I’ve started watching this this week and have seen maybe five episodes. I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m enjoying it but I’m starting to get a bit irritated at the padding in each episode, I appreciate that wide-open vistas can be stirring but there’s way too much time spent panning over people walking. Secondly there are still so many subplots that need to be connected. So get there! Thirdly, I’m really not that interested in the doctor and his sick wife storyline. They were just conveniently saved in the last episode and I almost dislocated my eyeballs from rolling them so hard.
My 15 year old yelled at the TV multiple times because of that.
The phrase “Stay right here” is the most useless line of dialog ever.
Bad Batch nods.
LMAO - it seriously is. Sadly, in my experience, also useless in many real-life situations as well.
Watched it, liked it. The production design is decent enough, and there’s plenty of nicely composed shots. The cast also works well - especially given that so much here hinges on the quality of the child actors. Enjoyed Neill Sandilands chewing the scenery as General Abbott, although there is also a certain Dr. Robotnik vibe to the look of the character.
The story itself is engaging enough, but definitely also has a been-there-done-that feel to it. Father figure with traumatic family event in the past reluctantly taking a young one under his wings - nothing we haven’t seen before. Was positively surprised that there wasn’t an episode in which Jepp has to go cold turkey to overcome his reliance on painkillers. (Yet?)
Renewed for a season 2
I just finished this last night and have some pretty mixed feelings.
The biggest issue IMO is that the show is tonally & thematically wobbly and inconsistent about what it wants to be. It’s a dark fairy tale for sure, but also sci-fi, magical realism, a post-apocalypse, and somehow almost a kids show too. Some of those things work well together sometimes, but at other times the machinery of the mixed genres grinds against itself noisily and threatens to pull the whole construct apart. The not-quite-entirely-unlike-Leonard-Nimoy-but-also-not-exactly-not-Wilford-Brimley narrator is one example of this. He interrupts at least once or twice per episode, perhaps to add a touch of pointless foreshadowing, and ruins any gravitas the scene has developed by forcibly reminding you that this is a tale told for a naive ten year old (and maybe by a naive ten year old too). This dumb framing device is supposed to add drama to the scenes, but only serves to deflate them by reminding you that nothing too graphic can happen to Gus on screen.
The characters are, in general, well but unevenly developed. Most of the main characters have interesting back stories and we get an episode or so to explore each one. So far so good. But the character arcs and key plot developments are also ridiculously obvious and telescoped ridiculously early. A few characters that deserve more development (the scenery-chewing General Abbot) get absolutely nothing.
The show’s pacing and release strategy seem a bit askew as well. Sweet Tooth seems to make an explicit effort to leave every single major character in a dangerous & unstable cliff-hanger by the end of the season. But that’s hugely unsatisfying for the viewer because (1) there’s not much resolution anywhere and (2) the “secrets” that the show has revealed over the course of the season were painfully obvious to everyone already (see above). It’s almost as though the entire first season is “really” the first half of a split season, because what we have at this point feels maddeningly incomplete. Luckily it has since renewed for a second season so our time watching might pay off eventually.
It’s a shame that there are so many core issues, because the world building in the series is excellent and (some) characters are interesting. The timing couldn’t be more perfect / horrible (depending on your point of view). My wife was so squicked-out by the many parallels to our current COVID-fueled dystopia that she had to stop watching almost immediately.
Diego
So… did anyone have a go at season 2? It got released a few weeks ago to little fanfare. Maybe the numbers are good, but in my bubble I don’t know anyone who’s watched it among those who kinda dug the first season.
I did and it was… Fine? We get some answers about The Sick but overall didn’t feel like too much happened. There was an announce of a third and final season and I’ll watch it with minimal expectations.
Pretty much this. It felt a LOT more aimed at kids to me, and the mustache twirling was worse. Plus the defense montage was ridiculous. But certainly watchable. Just don’t expect distances to mean anything.
I’d agree; season 1 presented a brutal reality from an innocent’s eyes and the contrast was quite unique if not always perfect to behold. In season 2, I think they kind of lost the thread a bit. Still worth a watch, though.
Season 3 coming June 6.