Sweet Tooth is dark, grim - and perfect for kids
Why the bleak New Zealand-shot Netflix series is actually excellent family viewing. Plus, you need to see Silo, and we review Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Kia ora and welcome to Rec Room! A nice big welcoming hug to all you lovely new subscribers who’ve shown up over the past couple of weeks. In case you’re wondering what Rec Room is all about, we’re here to help. TV is a mess, there are more than 20 streaming services to sift through, and dozens of new shows are released every week. So this your weekly binge bible, everything you need to see (or not) delivered every Friday, just in time to plan your weekend viewing. It’s nice to see you all here to talk about my favourite topic, so let’s get into it…
-Chris Schulz, senior writer
Children need to see the scary stuff too, don’t they?
That right there looks like a sweet family photo. Perhaps it’s a dad or an uncle consoling an upset child over a lost ball, or an ice cream that fell onto the footpath. The kid looks sad and worried, but also hopeful. With a reassuring arm placed on the child’s shoulder, the adult seems to be delivering an appropriate amount of concern. I’m pretty sure there’s a snap just like this one of my dad and I in a family photo album somewhere – minus the deer antlers and furry ears.
But that is not a good photo. For at least the first two episodes of Sweet Tooth’s excellent second season, that man is scientist Dr Aditya Singh (played by Adeel Akhtar) and he’s attempting to prise information out of the deer-human hybrid child Gus (Christian Convery). He’ll do anything to get what he wants – so Gus is strapped to a chair, forced to take a psychedelic trip, bullied, then threatened with being opened up on an operating table. “If this doesn’t work,” says Singh, “I’m going to have to go back to taking your friends.”
Dark? Grim? For sure! Sweet Tooth is about the end of civilisation as we know it. Humanity is done for. Almost everyone has disappeared in a moment called The Great Crumble. If your little finger starts twitching it’s a sure sign your time is nigh. Around the same time, those hybrid children are being hunted by those who think they hold the answers – or, possibly, a cure – for the disease ravaging the planet. Much of season two focuses on a group of hybrids stuck in a grimy jail while Gus gets teased, tested and tortured. It can be an uncomfortably bleak watch.
But Sweet Tooth is also something else. It’s an adorable apocalyptic yarn that’s totally for the kids. My family loves it. When the first season came out in 2021, my children – now aged nine and 13 – ripped through season one in a week, and have been nagging me ever since for details about season two. Despite it being dark and depressing, something about the show’s mix of The Last of Us and Fraggle Rock really connected with them. It burrowed into their brains. It hooked into their souls. It won them over.
This is a razor thin tightrope that few TV shows attempt. It’s just too hard. Go too light and you become Sesame Street. Go too dark and you risk earning the ire of watchful parents the world over. How does Sweet Tooth do it? “Even though we’re dabbling with darker themes, we never put anything too graphic on the screen,” executive producer Susan Downey told Netflix in this piece deliberately promoting Sweet Tooth as family-friendly viewing. “There’s too many important themes and relationships and fun to be had to alienate any particular age.”
It’s true: Sweet Tooth is fun. The second season features a group of captured hybrid kids – birds, lizards, tortoises and deer – trying to escape from jail. They’re worried and upset, and every time Gus gets dragged off for more sessions with his scientist, they’re concerned he won’t return. But they’re still trying to enjoy themselves. They share jokes. They look after each other. There are moments of kindness and lightheartedness in the mix, even if their captors (Marlon Williams with a mullet!) have dark sunglasses, weird haircuts, yell a lot and feed them kibble for dinner.
Kids need this kind of content, don’t they? The things I have the fondest memories of watching as a child are things that deviated towards the darker side. ET? Dark as hell! Gremlins? Terrifying! Ghostbusters? I had nightmares about the barbecued Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for months. Labyrinth had David Bowie leaping around nonsensical staircases and someone falling into the bog of eternal stench. The Never Ending Story had a flying dog dragon thing. All I remember about that film was how dark it was.
But then, you can’t go too dark. I was in a movie theatre with my son, then aged around seven, enjoying Star Wars: Rogue One when the Darth Vader massacre sequence began. It wasn’t graphic, or particularly gruesome, but something about the tone felt off. Vader’s victims were stuck in a metal tube. A light sabre was lit. The breathing was heavy. A siren sounded. It was terrifying and it really affected my son. When I admitted I’d let him see this on a radio show and regretted it, the talkback lines lit up for hours with people calling me a terrible parent. I promised myself I’d vet all future films. Websites like Common Sense Media became a useful tool.
So far, Sweet Tooth hasn’t crossed that line, and I’m grateful for it. I’m happy to recommend it to families who want to give it a go, and feel that their children are old enough to handle a bit of darkness. It’s the kind of show that’s going to stay with my kids and get them thinking about the world. (Added bonus: with season two and the upcoming third and final season shot in and around Auckland, you can play Spot That Landmark at the same time.) Every time I wonder if my kids really should be watching it at all, I look over at their faces and realise they’re entranced, loving every single second of it. I’m glad I get the chance to watch it right there with them.
