This review may contain spoilers
Sweet Home Season 2 wants to be the Aliens to Sweet Home's Alien.
Think about it; Alien and Sweet Home are primarily Haunted House pieces. Doom is brought upon the everymen when human indifference and greed unleash monsters they themselves have borne. Interpersonal relationships must be balanced while they strive to survive. In expanding that world a la Aliens, we introduce marines and motherhood. Without the nuance.
For me, SH2 is a crushing failure in multiple respects. It really pains me to say it. It totally dispensed with everything I enjoyed about S1 and didn't bother replacing it with something comparable.
There is essentially a three episode arc featuring the S1 cast getting to a sports dome shelter with thousands of others...which is then bombed for reasons too stupid and infuriating to go into. Many plot threads from this three episode mini arc are just left blowing in the wind. It's a shame, since it had to have cost a fricken fortune. All but 6 of the original cast are summarily killed off in stupid ways for no real pay off. The only one I bought was Ryu Jae Hwan's monsterization; considering the shit he pulled in S1, this felt satisfying and a proper conclusion to his story.
This cast cull is not narratively appropriate in any way; it is in service of replacing a bunch of female characters with Interchangeable Army men. I cannot tell you how angry it made me. Not only did we dump these women- which includes the little girl, mind you, who essentially got fridged for her brother's (barely-there)story- but we didn't bother to replace them with equally compelling male characters. Most of them lacked sufficient development beyond their one-note traits. Mad Scientist? Check. Haunted Military Commander? Check. Fresh-Faced Soldier Boy? Yep. Military Asshole? Check, Double Check and Triple Check.
Because we're under the auspices of the military, there is no longer collaboration or egalitarian character interaction. SO all these new characters can only interact in this hierarchy. People are being demoralized, abused and screamed at by soldiers who resent having to protect them. All problems are solved with guns or threats. Most of the Army men are the worst kinds of people. We watch civilians being abused and used for labor, the army constantly going on that this is what they're owed for the protection they offer. There was one line that stuck with me; it was a throw-away by a soldier extra receiving his rations, 'I joined the army because at least I'd eat well'. It was pissy, the implication being that he wasn't getting what he was promised. Like. BRO. THE APOCALYPSE HAPPENED. NO ONE wants to be here. You're still eating better than everyone else, with a side of complete power, so SHUT THE FLIP UP.
I cannot emphasize how much of the season is about Army Shenanigans and How Little I Cared. Again, you can see them aping Aliens with the Crow Platoon being the Colonial Marines. The Crow Platoon, now cut off and on their own, moves the survivors underground, into a...subway system? IDK, there's clearly utility and infrastructure spaces, but most of it gives off a weird dungeon vibe. Chief Ji is the 'facility manager' of whatever the hell this place is, and she allows them to stay, which somehow creates a weird power imbalance between she and the army. This location couldn't be that far from the sports dome, and yet it also seemed to be connected to the Super Sekret Military Base, but also to another character's hide-out. It's one of those shows where you walk for ten minutes and you'll meet a cast member you haven't seen in a year.
Okay, so we're in Shit Bunker, 1 year later. The Army rules the civilians like evil overlords. Essentially, the army guys do whatever they want, and what they want seems to be threatening and abusing the same people they're meant to protect. And getting mad that there's a mortality rate to MONSTER HUNTING. We get a few new civilian characters, most of which are sus or unappealing (Creepy Priest? Check. Selfish Bimbo? Check. Old Woman Who Exists To Die? Check. Worse, there's a mentally disabled man whose story could have been sweet, except you can SEE them just using him to make issues for the sake of complicating the plot. How does his story end? In Bury Your Disabled, of course!)
Every single character's story is somehow a secret- something happened in their past, or they're sneaking around for some reason the audience isn't privy to. Except, if you don't know what anyone is doing or why they're doing it, why should we care? There is no narrative through line like Hyun-Soo's that serves as an anchor. It's just a bunch of fairly awful people doing inscrutable things- most of which there's not much resolution to, unlike, say, Pyeon Sang-wook's S1 revelation that he was hunting a child rapist and murderer.
For a launch of an expanded Sweet Home world, there has been very little world building done. Nothing about how this new society functions, and because there's no basic foundation nothing true can grow or be explored. The civilians do some kind of nebulous 'work', but it's never clear what, since they're not allowed outside much. In the hundreds of people there seem to be zero professionals of any kind, just a lot of filthy people cowering and doing virtually nothing to create a sustainable society. Even in S1 the characters knew their situation was not going to work long term; that food and water were going to be a problem. We're not seeing any solutions to anything here. Have they spent the last year setting up agriculture, getting solar panels doing some underground hydroponics? Naw. But batteries have become currency, even though the facility seems to have electricity, and you don't see people using any electronics, so what are the batteries for, exactly?
