Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sweet Tooth’ On Netflix, Where A Deer-Boy And A Former Football Player Roam A Post-Apocalyptic America

We throw around the word “twee” a lot when it comes to TV shows that revel in their own preciousness. The ur-example of this was Pushing Daisies, which likely would have run for many seasons these days, but was probably a little too precious for ABC in 2007. But so many more shows have come out during the era of Peak TV that something like Sweet Tooth doesn’t even feel that bad, despite the presence of a 10-year-old with antlers and cuddly deer ears. But, surprisingly, the show balances the preciousness-drama line well. Read on for more.

SWEET TOOTH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “This is the story of a very special boy,” says the narrator (James Brolin) as we see the picture of a baby, then see a man walk into Yellowstone National Park, “who found himself at the end of the world. But our story doesn’t begin here. We have to go back to before The Great Crumble.”

The Gist: 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. He busts through barricades and personnel in hazmat suits to get Rani to the hospital.

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, when Gus is 9, 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 — Gus, always with his sweet tooth, subsisted on maple syrup — but has “the sick”. He spends his last days telling Gus how much joy raising him has been, but he sends his son out to collect duck eggs, knowing the end was coming.

As he turns 10, 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.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Sweet Tooth, based on Jeff Lemire’s DC comic series, feels to us like a more twee version of post-apocalyptic series like The Walking Dead or, more closely, The Stand.

Our Take: Jim Mickle (Hap And Leonard) adapted Lemire’s story for TV, and he could have really tumbled the narrative into something ridiculously precious and annoying. The fact that he didn’t is an achievement in and of itself. But, he somehow not only kept the show from being precious, he gave us a slowed-down introduction to Gus, letting us know that his main character has been given humanity and a code of ethics from a father who was smart enough to hide when things started going sideways.

Since 90% of the episode focuses on Gus, we decided to watch the second episode, to get an idea of where Mickle is going with this story. As the Big Man gets used to having little Gus tailing him, they discover a family living at a Yosemite visitor’s center. But it also gives us more on the story of the Singhs, who have somehow survived the pandemic, and a couples therapist named Aimee (Dania Ramirez), who came out of isolation to thrive in an abandoned zoo… until something’s dropped off for her that will change her life.

Mickle certainly is following the post-apocalyptic formula of following different people who have survived and then seeing them come together. But Gus and the Big Man is the story we kept wanting to return to in that second episode, and the story they got was the most satisfying. It’s because of the classic kid-gruff guy dynamic; it’s worked for decades and works here, mainly because Convery doesn’t play Gus as cutesy and Anozie doesn’t play the Big Man completely without heart and empathy. You just know that, as much as the Big Man complains that Gus is slowing him down, he’ll begrudgingly keep the kid close, mainly because he knows that bad people are out there and, even though Gus can handle himself, all hybrids are at great risk.

The episodes are punctuated with lightly funny moments that skewer the self-seriousness a show like this can fall into if it’s not careful; the scenes where we see Gus’ eyes glow in the dark are especially creepy and chuckleworthy.

As much as we’d like the show to just be about the wanderings of Gus and the Big Man, we’re also happy that the show is focusing on other survivors, even if their stories aren’t as compelling as the main one. At some point, those stories may become more interesting — the Singhs story already is trending that way at the end of the second episode — but at least they’re there to keep the show from sliding into tweedom.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Gus calls over a cliff: “Big Man! Take me!”

Sleeper Star: We know that Will Forte is capable of a fine dramatic performance, but he shines here as Gus’ dad. We hope to see him in some flashbacks as the season goes on.

Most Pilot-y Line: As much as we love James Brolin, his narration is what made us wonder if the show was going to be too precious to begin with. Hopefully, the show will be less dependent on his narration as the season goes on.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We were surprised how engaged we were with Sweet Tooth, even though it’s a show about a virus that wipes out most of humanity; it’s not something you want to contemplate as the real pandemic we’re suffering through winds to a close. But good performances and an adaptation that grounds things into some sort of reality saves the show from eye-rolling preciousness.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Sweet Tooth On Netflix