Sweet Home Season 3 Review – The K-drama forgets about the Season 1 appeal that made it such a hit

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 4/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 2/5

Following the exciting addition of Sweet Home to the horror genre back during the pandemic, we are now in its final season as the Netflix K-drama released Season 3 in July 2024. Starring a lot of K-drama favourites such as Song Kang, Go Min-si, Lee Do-hyun, Park Gyu-young and Lee Si-young, the apocalypse show begins with the residents of Green Home apartment being stuck in their building due to a monster outbreak.

Well, in Sweet Home Season 3, a lot of our favourites return along with new additions such as Kim Shi-ah, Yoo Oh-sung, Kim Mu-yeol, Oh Jung-se and Jung Jin-young. 

In Season 3, our survivors split up as Sergeant Tak tries to keep the Stadium Survivors safe while hiding the fact that he is infected. Sergeant Kim and his men are caught by Yi-kyung’s ex-fiance, Sang-won. As for her, Hyun-su does his best to save Yi-kyung from monsterization while Eun-yu and Chan-young are caught in the crossfire.

Well, to put it mildly, a lot happens. The soundtracks as always are bangers with fast-paced rock beats that just fuel the adrenaline while watching the action choreography. The VFX guys have outdone themselves while still sticking to that cartoonish gore that made the horror aspect so fun and camp.

And of course, if you are ever in a stump, just bring Lee Do-hyun who knows how to elevate the situation even with a small role. He did it in Death Game and does it again here as his character, Eun-hyuk returns for the finale. 

A lot of the questions are finally answered. But it is the way they are revealed that makes it so exciting from Chief Ji’s shadiness to the whole point of the glowy cocoon. The K-drama deftly weaves in these answers with more questions to set up the main conflict of the season that keeps us hooked to the end.

Sweet Home Season 3’s story on paper is pretty great as well as a faction of monsters team up with our favourite characters to take down the bad guys. But the execution is poor, to say the least. The appeal of Season 1 is the fact that a group of humans are locked in an apartment building at the onset of an apocalypse. They can trust no one as anyone can get infected at any moment leading to an exciting exploration of the found family trope.

We tuned in for the following seasons because we grew attached to the Green Home characters. Sure, a lot of them were axed mid-way and we started growing fond of Chan-young, Ha-ni, Sergeant Tak and Kim. But strong characters cannot run a show if the writers don’t give them enough space to work with. 

Season 2 feels more like a transition between two seasons which had us hopeful that Season 3 would bring back the Season 1 charm (spoiler, they don’t). We do see the potential with the teaming up with a friend turned emotionless enemy, the monster leader pretending to be human, and the Stadium Survivors defending their home from the evil guys.

But the flawed pacing continues to be a weakness of this K-drama. It is not to say that Sweet Home Season 3 is not fun. It is, but it is not good, the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. But it does reduce the quality of the story. The actors continue to give their best while the campy gore and melodramatic action grow on us.

However, the writers do not know when to stop and allow important plot choices to shine and when to stop dragging out filler scenes. This leads to a lot of info-dumping to make up for lost time, *cough* the whole neohuman explanation.

The characters are also separated, giving them different locations and different conflicts. It makes Sweet Home like any other apocalypse story. And in trying to give so many characters different subplots, the writers are not able to give all of them closure such as Seon-hwa, Father Peter and Yeong-su.

So with Sweet Home Season 3 being the final season, instead of getting answers, we are left with more questions. A bummer since the foundation and Season 1 were so strong but the makers decided to half-ass the rest.


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  • Verdict - 5.5/10
    5.5/10
5.5/10

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