble" wreaked havoc on the world and led to the mysterious emergence of hybrids, babies born part human, part animal. Unsure if hybrids are the cause or result of the virus, many humans fear and hunt them. After a decade of living safely in his secluded forest home, a sheltered hybrid deer-boy named Gus unexpectedly befriends a wandering loner named Jepperd. Together Gus and the Big Man set out on an extraordinary adventure across what's left of America in search of answers — about Gus's origins, Jepperd's past, and the true meaning of home. But their story is full of unexpected allies and enemies, and Gus quickly learns the lush, dangerous world outside the forest is more complex than he ever could have imagined.
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I am a lover of all things comic related, but admit that I had never read this series. I knew of it, but not much about the story itself so pretty much went in blind and came out the other side really digging it. It has a post-apocalyptic vibe that reminded me of the 2002 series Jerimiah with the animal twist added in. Even the premise is similar, but there is still a unique original feel to the series despite it being familiar ground.
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The series really sucks you in with the early story prior to Gus leaves on his journey. Watching his interactions with his father played by Will
Forte really sucks you in knowing that there is something bigger out there, but you can’t help but love the life they have builet and their rules for survival. It’s this short amount of time that really sets the tone to Gus and his personality and how he deals with things making him a more compelling character outside of the antlers. His chemistry with Jepperd is a love hate relationship, at least on Jepperd’s side that works perfectly and allows us to see the innocence of Gus shine through while having someone there to remind us of how dangerous the new world really is.
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On the flip side of Gus’s journey is a whole other story that is just as interesting involving the virus that keeps everything in check on the back story and showcasing the true craziness of people. These stories are on a collision course no doubt, but seeing them told in this two tier way gives it way more depth to what is possibly to come. Sometimes with the hybrids and road trip nature it gets more fantastical and you can easily forget that the world around them died at some point.
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I really dug this show and trying to keep it as cryptic as possible as everyone deserves to experience the journey themselves. It won’t work for everyone and not sure how comic accurate it is, but I am for sure looking forward to the next season.
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This collection offers up all 8 episodes of the first season and will no doubt be a must have for fans of the comic series. Grab your copy of Sweet Tooth: The Complete First Season when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 11th from Warner Archive Collection.