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Pierce Conran

1.5/5 stars
Lead cast: Song Kang, Lee Jin-wook, Go Min-si, Lee Si-young, Jung Jin-young
Bigger is not necessarily better. This is an adage that holds true for many things in life, among them supersized follow-ups to pop-culture phenomena.
A case in point is the sprawling and unwieldy Sweet Home season 2, which seems to have taken all the wrong lessons from the success of its predecessor.


Three years ago, Sweet Home was one of the first global hits from South Korea on Netflix. Although not perfect, it was scintillating thanks to a compact and exciting story about neighbours forced to band together in the derelict Green Home Apartments block at the outset of a monster apocalypse.
Its characters were memorable, and helped cement the star power of performers such as Song Kang, Park Gyu-young, Go Min-si and Lee Do-hyun.
Sweet Home: monster fun in Netflix’s hokey Korean horror show
Equally memorable were its colourful, gooey and bizarre monsters, several of which were vividly brought to life through tactile special effects.
Sweet Home has returned, and the Green Home survivors have been pushed out into the open with dozens of nondescript new characters. This time they face off against hordes of ugly digital rock monsters that look like background AI replications of each other.
Following directly on from the events of season 1, Sweet Home 2 begins with Cha Hyun-su (Song Kang) in custody and being transported to an army base to be experimented on.

On the way there he breaks free with the help of Pyeon Sang-wook (Lee Jin-wook). Sang-wook died in the previous season, but his body was taken over by a malevolent monster, who, like Hyun-su, can consciously control his monster powers. Despite escaping, they head to the base anyway.
The other survivors, among them Lee Eun-yu (Go Min-si) and Yoon Ji-su (Park Gyu-young), are taken to a refugee camp where they deal with trigger-happy soldiers. They are saved by Park Chan-young (Jung Jin-young), a soldier with a conscience, and together they go to a new camp at a baseball stadium.
Other new characters include the members of the gutsy Crow Platoon, led by the square-jawed Tak In-hwan (Yu Oh-seong), whose vocal second-in-command, Kim Young-hoo (Kim Mu-yeol), feels that his superior’s actions expose the platoon to unnecessary danger.

Meanwhile, the pregnant Seo Yi-kyung (Lee Si-young) is also heading to the army base, where she hopes to locate her fiancé.
Despite being a high-octane, big-budget series, one of Sweet Home’s chief strengths was its compact locations. The pressure-cooker environment they engendered delivered great drama between the entrapped characters, and the confined space was a recipe for claustrophobic and tense set pieces.
The drama Happiness and the film Concrete Utopia are other recent examples of Korean stories that thrived by limiting their stories to single buildings.
10 of the best new Korean drama series to watch in December 2023
Beyond enticing themes and thrilling technique, Sweet Home’s location also helped mask the weakness of its concept. We were gripped by the idea of humans turning into monsters based on their personal struggles and marvelled at the design of the creatures, but the less we knew about the sketchy mythology of this world, the better.
Out in the dystopian chaos of the open world, the mythology no longer makes sense. The more the show tries to explain itself – often through the ramblings of mad scientist Dr Lim (Oh Jung-se) – the more confusing it gets, and the message of people being subsumed by their inner monsters is lost.
Sweet Home 2 jumps right into major set pieces, but these are dominated by stodgy digital effects during car chases through a post-apocalyptic Seoul.

Digital blur aside, the first few episodes are not without their charms. But once the story resets following a time gap that occurs after episode three, things quickly start to go downhill.
A huge number of new characters suddenly appear in episode four, none of them interesting, several of them grating. The remaining original characters are lost in the mix as they shuffle through their threadbare narratives.
The most important new character is the one played by Kim Si-a, who is essentially a remould of Luna, the oddball semi-monster character she already played in The Silent Sea.

The show takes us deeper into its confusing mythology without giving us solid narrative threads to latch onto. It’s seldom clear where we’re going or why, and the overarching question that soon crystallises in our minds is: “Why bother?”
Sweet Home 2 dots the meandering paths of its characters with repetitive action scenes and overegged attempts at epic moments dominated by slow motion and thinly veiled copies of Hans Zimmer tracks from films like Interstellar and Dune.
While these episodes are billed as season 2, strictly speaking they are only the first part. Sweet Home 3, already shot and currently in post-production, will follow in summer 2024.

