Sweet Tooth, the Netflix drama adapted from Jeff Lemire’s comic book that just released its third and final season, has always felt a little like one of the streaming giant’s most underrated series.
Other Netflix fantasy series — like Stranger Things, The Witcher, and The Sandman — have earned an outsized share of acclaim and attention. Having said that, with the third season of Sweet Tooth having just earned a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, I feel safe in saying that showrunner Jim Mickle’s series also deserves to go down as one of the streamer’s best fantasies of all time. Maybe one of its best shows of all time, period.
The drama follows Gus, a hybrid boy with the appearance of a deer, who navigates a post-apocalyptic world after a virus has devastated humanity. It’s a story about survival, hope, and the search for one’s identity. “At the beginning,” Mickle said in a Netflix promotional interview, “I think you set out to tell these landmark pieces of Gus’ story and the big pieces of the comic book, but the beauty of long-form storytelling and Gus’ journey over 24 episodes is the characters themselves tell you what they want to be.
“The crew and cast bring so much depth and point of view to who the characters are and where they’ve come from and where they’re going.”
The final season of Sweet Tooth brings things full circle, offering up another road trip story that mirrors how the show began. Gus, Jepperd, Becky, and Wendy journey to Alaska to try and find Gus’s mother, Birdie. She’d been investigating the origins of the show’s deadly virus. Meanwhile, the group is joined by Dr. Singh, who has some dangerous ideas about Gus and his role in reversing the virus.
“With the clock to find answers running out,” Netflix explains, “alliances are tested and destinies intertwine, all leading to a thrilling climax that will determine the fate of humanity and hybrids.”
When it debuted back in Season 1, the show’s pandemic helped it convey a particular resonance for viewers who were still reeling from the real-life Covid pandemic. Sweet Tooth was, and still is, very much a breath of fresh air, an adventure you can get lost in and enjoy with the whole family.
Netflix, of course, churns out an insane amount of content from one week to the next, and that rigid adherence to volume means that quality often falls short. But with Sweet Tooth, this is the rare comic book adaptation that doesn’t ever put a foot wrong. The performances are heartfelt, the story is never less than interesting, the effects are great, and the end result of it all is a series that will go down as one of Netflix’s most unforgettable.
“Taken as a whole and with a conclusion that pays off this story in a delightful way … Sweet Tooth is the rare apocalyptic story full of hope and love,” raves a Collider reviewer.
