Sweet Tooth: Season 1: Netflix Review

There's a naive innocence that infects much of Sweet Tooth, the palatable pandemic tale that's so swathed in Spielbergian niceness that it's almost too saccharine to bear.

Yet, despite this purity on the big screen, the series is equally adept at spinning a tale to cling to, and one of such contrasts in part that it proves addictively enjoyable.

It's the story of the world after the "Great Crumble" when a virus infects the world, eliciting the US President to tell viewers to pray for each other rather than offer platitudes just moments before mandatory evacuations set in. As the world falls apart thanks to sufferers demonstrating early symptoms of the H5G9 virus such as little fingers shaking, another first emerges - the birth of children that appear to be half-animal, half human. 

These hybrids as they're known soon come to be hunted and feared as harbingers of the Sick (as it's known). One such hybrid is an antlered Gus (a sweet Christian Convery) who lives in the woods with his father Pubba (Will Forte) and who's schooled by his pops to avoid human contact, and run at the first sign of trouble.

But trouble inevitably comes calling and soon Gus is into a whole brave new world, with new threats emerging - and with only the reluctant help of Big Man (Nonso Anozie) to get him through....

Despite being set in a post-apocalyptic world, Sweet Tooth is remarkably tame - even in flashbacks the darkness is fairly well reined in. It's a refreshing change from the bleakness of the likes of The Walking Dead, where drawn-out misery is de rigeur. It helps that Sweet Tooth is only an 8 episode outing, and is done in a little under six hours.

But tone is important to Sweet Tooth, and while some have railed against the darkness of the DC Comics source material being light on the ground in the TV outing, the series has an approachable easy quality that makes it comfortable to dive into.

The message of hope throughout is nicely laid out, and while Gus infects all those around him with the emotion indirectly, viewers are also left with an overriding sense of optimism.

There are darker moments though - such as a concurrent narrative involving Adeel Akhtar's conscientious doctor and his life in a gated community with his ill wife. It's here the horror of humanity in a post apocalyptic world comes more to the fore - and the briefer jaunts to that world serve only to underline the horror of what could lie outside of deer boy Gus' perception.

Yes, there is an undeniable sweetness to Sweet Tooth and some of the more lurid edges of the nastier natures may have been dulled, but it makes for a refreshingly compelling almost family-friendly adventure, reminiscent of the Goonies and worthy of a solid six hours of investment.