Sweet Tooth: The Complete First Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Sweet Tooth: The Complete First Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Another DC story line that I wasn’t aware of, Sweet Tooth completely slipped under the radar for me ever since I pretty much stopped watching Netflix religiously during pandemic (I know, that seems counter intuitive doesn’t it?). I remember seeing the press release a month or so ago from Warner Brothers and immediately dug into the show a bit in hopes of finding out what’s what and came away intrigued. Funded by Robert Downey Jr., it played out as a sort of mutant family post apocalyptic tale and the trailers I allowed myself to consume (didn’t want to spoil it TOO much) seemed interesting. It apparently was based upon the 40 issue DC comic by Jeff Lemire, but was something I hadn't even heard of until now, so fast forward to this last week and I ended up enjoying this super sweet and heart warming tale of survival without the typical DC live action angst that we see on The CW.

Narrated by James Brolin, our story kick starts our adventure years after a global pandemic pretty much destroyed most of civilization. A virus of unknown origins has swept the globe, killing off vast quantities of people as well as the introduction of human/animal hybrid creatures. Most of the creatures are wiped out by a nomadic and post apocalyptic humanity, but a lone human/deer hybrid named Gus (Christian Convery) is raised out in the wilds away from the cruelty of human kind by his father Pubba (Will Forte in a surprisingly straight man role). That changes one day when his father is killed by roving mercs and Gus is left alone to fend for himself.

As luck would have it, lone wanderer Tommy (Nonso Anozie) stumbles upon the boy’s cabin and ends up reluctantly saddled with the young boy who wants Tommy to take him to Colorado where he believes his mother is. Simultaneously we get subplots revolving around the roving warriors and their motivations, as well as Dr. Singh (Adeel Akhtar) who is working to save his wife from the mysterious virus that nearly wiped out humanity, and hopefully find a cure in the interim.

Sweet Tooth is a bit saccharine, and a bit sugary in it’s delivery, but it manages to tell an engaging story that doesn’t fall prey to most other DC live action shows. It’s more story centric, with a sense of impending doom along with basic survival tale tropes to craft a story that is rich and full of texture, but also introduces us to some pretty fantastical fantasy stuff. At heart it’s a story about a boy and a man, but ultimately it’s a story of humanity and our capability to be just as violent and vicious as the animals that we claim to be superior to.

Even though it’s set in a post apocalyptic world, Sweet Tooth is rather laid back and tame. It’s got it’s moments of violence and terror, but it’s not meant to scare the living daylights out of you, and is more of a PG story when all is said and done. Even flashbacks about Tommy and his past misdeeds as well the tale about the virus and experimenting on hybrids is done rather tastefully. While most of the DC live action shows (outside of the The CW ones) have been heavy and dark in tone (Titans, Swamp Thing etc), Sweet Tooth is remarkably upbeat and hopeful, with a lighthearted and airy tone to it that is refreshing and sweet (pun intended).

There are moments of darkness and evil (Dr. Ahktars life in a gated community with the rest of a fearful humanity, assassins and roving mercs they meet on the road), but it’s a well balanced feel that doesn’t really revel in super duper happy joy joy, nor does it fall back on the age old adage of “if it bleeds, it sells” as well. At the end of the day Sweet Tooth is an engaging and well nuanced story that can actually be seen by the whole family without feeling overly kiddy. Something that DC live action shows have neglected for years it seems.





Rating:

Rated TV-14




Video:

The 2.20:1 framed AVC image (a more and more popular TV aspect ratio the last few years) is quite fetching, with a glossy and shiny digital image that sparkles in the son. It’s appropriately bright and cheery, with sun drenched forest scenes, and darker than pitch night time shots with very few things to bring the image quality down. Overall detail levels are superb, but the overall visual aesthetics of the show tend to be a bit blown out in the highlights at time, with that sort of honey colored glow that is popular right now. Skin tones are robust and even, and the darker scenes are appropriately dark and inky. I did notice some black crush and banding in said darker shots though, with a mild touch of out of focus edges that appears to be indicative of a chosen visual choice by the direction judging by how it’s utilized. Luckily with no extras and only 4 episodes per disc, we get a nice bitrate for the picture to really shine, and this 2 disc set shouldn’t disappoint anyone.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is robust as well, with great dialog, nuanced surround usage, and a fairly punchy low end when things get heated. As mentioned, the dialog is crisp and clean, with no signs of imbalance or other minor issues. Surrounds are actually quite heavily used, especially out in the forest where we get to hear leaves rustling under foot, a cracking of a branch out in the distance, or the general ambiance of a battle out in the woods. Bass is soft and mild for the most part, but when Tommy has to defend himself and Gus things can get a bit more intense. I won’t say that the track is shockingly amazing, but it checks off the boxes well enough and is a strong and dynamic mix.






Extras:

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Final Score: ​

All in all, I actually really enjoyed Sweet Tooth. It’s a short run of 8 episodes, and doesn’t feel overly bloated or self contained. It’s got a nice twist for the very last act, and happily it looks like season 2 is going to be coming shortly. Warner Archive’s Blu-ray and DVD release are a bit bare bones as we’d expect, but they’re done with solid video and audio encodes and it’s nice to see Netlflix streaming shows continue to get physical releases (cummon Amazon Prime, we’re waiting). Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Nonso Anozie, Christian Convery, Aliza Vellani, Adeel Akhtar, Dania Ramirez, Stefania LaVia Owen
Created by: Jim Mickle, Beth Schwartz
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers Archive Collection
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 480 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 11th, 2022

Recommendation: Check It Out

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I never heard of this but now, will check it out.