Monsterization has also become victim to this lack of focus. Clearly, nobody knows what they want to do with it or what they want to say with it. The intimate process that was the transformation has been lost. Very few characters undergo it, though the threat of it looms large. It seems like no one in Shit Bunker has monsterized in the last year. But, the landscape roams with CG monsters- some are unique, but there's a particular Trash Golem design which they used multiple times. Quantity has overtaken quality, here. They spent a lot of cash on animating way more monsters than I think they really needed. But again, Army guys! Gotta have those big, action set pieces- like Aliens!
The whole curse aspect has gone by the wayside. The Mad Scientist believes that monsters are the vaccine for the plague that is humanity, because of course his nihilistic ass does blah blah blah, who cares?
The first monster is actually good; a momma monster protecting her baby. This set piece is effective; the Momma monster doesn't actually hurt anyone. Hundreds of people die, but it's all from friendly fire because the soldiers are so terrified and gung-ho they just shoot and immolate fleeing civilians. It plays like a tragedy on multiple fronts. They attempt to continue that nuance when Hyun-Soo encounters monsters at The Sekrit Facility, and some mystical woo-woo happens which drives him to be reminded that monsters are, or were, human. They still have feelings, or memories. But that's about all the exploration about the nature of a transformed monster there is.
Unfortunately, you can't do a 'oh, people are just scared because monsters different' with a side of 'Feel guilty for viewing them as inhuman' and expect it to have emotional resonance when most monsters can and do slaughter people indiscriminately and act as the primary in-universe threat. It just fundamentally doesn't work.
But it's still Aliens! Lets talk about motherhood, shall we? We have quite a few mother-child relationships about, starting off with that mother monster on the freeway. Actually, that one's the best. The others are really uncomfortable for non-thematic reasons. The biggest one, of course, is Seo I Gyeong from season 1. She gives birth on a lake of ice while an explosion blazes behind her. It's an arresting image, but also endemic to the issues plaguing the show as a whole; It has replaced intimacy and honesty with spectacle. Nothing here is authentic and I hate it.
Hyun Soo got really downgraded in the character department. Song Kang looks great naked, but doesn't really have a lot to do, unlike his great first season arc. He also completely disappears from the narrative after apparently having been killed, which...just..like...why? When you dispensed with so many other characters, why would you ice the one we all had emotional resonance with?
This was a major disappointment to me. I wouldn't have even minded that this was filler between season 1 and season 2, but in order to do that you'd have to have exposition, world-building and some emotional core. It's bereft. It's a hollow Aliens rip-off that gleefully jettisoned everything that made Sweet Home Season 1 so good without realizing that those very things- compelling characters and human connection- where what made Aliens good. Not the Army.
Think about it; Alien and Sweet Home are primarily Haunted House pieces. Doom is brought upon the everymen when human indifference and greed unleash monsters they themselves have borne. Interpersonal relationships must be balanced while they strive to survive. In expanding that world a la Aliens, we introduce marines and motherhood. Without the nuance.
For me, SH2 is a crushing failure in multiple respects. It really pains me to say it. It totally dispensed with everything I enjoyed about S1 and didn't bother replacing it with something comparable.
There is essentially a three episode arc featuring the S1 cast getting to a sports dome shelter with thousands of others...which is then bombed for reasons too stupid and infuriating to go into. Many plot threads from this three episode mini arc are just left blowing in the wind. It's a shame, since it had to have cost a fricken fortune. All but 6 of the original cast are summarily killed off in stupid ways for no real pay off. The only one I bought was Ryu Jae Hwan's monsterization; considering the shit he pulled in S1, this felt satisfying and a proper conclusion to his story.
This cast cull is not narratively appropriate in any way; it is in service of replacing a bunch of female characters with Interchangeable Army men. I cannot tell you how angry it made me. Not only did we dump these women- which includes the little girl, mind you, who essentially got fridged for her brother's (barely-there)story- but we didn't bother to replace them with equally compelling male characters. Most of them lacked sufficient development beyond their one-note traits. Mad Scientist? Check. Haunted Military Commander? Check. Fresh-Faced Soldier Boy? Yep. Military Asshole? Check, Double Check and Triple Check.
Because we're under the auspices of the military, there is no longer collaboration or egalitarian character interaction. SO all these new characters can only interact in this hierarchy. People are being demoralized, abused and screamed at by soldiers who resent having to protect them. All problems are solved with guns or threats. Most of the Army men are the worst kinds of people. We watch civilians being abused and used for labor, the army constantly going on that this is what they're owed for the protection they offer. There was one line that stuck with me; it was a throw-away by a soldier extra receiving his rations, 'I joined the army because at least I'd eat well'. It was pissy, the implication being that he wasn't getting what he was promised. Like. BRO. THE APOCALYPSE HAPPENED. NO ONE wants to be here. You're still eating better than everyone else, with a side of complete power, so SHUT THE FLIP UP.
