“Sweet Home” (스위트홈)

By Jae-Ha Kim
jaehakim.com
March 12, 2021

☆☆☆☆
Cha Hyun-Soo (played by Song Kang)
Seo Yi-Kyung (played by Lee Si-Young)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

“Sweet Home” was one of the most highly hyped and popular Korean shows on Netflix … and I’m not sure why. Maybe my expectations were too high. While there were some truly compelling elements (like the characters’ backstories), the series overall lacked cohesiveness. I suppose the argument could be made that the showrunners were leaving the scenarios open-ended to our own interpretation, but I found the series to be a bit of a hot mess.

Hyun-Soo is the sole survivor in his family. A recluse who is bullied in high school, he has a date set on his phone for the day he plans to die by suicide. But when the rundown apartment building he lives in is invaded by horrific monsters, his will to live springs to life — with him becoming one of the strongest fighters, thanks to his having turned into a monster (with more good tendencies than bad). Like an animal, he’s locked up after he has battled other demons, and quietly listens as his neighbors vote on whether they will kill him or let him survive.

I’m not a huge fan of gore, which is one reason why I didn’t watch this series when it first released in early winter. But many of the monsters simply weren’t frightening. The cheesy CGI made the creatures look like a throwback to days when technology couldn’t produce anything better. The scariest parts didn’t involve these supernatural beasts, but rather the human beings and how they react when their own survival is threatened.

In this battle between humans and monsters, one of the most awesome warriors is a woman. Played by Lee Si-Young (who discovered a love of boxing after training in the sport for a role), Yi-Kyung is a strong firefighter who can best all the men. When the residents create a mess and panic, it is often Yi-Kyung who comes to the rescue, using whatever item is nearby as her weapon of choice.

The strong cast of characters also includes a med student — played by Lee Do-Hyun, who was wonderful in “Hotel del Luna“) — who becomes the de facto leader; his younger adopted sister (Go Min-Si), who feels she’s a burden to her brother; a Christian teacher (Kim Nam-Hee), whose sword skills are unparalleled; a bass guitarist (Park Gyu-Young), whose boyfriend had died by suicide; and a mysterious scar-faced man (Lee Jin-Wook) who is seemingly indestructible.

All of the characters have a plethora of stories that, to me, were more interesting than the non-stop onslaught of attacks by monsters of all kinds: slime, vampire, tentacle, eyeball, protein, speed, etc.

“Sweet Home” has some incredible highs. But unlike “Kingdom” or “Uncanny Counter,” where action supplements the storyline, “Sweet Home” has too much mediocre filler to make it a truly great K-drama.

Airdates: Ten episodes (about 45- to 60-minutes long each) were released on Netflix on December 18, 2020.

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