Nothing can quite prepare you for the twists and turns of the new Apple TV+ streaming series, Sugar. Adjectives like jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and quite literally, game-changing describe the shocking turns. They will surely leave the hairs on your arms standing upright and sending shivers down your spine. Very rarely does a series spark an audible “whoah” from this critic’s mouth.
However, we should hardly be surprised when it comes from the mind of screenwriter Mark Protosevich (The Cell, I Am Legend, and Thor). Protosevich’s series is a throwback noir (until it isn’t) that explores three specific perspectives of the human condition: inherent goodness, inherent evil, and a tricky thing known as moral ambiguity.
This private eye series follows John Sugar (Colin Farrell), and as Daryl Hall & John Oates would say, he’s watching you and your every move (quite literally). Sugar is a worldly guy. When we first meet him, he is hired by an influential Yakuza crime figure to track down his missing grandchild in the heart of Tokoyo. When John finds the unsuspecting and unfortunate kidnapper, he tells him kindly that he does not like violence.
Sugar even offers him a two-hour window before he calls his client. However, when the punk tries to slash him with a kitchen knife, Sugar breaks his arm almost instantly. Only when he has to, he says to himself. After saving the child, he returns to Los Angeles, the city of angels and stardom, to meet his boss, Ruby (Kirby), an expert in connecting wealthy clients with the talents of a man like John Sugar.
Ruby wants him to take a break, but John takes an assignment with Jonathan Siegel (L.A. Confidential’s James Cromwell), a legendary Hollywood producer. The job is perfect for Sugar. The man lives his life like Sam Spade. Sugar is a film aficionado. So, locating Siegel’s on-again, off-again drug addict granddaughter is a job he’d do for free if Ruby let him.
The entire season of Sugar is under the direction of Fernando Meirelles (The Two Popes), the man behind City of God and The Constant Gardener. Along with Protosevich’s writing, the filmmaking team does an expert job of bearing the series’s plot and true intentions. This is no small feat nowadays. You can throw a rock and hit a half-dozen crime thrillers and guess who the killer is before the first act has its curtain call.
The setup is mesmerizing because Meirelles and Protosevich mask the plot while allowing Farrell to explore his character with a clean canvas. Similar to the HBO series Barry, they had a hitman take an acting class to learn how to be human. Farrell’s Sugar leans on how to be good through the lens of great silver screen gumshoes like Phillip Marlowe, Jake Gittes, and Mike Hammer. Farrell’s PI is a shadow-dwelling truth-seeker with a kind heart and tender soul. Slowly, Farrell allows the viewer to see the persona that begins to melt away.
Farrell plays Sugar as a sharp man of integrity, akin to a sleuth like Don Draper, but lacking moral complexity. If that’s an issue, it hardly matters. There are plenty of cruel, arrogant, and irresponsible scumbags that fit the bill. Including a past-prime folk singer (Amy Ryan), a former child star (Nate Corddry), his smarmy mother (Anna Gunn), and a director of the missing girl (a great Dennis Boutsikaris).
All under the sunburnt streets of Los Angeles, the setting is utilized for a subversive purpose—specifically, within the realm of crime story. The viewer is presented with what appears to be a hard-boiled detective noir, but the final product challenges expectations. However, the twist is so bonkers that it may turn off some viewers. Yet, the maneuver is so audacious that forgiveness comes almost immediately.
Sugar treats the viewer to a layered noir with an intriguing mystery that completely reinvents itself by the series’ end. The final, breathtaking twist is something you can’t see coming, deepening the hidden themes of the final product. This series takes real chances and risks that most wouldn’t dare attempt.
Behind a powerful performance by Colin Farrell, Sugar is a (limited?) series unlike any other.
Sugar will debut globally on Friday, April 5, 2024, on Apple TV+.
Audacious and gutsy, Sugar is a show like no other.
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I am a film and television critic and a proud member of the Las Vegas Film Critic Society, Critics Choice Association, and a 🍅 Rotten Tomatoes/Tomato meter approved. However, I still put on my pants one leg at a time, and that’s when I often stumble over. When I’m not writing about movies, I patiently wait for the next Pearl Jam album and pass the time by scratching my wife’s back on Sunday afternoons while she watches endless reruns of California Dreams. I was proclaimed the smartest reviewer alive by actor Jason Isaacs, but I chose to ignore his obvious sarcasm. You can also find my work on InSession Film, Ready Steady Cut, Hidden Remote, Music City Drive-In, Nerd Alert, and Film Focus Online.