I cannot emphasize how much of the season is about Army Shenanigans and How Little I Cared. Again, you can see them aping Aliens with the Crow Platoon being the Colonial Marines. The Crow Platoon, now cut off and on their own, moves the survivors underground, into a...subway system? IDK, there's clearly utility and infrastructure spaces, but most of it gives off a weird dungeon vibe. Chief Ji is the 'facility manager' of whatever the hell this place is, and she allows them to stay, which somehow creates a weird power imbalance between she and the army. This location couldn't be that far from the sports dome, and yet it also seemed to be connected to the Super Sekret Military Base, but also to another character's hide-out. It's one of those shows where you walk for ten minutes and you'll meet a cast member you haven't seen in a year.
Okay, so we're in Shit Bunker, 1 year later. The Army rules the civilians like evil overlords. Essentially, the army guys do whatever they want, and what they want seems to be threatening and abusing the same people they're meant to protect. And getting mad that there's a mortality rate to MONSTER HUNTING. We get a few new civilian characters, most of which are sus or unappealing (Creepy Priest? Check. Selfish Bimbo? Check. Old Woman Who Exists To Die? Check. Worse, there's a mentally disabled man whose story could have been sweet, except you can SEE them just using him to make issues for the sake of complicating the plot. How does his story end? In Bury Your Disabled, of course!)
Every single character's story is somehow a secret- something happened in their past, or they're sneaking around for some reason the audience isn't privy to. Except, if you don't know what anyone is doing or why they're doing it, why should we care? There is no narrative through line like Hyun-Soo's that serves as an anchor. It's just a bunch of fairly awful people doing inscrutable things- most of which there's not much resolution to, unlike, say, Pyeon Sang-wook's S1 revelation that he was hunting a child rapist and murderer.
For a launch of an expanded Sweet Home world, there has been very little world building done. Nothing about how this new society functions, and because there's no basic foundation nothing true can grow or be explored. The civilians do some kind of nebulous 'work', but it's never clear what, since they're not allowed outside much. In the hundreds of people there seem to be zero professionals of any kind, just a lot of filthy people cowering and doing virtually nothing to create a sustainable society. Even in S1 the characters knew their situation was not going to work long term; that food and water were going to be a problem. We're not seeing any solutions to anything here. Have they spent the last year setting up agriculture, getting solar panels doing some underground hydroponics? Naw. But batteries have become currency, even though the facility seems to have electricity, and you don't see people using any electronics, so what are the batteries for, exactly?
Monsterization has also become victim to this lack of focus. Clearly, nobody knows what they want to do with it or what they want to say with it. The intimate process that was the transformation has been lost. Very few characters undergo it, though the threat of it looms large. It seems like no one in Shit Bunker has monsterized in the last year. But, the landscape roams with CG monsters- some are unique, but there's a particular Trash Golem design which they used multiple times. Quantity has overtaken quality, here. They spent a lot of cash on animating way more monsters than I think they really needed. But again, Army guys! Gotta have those big, action set pieces- like Aliens!
The whole curse aspect has gone by the wayside. The Mad Scientist believes that monsters are the vaccine for the plague that is humanity, because of course his nihilistic ass does blah blah blah, who cares?
The first monster is actually good; a momma monster protecting her baby. This set piece is effective; the Momma monster doesn't actually hurt anyone. Hundreds of people die, but it's all from friendly fire because the soldiers are so terrified and gung-ho they just shoot and immolate fleeing civilians. It plays like a tragedy on multiple fronts. They attempt to continue that nuance when Hyun-Soo encounters monsters at The Sekrit Facility, and some mystical woo-woo happens which drives him to be reminded that monsters are, or were, human. They still have feelings, or memories. But that's about all the exploration about the nature of a transformed monster there is.
Unfortunately, you can't do a 'oh, people are just scared because monsters different' with a side of 'Feel guilty for viewing them as inhuman' and expect it to have emotional resonance when most monsters can and do slaughter people indiscriminately and act as the primary in-universe threat. It just fundamentally doesn't work.
But it's still Aliens! Lets talk about motherhood, shall we? We have quite a few mother-child relationships about, starting off with that mother monster on the freeway. Actually, that one's the best. The others are really uncomfortable for non-thematic reasons. The biggest one, of course, is Seo I Gyeong from season 1. She gives birth on a lake of ice while an explosion blazes behind her. It's an arresting image, but also endemic to the issues plaguing the show as a whole; It has replaced intimacy and honesty with spectacle. Nothing here is authentic and I hate it.
Hyun Soo got really downgraded in the character department. Song Kang looks great naked, but doesn't really have a lot to do, unlike his great first season arc. He also completely disappears from the narrative after apparently having been killed, which...just..like...why? When you dispensed with so many other characters, why would you ice the one we all had emotional resonance with?
This was a major disappointment to me. I wouldn't have even minded that this was filler between season 1 and season 2, but in order to do that you'd have to have exposition, world-building and some emotional core. It's bereft. It's a hollow Aliens rip-off that gleefully jettisoned everything that made Sweet Home Season 1 so good without realizing that those very things- compelling characters and human connection- where what made Aliens good. Not the Army.
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