Sweet Tooth 3 Review – Slow, Glum, But Glorious End for Gus’ Odyssey
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Sweet Tooth” Season 3 probably comes closest to being as grim and dark as Jeff Lemire’s original comic-book series, on which the Netflix series is based. Spanning eight episodes, the season sees the adorable Christian Convery back as protagonist Gus, who embarks on an epic journey to Alaska with his friends to find his mother Birdie (Amy Seimetz), who is looking for a cure for the Sick.
Episode one of “Sweet Tooth” Season 3 opens with a flashback set in Alaska, which serves as a prologue to how the Sick might have started. It establishes a mysterious tone for the post-apocalyptic show, where most of humanity is wiped out and the rest struggles to come to terms with their new reality – a strange, incurable sickness continues to kill them, and humans only give birth to hybrid children who are part animal, part human, and immune to the Sick. Josh Brolin reprises his role as the narrator, with his heavy-set, worldly-wise voice leading viewers through the stormy, whirlwind journey of a small boy with big dreams.
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Viewers are then taken to the current timeline where Gus, Jepperd AKA Big Man (Nonso Anozie), Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen), and Wendy (Naledi Murray) strategize on how to get to Alaska. Gus experiences strange visions of a cave and is convinced that he could help Birdie find the cure. However, even though the blood-thirsty group ‘The Last Men,’ who persecuted hybrid children like Gus, no longer exists, a nefarious criminal syndicate led by a woman called Zhang (Rosalind Chao) is now after Gus. So, the group must move fast before they are imprisoned and tortured.
If you thought the last season was a lot darker than “Sweet Tooth” Season One, which was more like a mash-up between a bright Disney fantasy and a dark “Walking Dead”-style dystopian tale, let me tell you this—season three bears almost no resemblance to the first one. There are no ‘sweet’ moments or sunny sequences, although at least the road trip theme is back! Like season one, Gus is back on the road to get to his mother Birdie, a scientist desperately trying to unlock the secrets of what went wrong with the world. It’s quite different from season two, where everybody was trapped in different situations and were busy trying to free themselves from the shackles they were bound in.
Adeel Akhtar reprises his role as the obsessive Dr. Aditya Singh, one of the most morally conflicted characters of “Sweet Tooth.” This time around, he doesn’t want to cut up Gus for experiments; instead, he claims he wants to help him reach Alaska to find Birdie. The writers throw in some mystical mumbo-jumbo about fate in the story, which just felt too far-fetched for me—Dr. Aditya Singh says he has been having visions similar to Gus’s and asserts they are fated to work together. The first three episodes struggle with pace; there’s plenty of uncertainty over what’s going to happen with Gus and his gang, and things only become certain and gripping from episode 4 onward, when Gus finds a definitive way to get to Alaska.
Episode 4, in fact, is one of the most somber editions of all “Sweet Tooth” episodes so far, where Gus faces death in a way no kid his age should have to. It’s a heart-breaking installment where the deer-shaped boy does a lot of growing up in just one night. Christian Convery continues to be the beating heart of the show as Gus, the ever-optimistic deer-boy who, despite his horrid experiences with humans, still sees the best in people. Nonso Anozie as his guardian-cum-bodyguard Jepperd, who Gus still fondly refers to as Big Man, continues to be fiercely protective of the boy, and their bond shines through as always. Stefania LaVie Owen is as feisty as ever as Bear, although she is awkward with her newfound ‘older sister’ status with Wendy. I was hoping to see definitive growth in Bear and Wendy’s relationship, but the two don’t have as many interactions, although the sisters do have each other’s backs until the end.
The warm bond between the already established characters is the most likable thing in season 3 of “Sweet Tooth,” as their interactions are a testament to the power of friendship. Bear delivers a memorable reinterpretation of the quote “blood is thicker than water,” suggesting that the water in the saying symbolizes the fluid surrounding a baby in the womb, while the blood represents the sacrifices made during battles and strife. Thus, bonds forged in adversity are portrayed as stronger than biological relations. I think that was my favorite dialogue from the season.
The creators also introduce many new characters throughout the eight episodes. Some of those who stand out are Kelly Marie Tran as Rosie, Zhang’s older daughter, who relentlessly pursues Gus and has a tragic backstory; Cara Gee and Ayazhan as the mother-daughter duo Ciana and Nuka, who are friends with Birdie in the snowy Alaska. Ayazhan is the season’s most cheerful character, a fox hybrid child whose blue eyes glint with hope, joy, and a zest for life. And if you were wondering—Zhang and her cronies are just as bad as The Last Men, to the point that I was anxious about the motives of almost every new character introduced.
Since getting to Alaska is the primary focus of the protagonists, the cinematography is dominated by a snowy landscape, which flits between being beautiful and grimly ominous. There are very few colorful scenes to exude any sense of positivity in “Sweet Tooth 3”, instead, a warm palette and forbidding settings tower over the runtime, which fittingly complement the bleak tone of the story. But after having fallen in love with the bright first season, some fans would’ve like to see some visual breaks and comic relief in between.
“Man versus Nature” emerges as the dominant theme in “Sweet Tooth 3,” with Gus learning the harsh lesson that maybe humans deserved the fatal sickness that plagues their kind. Can the sick really be stopped? If so, how? Some seem to have brutally bizarre ideas of how things “can be fixed,” and I was quite disappointed with the ultimate origin story, which remains slightly cryptic until the end and feels like watching something about a pantheistic cult. There’s a ridiculous “Black Panther”/“Thor”-like sequence towards the end, where Gus meets somebody in a different realm, akin to how the Black Panther and Thor meet their ancestors for guidance, and the conversation helps Gus take the next course of action.
Despite all the not very convincing plot twists nearing the end, the climax gives Gus and his friends a picture-perfect finish—an end so satisfactory that it washes over all the little complaints one might have with the rest of the story. It’s an epic ending for the sweet deer-boy who journeys to the end of the world—Alaska—to fulfill his destiny and maybe save the world! The climax makes this season totally worth the watch.
Rating: 7.5 on 10. Stream the show on Netflix.
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