I have never been so frustrated by the ending of a show.
The third and final season of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth was released on Friday. As a fan I was excited and curious to see how the writers were going to answer all the questions the show had been teasing us with.
I don’t just mean the simple, pragmatic questions.
Sure, we wanted to know what would happen when protagonist hybrid child Gus (Christian Convery) finally met his mother. We wanted to know the connection between the Sick, the virus that wiped out most of humanity, and the hybrid children. We wanted to know what Dr Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar) actually wanted.
These important story threads should be easy and satisfying to resolve. And, to a barely adequate level, the show did so.
But it’s the big questions, the larger themes that Sweet Tooth asks its audience to grapple with, that left us wanting.
Where will human greed take us? What does it mean to be different and can we all coexist despite our differences? What does being part of a family actually mean?
I appreciate that answering existential questions about human existence is a lot to ask from a television show, but I wasn’t looking for answers, I wanted a nuanced, satisfying, exploration of the themes through character, plot and story.
Sweet%20Tooth
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That didn’t happen.
In season one, we were captivated by the tale of a new world full of human children hybrids who were being hunted by scared and desperate humans. It was the story of Gus, a nine-year-old human-deer hybrid, leaving his home in the wilderness to search for his mother and understand where he and all hybrids came from.
In the second season, many of the world’s details were refined while more questions were raised. The characters started to feel more like caricatures of good and bad and the menacing elements of the story were dialled up. The fusion of a quirky fantasy adventure with dark undertones worked in the first season but by the second it was coming off as kitsch.
Season three picks up only a few hours after the events in season two, with Gus and his friends making their way to Alaska to find a mysterious cave that has the answers they’re seeking.
On their tail is this season’s villain, Zhang, played by actress Rosalind Chao. Effortlessly cruel and calculating, she's obsessed with human purity and is on a mission to kill Gus, as she believes that this is the answer to restart human births.
She also has a pregnant daughter and four hybrid wolf grandchildren she has trained to kill.
It gets more complicated when the visions of both Gus and Dr Aditya Singh are added into the mix. And then there is a hybrid man, who is more than 100 years old and contradicts the initial premise that Gus is the original hybrid and that his DNA is special.
Aside from a host of new characters to keep up with, there is also a filler episode about a boat of missing people. Doing little to further the plot, it simply reiterates the central theme, the tragedy of human loss as a result of human greed.
Away from the main storyline, there is a secondary plot focusing on Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen) and her sister Wendy (Naledi Murray), which is action packed but distracts audiences from Gus's journey.
Throughout, I found myself scrolling on my phone during gratuitous fight scenes, getting up to make a snack when characters had prolonged glazed expressions, and rolling my eyes when characters delivered monologues of inauthentic dialogue.
While the first two seasons were well-paced with a gripping plot and were filled with cliffhangers, the final season ups the action and drama in a way that distracts from the plot and tone the story deserves.
This season, the exposition is suffocating to the point that every character interaction sounds like an Oscar's speech. But, fundamentally, the biggest issue with the final season of Sweet Tooth is its balance.
It’s supposed to be a story about the power of stories. But in its rushed effort to make a poignant point about the human condition, it attempts to do too much, sacrificing the storytelling experience and giving us the answers we needed in an ultimately unsatisfying way.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
SPECS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
T20 World Cup Qualifier, Muscat
UAE FIXTURES
Friday February 18: v Ireland
Saturday February 19: v Germany
Monday February 21: v Philippines
Tuesday February 22: semi-finals
Thursday February 24: final
Sunday's games
Liverpool v West Ham United, 4.30pm (UAE)
Southampton v Burnley, 4.30pm
Arsenal v Manchester City, 7pm
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Honeymoonish
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
INDIA SQUAD
Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami
Sweet%20Tooth
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