Sweet Home: There's Nothing Sweet About This Home

Based on the animated webtoon, this kdrama shares the stories of survivors struggling to hold onto their humanity during the apocalypse, where humans begin transforming into terrifying monsters. It stars Song Kang as Cha Hyun-su, a troubled teenager, Lee Jin-wook as Pyeon Sang-wook, a mysterious contract killer, and Lee Si-young as Seo Yi-kyung, a former firefighter. The ensemble cast is really impressive, including plenty of famous kdrama veterans like Lee Do-hyun as Lee Eun-hyuk and Go Min-si as Lee Eun-yu.

This series is a rare deviation from the traditional kdrama format, having multiple seasons. The first season was great, introducing incredible character backstories and amazing CGI capabilities. The cast was really compelling in their portrayals; some characters were terribly selfish, while others were benevolent and compassionate. This show demonstrated a realistic range of personalities and actions when confronting an unprecedented new environment. It was really entertaining to watch a group of neighbors in the same apartment building bond, when otherwise they would've remained as strangers wary of each other.

Season 2 I didn't love so much. It primarily focused on worldbuilding, and showing how "monsterization" was affecting a broader scale. In favor of this, I felt the plot neglected some main characters from the first season that needed further development. For example, Cha Hyun-su, the literal protagonist of the show, was hardly in the second season. Also, a lot of background characters from the first season were quickly and unjustly killed off, most likely to create room for new additions. I would've rather watched the evolutions of characters that we'd already spent time getting to know.

Overall, it's a phenomenal show that exhibits how sometimes humans can be more savage than flesh-eating monsters. Warning for anyone who's interested in watching, it's a gory show that doesn't shy away from being gross. It also features a cast that happens to look great covered in blood, sweat, and mud. After such a great first season, the second was a bit disappointing but I'm still looking forward to the third and final season coming out this summer.

UPDATE: I just finished season 3, which is unfortunately the last season for the show. It was better than the second season overall, but it still wasn't great. There were so many crucial characters that were killed off that I wondered why the last one or two seasons were spent developing them (I won't say who). The final battle was surprisingly anticlimactic and I was left thinking "Wait, that's it?". I also didn't like the ending. It was absurdly positive for a show whose tone had been gloomy and gruesome in its entirety. Maybe if there was one more season everything could've concluded more smoothly, but honestly I would've preferred just the first season and its open-endedness.