Sweet Tooth is back for a third season on Netflix and it's time for the story to come to an end.
When last we saw Gus/Sweet Tooth (Christian Convery), he was preparing to head to Alaska with Tommy "Big Man" Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), Becky/Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen), and Wendy Walker (Naledi Murray).
Season 3 picks up in the hours, if not minutes, of the aftermath of season 2. It definitely would not be the worst idea to watch the finale of the previous season before jumping back into this world. It is not, however, essential.
Based on a Vertigo comic of the same name, Sweet Tooth occupies a fully realized world that, perhaps, rings a bit too close to our own at times. Once a plague broke out across the planet, an odd coincidence sees the birth of hybrid children with a mixture of human and various animal breeds.
The strengths and weaknesses
Season 1 took us on a journey through this new world. Season 2 refined many aspects of the world, but also became a bit stagnant as it spent so much time in the zoo. Season 3 puts us back on the road, but sadly a lot of that road is in Alaska meaning, in its own way, it's like the zoo.
The greyness of the zoo is replaced with the white of Alaska as Gus and his crew try to find not only his mom, but the all-important cave that we have seen glimpses of.
Along the way, we do meet some new humans, as well as new hybrids on both sides of the good and bad guys. While new characters are always inevitable, it leaves you with just a few too many plates to spin this year. You have our regular crew to keep track of – which do get partially split up at one point, doubling their numbers to track – the bad guys, and the new crew in Alaska. It leads to a lot of jumping around and a definite air of a lack of focus.
As with the previous seasons, the high point is the acting. Convery continues to put in an amazing performance for such a young performer, let alone someone many years his senior. Everyone continues to turn in excellent work, and Kelly Marie Tran in particular gets some moments to shine as Rosie, the conflicted daughter of Rosalind Chao's Helen Zhang.
Ayazhan Dalabayeva as Nuka, an arctic fox (she makes that point VERY clear) hybrid steals every scene she is in.
Sweet Tooth review - It's worth the journey
We've known since its renewal that season 3 would be wrapping up the story, and it does just that. There is one moment left open to interpretation, but in general, you get a definitive ending to the story.
The problem is this final leg of the journey feels rushed. Despite having eight hours to tell the story in, there are moments that feel very compacted, and others that just seem to drag on forever.
If you already watched seasons 1 and 2, then, of course. wrap things up. If you're one of those folks who waits and sees if the overall journey was worth it, my recommendation comes in slightly lower. There are still a lot of really interesting things to check in with here, but the ending just feels a bit too much a victim of convenience and not so much of the "fate" that has been discussed in this story previously.
Disclaimer: Netflix provided Batman-News with all eight episodes of Sweet Tooth season 3 for the purposes of this review. We watched them to completion before beginning this review.