Sweet Tooth Review

A charming coming-of-age story wrapped in post apocalyptic tragedy, Sweet Tooth manages to address its horrific circumstances with tenderness and warmth. Based on the Vertigo comic-book series by Jeff Lemire, the show brings childlike wonderment to a scary post-pandemic world which differs from the darker more complicated source material.

The Great Crumble was a virus that killed much of the world’s human population; those infected had a telltale symptom: A shaky left pinkie. One of the first observers was Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar), and when his wife Rani (Aliza Vellani) comes down with the virus, life as we knew it was already going to hell.

There, he sees another phenomenon for the first time: Babies being born that are half-human, half-animal. They end up being called “hybrids,” and no one knows whether “the sick” brought about the hybrids or the other way around. One man (Will Forte) decided to take his son, a half-deer hybrid, out to the wilderness, away from everyone, and raise the boy on his own.

Gus (Christian Convery) and his dad are, of course, very close. At certain points, he tries to follow a doe he sees in the woods, thinking it’s his mother. But his dad says his mother is gone, and he repeats his most important rule: Don’t go beyond the fence. He ignores flyers that are dropped that mention a hybrid preserve where they can be safe.

One day, a poacher comes to the cabin and marks the territory. Gus’s dad has him hide while he goes to look for those poachers. He comes back days later, but has “the sick”.

Gus starts to get frustrating living on his own. He starts a fire in the daytime, which attracts more poachers. He finds the box his dad buried containing the picture of his mother, at “R.R. Colorado”. As he tries to set out to find her, poachers try to catch him, surprised that he can talk and dresses like a person. Gus is saved by Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) a former pro football player who advises Gus to stay put and don’t attract more poachers. But Gus wants to find his mother, so he follows the “Big Man” (Jepperd calls Gus “Sweet Tooth”) outside the park, much to the Big Man’s chagrin.

Our Rating: 3.5/5

Top or Flop: Top

Watch-O-Meter Rating: "Phone Off"