As with many other first parts of “two-season” Korean streaming dramas, such as Island and Decoy, these episodes don’t build to a satisfying climax, to put it mildly.
Sweet Home season 2 is streaming on Netflix.


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Netflix K-drama review: Sweet Home season 2 – Song Kang leads overblown follow-up to hit monster series that forgets what seduced us in the first place

Song Kang as protagonist Cha Hyun-su in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. The second season of the Netflix horror series doesn’t hold a candle to the first. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Lee Jin-wook as Pyeon Sang-wook, who helps Cha Hyun-su break free from custody, in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Lee Si-young as Seo Yi-kyung, a pregnant woman hoping to find her fiancé Nam Sang-won, in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Yu Oh-seong as square-jawed Master Sergeant Tak, in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Go Min-si as Lee Eun-yu, who faces trigger-happy soldiers at a refugee camp she’s taken to, in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Song Kang as Cha Hyun-su in a still from “Sweet Home” season 2. Photo: Kim Jeong-won/Netflix

Netflix K-drama review: Castaway Diva – Park Eun-bin drama closes on satisfying note but leaves viewers wanting more

Park Eun-bin in a still from “Castaway Diva”.

Park Eun-bin as Mok-ha in a still from “Castaway Diva”. The K-drama comes to an end – but not before an element of thrill is introduced through the unresolved history of the family Mok-ha  has been staying with.

Cha Hak-yeon as Woo-hak in a still from “Castaway Diva”.

Kim Hyo-jin as idol Ran-joo in a still from “Castaway Diva”.

Chae Jong-hyeop (left) and Park Eun-bin as Bo-geol and Mok-ha in a still from “Castaway Diva”.

Park Eun-bin as Mok-ha in a still from “Castaway Diva”.

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Jung Woo-sung as Cha Jin-woo in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me” streaming on Disney+. Shin Hyun-been co-stars.

Shin Hyun-been as actress Jung Mo-eun in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Shin Hyun-been (left) as Mo-eun and Jung Woo-sung as the hearing-impaired Jin-woo in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Shin in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

Jung in a still from “Tell Me That You Love Me”.

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Nam Joo-hyuk in a still from “Vigilante”.

Nam Joo-hyuk (left) as murderous police cadet Kim Ji-yong, and Yoo Ji-tae as moralistic detective Jo Heon, in a still from “Vigilante”. Disney+‘s K-drama adds new characters along the way to thrilling effect, and ends in a showdown between embodiments of different sides of justice.

Nam Joo-hyuk as Kim Ji-yong in a still from “Vigilante”.

Kim So-jin as dogged reporter Choi Mi-ryeo in a still from “Vigilante”.

Yoo Ji-tae as detective Jo Heon in a still from “Vigilante”.

Nam Joo-hyuk (left) as Kim Ji-yong, police recruit by day and the Vigilante by night, and Lee Joon-hyuk as excitable chaebol heir Jo Gang-ok in a still from “Vigilante”.

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Song Kang as Jeong Gu-won in a still from “My Demon”.

Song Kang as the demon Jeong Gu-won in a still from Netflix fantasy romcom “My Demon”. Kim Yoo-jung co-stars.

Kim Yoo-jung as Do Do-hee in a still from “My Demon”.

Kim Hae-sook as Ju Cheon-sook in a still from “My Demon”.

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Lee Yoo-mi in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Lee Yoo-mi, playing the titular lead character, in a still from Netflix K-drama series “Strong Girl Nam-soon”. The show is let down by sloppy writing and characters that viewers will find it hard to root for.

Ong Seong-wu as detective Kang Hee-sik in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Kim Jung-eun as Nam-soon’s mother, Hwang Gum-joo, in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Byun Woo-seok as dapper but unconvincing drug lord Ryu Si-o in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

Lee Yoo-mi in the title role in a still from “Strong Girl Nam-soon”.

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Sweet Home season 1 wasn’t perfect, but its exciting story and pressure-cooker setting made it a global hit and raised the profiles of stars such as Go Min-si
Season 2’s changed setting, rash of nondescript characters, subpar monsters, shaky mythology and music that rips off Hans Zimmer make it a disappointment


Netflix’s Sweet Home season 2 doesn’t hold a candle to the successful first season of the horror hit. It has lost the indoor setting that gave the monster action focus, and is swamped with new characters.


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Lee Do-hyun

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


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Review | Netflix K-drama review: Sweet Home season 2 – Song Kang leads overblown follow-up to hit monster series that forgets what seduced us in the first place