Post-apocalyptic shows are a dime a dozen and most of them walk viewers through similarly bleak and depressing worlds destroyed by a world-ending event. The overarching world in one of Netflix‘s best post-apocalyptic shows is no less dark, but the series brilliantly subverts many tropes of the genre by leaving audiences with a sense of hope and optimism.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with post-apocalyptic shows, like The Last of Us, that portray the extremes of human desperation and moral collapse, the genre seems to be full of grim storytelling that rarely leaves room for positivity. At the same time, their chilling portrayal of world-ending events and their aftermath also limits their reach to an adult audience.

The Netflix post-apocalyptic show in question, however, attempts to bring something new to the table by forming a hopeful yarn into some of the most depressing aspects of the sci-fi subgenre.

Post-Apocalyptic Shows Are Often Too Bleak, But Sweet Tooth Defies The Norm

Post-apocalyptic shows often riff on our “ultimate reset” fantasies by showing worlds where humans are free from the complexities of everyday life but struggling to survive each day. While some of these shows stay grounded in realism, others become wildly imaginative and even adopt supernatural elements. Almost all of them, however, do not shy away from capturing the extreme lengths humanity will go to sustain itself and restore the lost world order.

The narrative foundation of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth rests on similar tenets. It unfolds in a bleak world where a pandemic wipes out most adult humans while the survivors grow increasingly desperate to find a cure.

However, Sweet Tooth balances its darker aspects with its sense of wonder and colorful, fantastical world-building. Some of its key characters are young half-animal, half-human children who symbolize a strange but fascinating new chapter for the planet.

Interestingly, Sweet Tooth is based on a comic book series of the same name. The original Sweet Tooth comics are known for getting increasingly dark and featuring story arcs where they do not hold back from portraying the darkest human traits in the most brutal ways. Changing the source material for the small screen can always be tricky, but Sweet Tooth does it brilliantly by softening the comics’ narrative.

While ensuring that the emotional and thematic depth of the comics remains intact, Netflix’s Sweet Tooth reinterprets the original story with an almost fairy-tale-like lens that makes it more accessible and family friendly.

It is not all sunshine and rainbows throughout its runtime. But even in its darkest story beats, Netflix’s Sweet Tooth finds new ways to remind audiences that there is always hope.

Netflix’s Sweet Tooth Tells A Complete Story In 3 Seasons

A lot of sci-fi shows in the streaming era have strong hooks, but they gradually fizzle out before they can reach their third installments. Even the ones that seem incredibly promising in the beginning get canceled a little too soon. Fortunately, despite still being relatively obscure, Sweet Tooth got to last for three whole seasons on Netflix.

In three seasons, the Netflix fantasy show tells a well-rounded story that is evenly paced throughout its runtime and ends on a satisfying note.

Sweet Tooth‘s ending perfectly wraps up every underlying story arc and mystery to ensure that its characters’ journey feels complete. While Sweet Tooth is not as mainstream as several other popular post-apocalyptic shows like Silo, Fallout, and The Last of Us, it takes up a unique space in the genre that only a few other shows have previously occupied.

Hopefully, in the near future, Netflix‘s Sweet Tooth will get more attention than it initially received because its heart-felt and hopeful take on the post-apocalyptic genre makes it an incredible addition to the streaming service’s fantasy catalog.