Sugar Review

There’s a major twist in Sugar, the new noir drama from AppleTV+. Now, I wouldn’t normally lead with this in a review, but if you don’t realize there’s a major twist coming (which would be a shock, considering the series does everything in its power to hint that there’s something more happening than just a hardboiled detective trying to solve a case), you might end up incredibly confused a couple episodes into the series, wondering why it’s so darn stylized (so many clips from classic film noirs, strange behavior of several of our central characters). And this is a series that gets infinitely more interesting once that twist is revealed. Unfortunately for everyone, that reveal doesn’t happen until the season is nearly through – which means the series holds that twist, teases that twist, and won’t let us know what that twist is until it’s nearly too late to do much with the twist.

And that decision of the writing staff ultimately cripples the series. By not letting us get a complete understanding of several of our key characters, we never get the chance to really know who they are and what they are doing. Which, frankly, sucks, since there are some great performance happening throughout the season, and one can’t help but feel a bit like we weren’t given the chance to really see what these characters could do if their performers were given carte blanche to play all facets of their character from the beginning. After all, the twist is only kept from us, the audience. The characters are all aware of just what is really going on, privy to the various layers to each conversation and just what the actions taken by each of them mean in the grand scheme of things. And that makes it all the more frustrating when we’re let in on the secret.

So, aside from a game changing twist near the end of the season, just what is Sugar about? Well, it follows John Sugar (a soulful Colin Farrell, who’s eyes do a great deal of work showing us just how wounded Sugar truly is), a PI at the top of his game who returns to Los Angeles following a successful job over in Tokyo and gets swept up into a case involving the missing granddaughter of a Hollywood mega-producer. But Sugar seems to be suffering from an unknown illness that occasionally causes him to have hallucinations – plus his hands shake and he can end up losing time. What’s wrong with our hero? And will he be able to track down this missing woman before it’s too late?

The series is inter cut throughout with various clips from classic film noirs – Sugar is a massive film noir fan – which makes for some confusing editing until you realize that the clips are meant to be looks into Sugar’s head as he finds inspiration from films to help him solve his current predicament. And the series is full of incredible actors, nearly all of whom are underused to shocking degree (James Cromwell is our Hollywood producer, Nate Corddry his scummy grandson, Anna Gunn is Corddry’s mother – despite being a mere nine years older than him, and David Boutsikaris is Cromwell’s scummy Hollywood power player son). Only Amy Ryan really gets the chance to dive into her character – the ex of Benny Siegel (Boutsikaris), who was seen with Olivia, the missing woman, shortly before her disappearance. Teamed up with Farrell, Ryan is a great foil for him, allowing him to bounce his theories of her while also allowing Sugar to take on the role of knight in shining armor when the case starts to come knocking at her door. Also given a good deal to do – although still not enough to really make her character sing – is Kirby (formerly credited as Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who plays Sugar’s confidante and handler. She’s always willing to listen to Sugar and help him, although as he starts to get deeper into the Olivia Siegel case, she strangely starts warning him to tread lightly and stay away from the answers he’s searching for.

With this number of heavy hitters populating the series’ landscape, one would expect the show to be taught with tension, each character a potential villain to be found by Sugar’s detective skills. Instead, they pop up throughout the piece, interjecting a key line or steering Sugar down a new path, never fully becoming a complete character, doomed to remain simply a pawn in driving the story forward. Which is where the twist comes into play once more. If we knew the truth of just what was going on underneath the central plot of just who took Olivia and why – and how it would change our perception of Sugar and those closest to him – perhaps the story might feel fuller, inhabited by characters we understand and with whom we can empathize to some degree. Instead, we’re left wondering why certain characters are making the choices they are, just what is up with Sugar and his mysterious ailment, and just why he’s so obsessed with film noir.

A second season of Sugar might make for better television than the one we got here – with the audience fully read into just what is going on and how it impacts the series at large. But Sugar feels too underdone to be a fully satisfying story at this stage of the game. Farrell is doing good work here – as is Ryan, who is asked to do a lot of the narrative and character development heavy lifting when it comes to Sugar as a character. But the story never gets into another gear when it needs to, which pulls down the series overall.

Sugar premieres on April 5 on AppleTV+. All eight episodes were provided for review.