Sweet Tooth 2021 Reivew: The Series is a strange case of mis-adaptation
A boy who is half human and half deer survives in a post-apocalyptic world with other hybrids.
Gus learns about survival and the dangers that lurk beyond the fence to the outside world while growing up in a remote forest cabin with his father.
Netflix tries to make the pandemic palatable with this fantasy drama about an army of half-human, half-animal children. Born after the rise of a mysterious virus. You’re going to need a drink.
Sweet Tooth (Review phim moi) is a strange case of mis-adaptation. On its surface, none of its alterations to Jeff Lemire’s comic are necessarily problems; after all, switching up plot elements for a new medium can be exciting.
Netflix has lately been met with varying degrees of success with pure genre serial storytelling — shows that dig deep into surreality and find within it some level of heart. These are shows less like “Stranger Things,” which is built to have a broad, near-universally-understandable appeal. Than like “The Umbrella Academy,” unapologetically niche.
This series is certainly not perfect: Narration by James Brolin tends to lean heavily on truisms that tell little worth knowing. The episodes can feel baggily paced. And for a solo adult viewer, Gus’ journey may feel a little predictable in moments. But for the right kind of kid. So Sweet Tooth (Cau Be Gac Nai) might make for good family viewing; there is enough in the way of complication here to keep parents intrigued without sending the show spinning down into pure absurdity for its own sake.
The depiction of young people as literally a different species from their elders. Fighting for their right to exist in a world that doesn’t understand them, is a somewhat simple metaphor. But it would be churlish to deny its elemental power.