Netflix’s Sweet Home Replacement Has A Brighter Future Than The Song Kang K-Drama For 1 Big Reason (2025)

All of Us Are Dead is the perfect show to succeed Sweet Home as Netflix’s flagship horror K-drama, and the zombie series has a brighter future than the Song Kang show ever did. Sweet Home ended with season 3 following a divisive second season in which the series sidelined some of its most important characters and focused on new ones. While Sweet Home arguably ended on a high note, especially because of the return of Cha Hyun-su in a larger role, the show never outdid its first season.

Sweet Home was renewed for two seasonsafter the success of season 1, a risky but understandable decision given its popularity on Netflix. The Song Kang K-drama made history on the streaming platform as the first Korean show to enter its global Top 10 back in 2020, paving the way for other smash hits such as Squid Game. Another global Netflix K-drama hit was All of Us Are Dead, which premiered in January 2022 and was renewed for season 2 on June 6 of that same year.

All Of Us Are Dead Season 1 Set Up A Better Sequel Than Sweet Home’s First Season

All Of Us Are Dead’s Story Has A Clear Future

The first seasons of All of Us Are Dead and Sweet Home ended relatively similarly, but the zombie K-drama set up a better sequel than the monster series. Both All of Us Are Dead and Sweet Home are K-dramas based on webtoons, meaning it was easy to predict where their stories were going to go. However, considering that both shows covered the entirety of their respective source materials in the first seasons, they would have a difficult job ahead of them to justify second seasons. Still, their success on Netflix made new seasons inevitable.

Sweet Home season 1 ends with Cha Hyun-su being kidnapped by Ui-myeong. While this was a major cliffhanger, everything else in the season finale felt like it could have been from the show’s final episode. With the Green Home destroyed and plenty of important characters gone, there was not much else left for Sweet Home to do apart from resolving the Hyun-su cliffhanger.All of Us Are Dead, on the other hand, ends with Cheong-sang’s ambiguous sacrifice and Nam-ra’s return alongside a group of halfbies. All of Us Are Dead left more interesting questions unanswered than Sweet Home did.

Sweet Home 2’s Story Was Very Disappointing After Season 1’s Ending

Sweet Home Was Suddenly A Very Different Show In Season 2

Sweet Home wrote itself into a corner by covering most of the webtoon but still returning for a second season. Unlike All of Us Are Dead, which has four protagonists and features an ensemble cast, Sweet Home is primarily the story of Cha Hyun-su. By making Song Kang’s character just a small part of a much larger puzzle that only got more complicated in season 2, Sweet Home lost track of what had made it so good. Without the dynamic between Hyun-su and his Green Home neighbors, Sweet Home became a different show.

Sweet Home 2 brought in the military as part of the story and introduced multiple factions, including Ui-myeong’s group and what was left of the government. New characters like Dr. Lim and Yi-kyung’s daughter became more important than most names from season 1, not to mention the one-year time skip during which a lot of important events happened offscreen. Sweet Home season 2 struggled arguably because the show did not need a sequel, whereas All of Us Are Dead still has some promising storylines left to tackle.

All Of Us Are Dead Also Has 1 Other Major Advantage Over Sweet Home

All Of Us Are Dead’s Cast Makes It Easier For The Show To Continue

Perhaps the biggest advantage All of Us Are Dead has over Sweet Home is the fact that the former is not dependent on just one character. While Sweet Home’s cast included a lot of great actors and characters, Song Kang’s Cha Hyun-su was the heart of the show. This created some limitations regarding how much Sweet Home could expand its story without sidelining its protagonist. All of Us Are Dead will not have that problem, as each of the four main characters is equally important to the story. Therefore, if some of them take the backseat, others can still shine.

Assuming Cheong-san will return, All of Us Are Dead 2 has plenty of story opportunities between him, On-jo, Nam-ra, and Su-hyeok. In Sweet Home, following Ji-su’s death and Yi-kyung’s disappearance, Eun-yu was the only one of the main Green Home characters after Hyun-su left. Even if All of Us Are Dead season 2 introduces new characters, I don’t see the show moving away from all of its four protagonists. All of Us Are Dead does have a big challenge in continuing the story past the source material, but it has the right tools to do so.

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  Sweet Home (2020)

  TV-MA

  Drama

  Horror

  Fantasy

  Sci-Fi

  Sweet Home follows the story of Hyun-soo, a reclusive high school student who moves into the Green Home apartment complex after losing his family. When a mysterious epidemic turns people into monstrous creatures, Hyun-soo and the residents of Green Home must band together to survive, confronting their inner demons and the horrifying threats outside.

  Cast

  Song Kang , Lee Jin-Wook , Lee Si-young , Park Gyu-young , Go Min-si , Kim Hee-jung , Kim Gook-hee , Lee Joon-woo

  Release Date

  December 18, 2020

  Seasons

  3

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  All Of Us Are Dead

  TV-MA

  Fantasy

  Drama

  Action

  All of Us Are Dead is a horror-thriller series based on the webtoon from creator Jeon Bae-soo. Set in a South Korean high school, a scientist father trying to find a way to protect his son from bullies accidentally creates a serum that uses the fear within humans to turn them into zombies. Set loose in the school, the surviving students and staff find themselves cut off from the outside world and must now fight to survive the infected onslaught - and each other.

  Cast

  Park Solomon , Cho Yi-hyun , Park Ji-hoo , Yoo In-soo , Yoon Chan-young

  Release Date

  January 28, 2022

  Seasons

  1