The first season of the television series adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s post-apocalyptic comic book Sweet Tooth arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in a 2-disc barebones Blu-ray set.
The Production: 4/5
In the not too distant future, a deadly virus known as “The Sick” is accidentally released, killing most of the world’s human population and introducing animal-human hybrid children who are immune to the virus. Fearing that the hybrids brought on the virus, many of them are hunted and killed by fearful humans. Hybrid Gus (Christian Convery), who is part boy and part deer and birthed in a test tube in the same lab that released the virus, is saved by Pubba (Will Forte), who raises him for his first ten years in a remote cabin deep within Yellowstone National Park. When Pubba dies of The Sick, ten year old Gus tries to live on his own, armed with only a toy slingshot, until two poachers appear and hunt him down. Gus is ultimately saved by a wandering Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), who has a secret of his own. Jepperd reluctantly allows Gus to tag along on his journey, with Gus eventually wearing Jeppard down to help the young boy find his mother in Colorado. The two have many adventures, including staying overnight and restocking supplies with a family of three who are camping out in a deserted gift shop and meeting up with an army of children led by Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen). But they are also being hunted by General Abbot (Neil Sandilands), who wants to experiment on the hybrids to find a cure for The Sick, and attempts to enlist Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar), whose wife (Aliza Vellani) has been receiving experimental vaccines.
Sweet Tooth is not your typical post-apocalyptic tale of a dystopian future. While Gus is indeed in danger most of the time, and there are horrible things that happen to both hybrids and people, it is still a very charming story with a hopeful thread running through it, aided by the warm narration by James Brolin. The series began production in the summer of 2020, premiering on Netflix as an original series one year later on June 4, 2021. It was a rather ballsy move by the major streamer, as the show does reflect the times we were in or appeared heading in at that time. The gamble paid off, as it quickly became one of the most popular series streaming on the platform that summer and was renewed for a second season (currently in production) on July 29, 2021.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
Although Sweet Tooth streamed on Netflix in 2160p with Dolby Vision, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is releasing the first season on 1080p Blu-ray in a 2-disc set, with four episodes per disc. This is a fairly solid presentation, with very good fine detail and color reproduction. Flesh tones are accurate and overall colors never appear over saturated, nor do they appear muted (a post-apocalyptic standard). Contrast is very good, with deep blacks with strong shadow detail and no noticeable crushing. Interestingly, the Netflix logo at the beginning of each episode has been removed.
Audio: 4.5/5
Sweet Tooth on Blu-ray contains the same 5.1 mix heard on Netflix, but in lossless DTS-HD MA. This is a fine mix, with active surrounds where necessary with sound effects and music primarily. LFE is very good, adding some nice low-end to thuds, explosions, thunder, etc. Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout. There are no other audio options on the disc, despite there being an Audio heading on the main menu.
Special Features: 0/5
The 2-disc set contains no extras whatsoever.
Overall: 4/5
Sweet Tooth is a very enjoyable and entertaining series (at least this first season). Presentation is very good, but don’t expect to find any extras.
Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.
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