Sweet Home’s seasons 2 and 3 were very different from the first season, and there are a few reasons why the K-drama changed so drastically after a successful debut. As the first Korean drama to enter Netflix’s Global Top 10, Sweet Home set the stage for other K-dramas, including Squid Game, to become global hits. Sweet Home took a while to return with a second season, which was not surprising considering that seasons 2 and 3 were apparently filmed back-to-back. However, in hindsight, the three-year wait turned out to be a problem.

Waiting three years for Sweet Home season 2 only increased the expectations for what the Netflix original K-drama would do next. By the time Sweet Home 2 finally came out, everyone wanted to revisit their favorite characters and see what was going to happen to Song Kang’s Cha Hyun-su. Surprisingly, Sweet Home season 2 went in a a different direction and expanded the scope of the show by introducing new characters and locations, most of which did not originate from the source material. In fact, Sweet Home’s seasons 2 and 3 had virtually nothing left from the webtoon to adapt.

Sweet Home Season 1 Covered All Of The Source Material

Sweet Home Season 2 No Longer Had The Webtoon To Adapt

It is not uncommon for a K-drama based on a webtoon like Sweet Home to take a lot of creative liberties and change the source material in many different ways, but creating an entirely new story is a bigger, riskier challenge. By the end of Sweet Home season 1, the Netflix K-drama had already covered most of the webtoon. In other words, if the show were to continue, it would have to expand beyond the source material and create an original story.

While Sweet Home’s first season had already made some pretty big changes to the webtoon, it was still a somewhat faithful adaptation that focused on Hyun-su and his Green Home neighbors. With the building destroyed and Hyun-su captured, Sweet Home season 1 ended in a way that it was arguably impossible for future seasons to recapture the tone and the structure of the show’s original outing. Sweet Home could’ve easily ended with season 1, but the K-drama’s mᴀssive success meant that it was obviously going to be renewed for more seasons.

Sweet Home Season 2 Introduced Way Too Many New Characters

Cha Hyun-su Only Appeared In A Handful Of Episodes In Season 2

Without a source of material to follow and having concluded most of the story arcs that were set up in the first few episodes, Sweet Home season 2 had a blank slate to work with. There was no status quo to be maintained – the characters no longer had their homes after all – meaning the show could take bigger risks and subvert our expectations. On the one hand, it was interesting to see the world beyond the Green Home in season 2. On the other hand, Sweet Home seemingly forgot who its main characters were.

By killing Park Gyu-young’s Ji-su in episode 3 and having Hyun-su disappear from the show for almost half of the season, Sweet Home made it difficult for us to engage with the new characters. The new heroes and villains from Sweet Home season 2 were not the problem, but the fact that the show was no longer spending enough time with the former Green Home residents was frustrating. It is still unclear why Song Kang barely appeared in season 2, but Sweet Home without its main character was a very different show.

Sweet Home Season 3 Fixed A Lot Of Season 2’s Problems (But It Wasn’t Enough)

Sweet Home Season 3 Was The Conclusion Of Season 2’s Stories

Sweet Home season 3 fixed a lot of the show’s problems and even made season 2 better in retrospect. With the two seasons having been filmed back-to-back, we did not have to wait nearly as long for season 3, which came out six months after season 2 dropped on Netflix. A lot of the storylines and character arcs that were set up in season 2 were finally paid off in season 2, and Hyun-su had a much bigger role. Lee Do-hyun’s return as Eun-hyuk was also good news and made the show feel closer to season 1.

Even with all the improvements, Sweet Home had already turned into something very different from the zombie K-drama we fell in love with in 2020. New characters such as Dr. Lim and Sergeant Tak came out of nowhere and became incredibly important to the plot, while season 1 characters such as Yi-kyeong still felt like an afterthought. Between the three-year wait and the number of new characters that were introduced, Sweet Home season 2 changed the trajectory of the show in a way that season 3 could not fix.