'Sweet Tooth' is a cute, enjoyable fantasy adventure

If you're willing to ignore a few obvious elements, 'Sweet Tooth' is rather enjoyable - and one that the whole family could watch together.

In 'Sweet Tooth', we meet a young boy named Gus (Christian Convery) who is a species in danger of extinction - a hybrid. These half-human/half-animal beings arrived on Earth at the same time as a global pandemic began to wipe out humanity. Gus, and others like him, are being hunted down by a force called The Last Man Military, who believe that once the world is rid of these hybrids, humanity can go back to normal.

Gus lives in a woodland area with his father (Will Forte), who has always warned him of never going outside of their living space or to ever interact with another human. Following some events in the first episode, Gus teams up with Tommy "Big Man" Jeppard (Nonso Anozie) and the pair head off on an adventure to Colorado. The series is based on the DC limited comic book series by Jeff Lemire, and is executive produced by Robert Downey Jr.

The most obvious thing viewers should try to ignore while watching 'Sweet Tooth' is that global pandemic part. While it does seem a little bit ill-timed, there really won't be any other "better" time to get the series out to the masses. Thankfully, the series is distracting enough that the pandemic segment can be overlooked, resulting in a rather pleasant series overall.

Given that the filming location is New Zealand, there's certainly more than a whiff of 'Hunt For The Wilderpeople' off of this - after all, imitation is the highest form of flattery. The landscapes are wondrous and certainly lends to that feeling of a new post-apocalyptic world.

New talent Christian Convery gives a charming performance as the young and naive Gus, a boy desperate to learn anything and everything that he can about a world he really knows nothing about. His relationship with Nonso Anozie's "Big Man" is endearing, while the people that they meet along the way to their destination offer varying levels of kindness and strife to the pair.

Netflix has gone in hard on the young adult genre ever since 'Stranger Things' became such a phenomenon. However, their most recent offerings have fallen incredibly short of delivering worthwhile and lasting impressions. We're not suggesting that 'Sweet Tooth' is head and shoulders above what's come before it, but rather it stays true to what it set out to achieve - deliver a coming-of-age fairy tale that anyone can watch and enjoy.

The CGI is a little basic in parts, with some of the green screen elements looking very obviously so - and there are a lot of cheesy will they/won't they moments. However, the hand-to-hand action scenarios are executed well, the other plotlines offer up some mystery, and the storyline isn't overcomplicated and should be easy enough for younger audiences to follow.

All in all, 'Sweet Tooth' isn't really the "Mad Max meets Bambi" hit that many have dubbed the DC comics on which it is based, but that doesn't mean it's not worth your time. It's refreshing to have a YA series that doesn't make the audience feel uncomfortable while watching (pandemic topic aside), and that's purely down to casting a younger lead, and not basing everything on hormonal teens. It's also narrated by the dulcet tones of James Brolin, which is the cherry on top of an uplifting series set in the bleakest of times. More of this, we say.

All eight episodes of 'Sweet Tooth' are available to watch on Netflix from Friday, June 4.