Netflix series ‘Sweet Home’ returns with season 2

“Driven by desire, humans destroy everything they can get their hands on and drive other species to extinction. Humans are viruses, and monsters are vaccines.” (Doctor Lim of Netflix series ‘Sweet Home’)

Netflix drama series “Sweet Home,” which depicts a battle of humans trying to survive attacks from monster-turned-humans, will be returning with season 2 in three years on Dec 1. The scale has grown with more sophisticated computer graphics. As we navigate through many different types of people and see how they react to extreme situations, we ask ourselves the grave question, “Who are the monsters? Who are the humans?”

Season 1 of Sweet Home, which was unveiled in 2020, entered the U.S. Netflix Top 10 for the first time as a series made in Korea. Fans are showing great interest in Season 2, where eight episodes will be disclosed simultaneously. Though the drama is originally based on a webtoon, the recent series takes the story to another level. Episodes 1 to three were pre-released.

Season 2 starts with the residents leaving Green Home, the run-down apartment that served as the background for Season 1, to stay at a “safety camp” controlled by the military. The monsterification has already started, but Cha Hyeon-soo (played by Song Kang), who can self-control, unlike other monsters, believes that he is the key to ending this situation and volunteers to be tested for vaccine development.

While Season 1 maximized fear by having the characters encounter monsters in a limited space, Season 2 depicts Seoul as a devastated city, making viewers uneasy by the possibility of monsters popping out of nowhere. More importantly, however, the focus was put on humanity.

Computer graphics have evolved to more sophisticated levels than ever. Hyeon-soo’s right arm changing into a spiked wing is more overwhelming than Season 1. Many different monsters are depicted as though they are brought to life, as humans become monsters driven by their desire. For example, those who are obsessed with appearance become abominable monsters, and patients fighting against disease become monsters hungry for blood.


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com