REVIEW: ‘Sweet Home’ Season 3 Triumphs With Its Characters

While the discovery that Cha Hyun-su (Song Kang) could restore the monsterized into humans brought a flicker of hope, the recon team’s discovery at the lab unearthed old evils that will plague the survivors as Sweet Home Season 3, directed by Lee Eung-bok, Park So-hyun, and Jang Young-woo brings the series to a close.

It’s been said that you can never have too much of a good thing. This series often feels like it set out to test that saying, as it leans hard into two key elements of its production. While one of these elements does shine, no matter how much of it the show’s eight episodes give us, the other unfortunately degrades as overuse robs many of the show’s moments of the impact it seeks. Let’s start with the good.

Where Sweet Home Season 3 almost universally triumphs is with its characters and the acting that brings them to life; as the viewer follows the characters through the harsh, unforgiving environment the series has crafted for them, the audience cannot help but become lost in the incredible display of character that fills each episode.

Not only is the acting universally great, but it is also broadly varied in how it achieves that greatness. Whether it’s found in the range of personality Kang brings to his character’s dual identities, or how actor Lee Si-young brings Seo Kyung’s desperate need to life, the variety of skills on display lend a ton of depth to the characters’ journeys.

The characters make this Netflix standout thrilling.

The depth of the cast’s acting skills doesn’t stop at the individual level either. Several key pairs of characters play off of each other, deepening the bonds between them in an incredible way. The most notable of these is the amazing chemistry that forms between Master Sergeant Tak (Yu Oh-seong) and Sergeant Kim (Kim Mu-yeol, Trolley).

While the two begin the season at odds with each other, as the series builds to its climax, their shared love for their comrades and sense of duty morph their relationship in a way that is nothing short of beautiful. Even thinking back on it now, it feels like they shouldn’t have been able to pull it off, but the culmination of their arc together forms one of the most moving moments of the series.

While the acting that strives to sell the series’ biggest moments is fantastic, the moments themselves frequently prove to be a hurdle the acting can’t always overcome. This is due to the overreliance on death scenes to pull at the audience’s hearts. Every episode features at least one extended death sequence that the show desperately wants to leave an impact on the viewer.

With so many deaths, and many for characters whose names and faces one will barely notice gone, all the deaths end up amounting to less than the sum of their parts. As so much of the show hinges on the effect of these frequent deaths, the degradation of their impact on the viewer does a significant amount of harm to the final product.

While death may weaken the story’s impact, Sweet Home Season 3 delivers a well-balanced story outside of this one admittedly major setback. The series does a great job keeping the plotlines to a reasonable number, and the timing of scene swaps ensures no one story overstays its welcome. The story beats come steadily, with no dead zones forming where nothing seems to happen.

Another aspect of this season that helps its pacing is the considerably shorter runtimes of each episode. With only a single episode clocking in at over an hour, this season feels like it keeps a much brisket pace than the marathon the previous season often felt like.

Oh, the places that Sweet Home Season 3 goes.

The final element that keeps the viewer engaged with Sweet Home Season 3’s story is the surprising places several plot lines go. When the surprise isn’t another death scene, the series shows that it can get creative with its narrative, charting a course that will keep viewers from ever feeling confident they know how it’ll all turn out.

Maintaining the high bar set by previous seasons is the wonderful creature design. Even with so many creatures already appearing in the series, Sweet Home Season 3 never fails to craft new and exciting monsters to showcase. While the designs are fantastic, some of the visual effects fall short of being all they could be. Given the sheer number of visual elements in the series, it’s understandable that few might fall a little short. And even though some don’t manage to fully accomplish their goals, none are ever so bad that they pull you out of the moments they appear in.

Sweet Home Season 3 delivers a strong finish to its narrative. At the same time, the overuse of character deaths weakens the final package, the acting, writing, and strong story outside of that one major failing more than make up for it. If you have enjoyed the journey this far, it is definitely worth finishing the trek.

Sweet Home Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.