* Sweet Tooth’s second season is streaming via Netflix.
A message from Alex Casey, senior writer and host of The Real Pod
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Why you should watch: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
The sprawling, never-ending Marvel Cinematic Universe has had a lot of problems since Endgame. The change of characters along with new, interconnected Disney+ shows and the genuinely confusing multiverse means you need to be a diehard fan to know what’s going on. Which is why I’m pleased to say Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is generally a success. Its decision to focus on the beloved core crew rather than bringing in unnecessary cameos from Thor means the final chapter in this trilogy is focused. Beyond that, it pulls at the heart strings – perhaps a little too earnestly – and has jokes, fights and inventive new aliens to boot. If we can get more MCU films like this, perhaps the franchise can get back on track. /Stewart Sowman-Lund
Why you should watch: Silo
It’s concrete, bunkers and machinery. It’s dim lighting, gloomy shadows and sterile air. It’s alien, hostile, unnatural, dusty and grimy. It’s swelling orchestras and sweeping strings. Silo (Apple TV+) tells the story of the last 10,000 humans living in a giant silo. No one knows who built the silo, or how it got there. The only thing they know is that they can’t leave. Spoilers: some of them leave. Honestly, you couldn’t make a show closer to my heart than Silo, which is equal parts Lost, The Leftovers and Severance. It’s Sweet Tooth for adults. Don’t let the kids in on this one. /Chris Schulz
Here’s all the new stuff you can watch, right now…
The dark jokes, the famous girlfriends, the loudmouth antics – Pete Davidson is the kind of controversial Hollywood figure you either love or loathe. You can make up your mind in Bupkis (TVNZ+), a comedy in which Davidson plays a fictional version of himself with Edie Falco as his mum and Joe Pesci as his granddad. “Raw, chaotic, occasionally disarming,” said The Hollywood Reporter in one of many good reviews.
Elsewhere, Rebecca Ferguson’s Silo (Apple TV+) is delivering claustrophobic drama of the highest order. “Ambitiously staged, with a central mystery that only grows more absorbing as it continues,” quipped Empire. Critics also say you shouldn’t miss White House Plumbers (Neon), a satirical take on the Watergate scandal starring Justin Theroux and Woody Harrelson. “Big laughs,” says Decider.
Wrapping up the big TV debuts is The Gone (TVNZ+, from May 7), a missing persons drama filmed in Aotearoa and Ireland. If you’re after a change of pace and haven’t quite recovered from his Eden Park shows, Ed Sheeran’s four-part documentary The Sum of it All (Disney+) promises an intimate look at the pop star. “Surprisingly moving,” said The Guardian in a surprisingly positive review. The acclaimed animated series Star Wars: Visions (Disney+) also returns for its second season.
If you’re after a night out at the movies, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 appears to be stabilising the recent wobbles of the Marvel cinematic universe with an instalment with a lot of heart. “A blaze of glory,” declared The AV Club in a review that seems to sum all of them up. Lets hope those box office numbers match what the critics say.
On The Spinoff now: Jess meets Imugi on Amplified
In Amplified, journalist Jess Fu connects with exciting local artists to embrace and explore their cultural roots. In episode five, Jess spends a day with Yery Cho and Carl Ruwhiu of electronic-pop duo Imugi 이무기 to chat about escaping into the internet, world-building through music and remaining independent. Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Everything you need to know…
Wondering what to watch this month? Here’s our full list of every big new show coming to a screen near you in May.
Despite being a ratings juggernaut for TVNZ, it was time for problematic local police reality series Police Ten 7 to end, argues Duncan Greive.
Hollywood’s 11,000 writers walked off the job this week. What does that mean for your favourite shows? We break down what writers want, how long the strike may last, and which shows are likely to be affected, here.
Severance’s second season appears to be in some kind of trouble, although showrunner Ben Stiller denies there are any issues. The AV Club has the saga.
What happened to What Now’s best presenters? Tara Ward attempts to find out.
Alex Casey has all the blood-soaked details on how an incredibly elaborate horror scene was pulled off in Sylvia Park for the new Evil Dead film.
My family loves Prehistoric Planet, the Apple TV+ series that imagines: What if cameras caught dinosaurs on film? Here’s the second season trailer.
If you’re into riding giant sand worms for fun, here’s the trailer for Dune: Part 2.
Tara Ward unpacks Matty McLean and Breakfast’s freakiest interview yet.
Finally, a couple of film festival announcements: here’s your first look at the line-up for the next NZ International Film Festival, and here’s the full line-up for the upcoming French Film Festival coming soon to a theatre near you. Au revoir!
That’s it for Rec Room for this week. If you liked what you read, why not share Rec Room with your friends and whānau.
