Sugar Series Review: Apple TV+ Crime Series That Will Leave You Speechless
Cast: Colin Farrell, Kirby, Amy Ryan, James Cromwell
Created By: Mark Protosevich
Streaming Platform: Apple TV+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4.5/5 (four and a half stars)
Sugar Series on Apple TV+ extends an affectionate hand to fans of James Ellory, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Wade Miller, and John D. MacDonald, in short to those who love hardboiled films, that variable of crime and crime fiction, which has been able to give printed pages, as well as on the small and big screen, incredible characters, stories full of crime, psychological depth, and deduction. Colin Farrell, here also in the role of producer, is the absolute star of a series which as well as being exciting, perfectly written, and directed, is also audacious beyond belief and will leave you speechless over and over again. Despite some memorable exceptions, such as the first seasons of True Detective and the excellent Perry Mason, the noir genre is one of the great fugitives of the contemporary serial panorama. Not infrequently, his stylistic features and his visual language are adopted by detective stories, thrillers, and other crime films to give depth to the story and add a pinch of introspection to the protagonist. However, there are very few titles that go all the way and dare to claim the legacy of the noir tradition for themselves.
The new Apple TV+ series, which we will tell you about in this review of Sugar Series, courageously goes down that path right from the first episode, between jazz music, long shadows, a missing girl, a murky network of crimes, and secrets, an investigator tormented, and an investigation entirely punctuated by the protagonist’s soliloquy, whose reflections and thoughts we hear at every step. At the same time, however, there is also much more: right from the start we have the feeling that something is out of place and that an aura of mystery hovers over the entire story. It’s impossible to talk about it without entering the minefield of spoilers, but we can tell you that just over half the season there is a twist lurking that is destined to upset all expectations and lead us in a completely unexpected direction. In short, a tasty addition to the Apple TV+ catalog, waiting to be explored!
Sugar Series Review: The Story Plot
John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is a top-notch private detective. In reality, he is something more than one of Sam Spade’s many emulators, he is part of a group of former international spies who have finally decided to put aside their differences and hostilities, to become part of a professional organization connected to precise rules, rituals and periodic checks on the balance of its members. Sugar Series‘s handler is Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who is fully aware of some of her recurring health problems, which Sugar Series is keeping under control for the moment. After solving a case in Japan for the Yakuza, John is contacted by movie mogul Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell).
The latter asks him to find his niece, Olivia (Sydney Chandler), an activist and artist who suddenly disappeared. Sugar Series soon comes into contact with Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris) Olivia’s father, a controversial individual to say the least, his even more murky son David (Nate Corddry), and Bernie’s ex-wife, Melanie Macke (Amy Ryan). That powerful family, dark and full of unresolved problems, hides terrible and bloody secrets and is connected to blood and violence, which Sugar Series will be called to shed light on. For him, however, the danger of remaining excessively involved will become increasingly probable. Sugar Series bears the signature of Mark Protosevich and is directed by none other than Fernando Meirelles, a filmmaker to whom we owe pearls such as City of God and The Constant Gardner.
The final result is of the highest level, a series that opens a door to the Golden Age of the genre, the one that from the end of the 30s to the 50s was able to make hardboiled a world apart, redesigning the boundaries of narration urban and the character of the detective. The series takes the liberty of citing not only the immortal films of the great Humprey Bogart (to whom Farrell connects but not too much) but also masterpieces by Billy Wilder, Nomura, Welles, Kurosawa, and other cult directors, with which to create almost a sort of metanarrative, a guide to the concept of recovery and at the same time a very intriguing parallel between reality and pure narration.
Sugar Series Review and Analysis
Since the first announcement, Apple TV+ has spoken of a “genre-bending” series, i.e. capable of “folding” the boundaries that delimit the various film genres onto themselves, allowing even very different languages to communicate with each other. In the first part of the season, however, we find ourselves faced with a product that distills and condenses the quintessence of American noir, without leaving the slightest room for contamination with other strands and nuances. Even the first sequence is entirely shot in black and white and features every typical shot and camera movement that has distinguished the great classics of this genre for decades. As already mentioned, the plot and the soundtrack are no different, just as the subjective reflections that echo off-screen are also typically noir. Sugar Series, however, is not limited to simple visual and narrative allusions: during all eight of its episodes, the series is continuously interspersed with frames and short portions of great classics of the genre, which overlap with the events featuring the investigator private played by Colin Farrell.
Behind John Sugar’s obsession with the world of cinema, who lives and talks like the characters in his favorite films, lies a postmodern taste for meta-narration. Somehow, our protagonist is well aware of finding himself in a “film noir” situation, and Mark Protosevich’s choice to set the investigation in Hollywood – among big producers, old glories of the seventh art, and new emerging stars – only reinforces this meta-narrative gaze. The choice is a winning one and allows the Apple TV+ series to stage a physiological distancing from the great classics, which are objectified and brought to life explicitly, rather than limiting themselves to simple allusions. To stay safe from spoilers, which would never more than in this case risk ruining your viewing, we will limit ourselves to quoting Mike Bongiorno, without elaborating on the concept further. What we can tell you is that, as already mentioned, Sugar Series is truly a “genre-bending” series, with a sensational and difficult-to-predict turning point halfway through its story.
It is a courageous and sudden change of direction that will certainly turn up someone’s nose and abandon the vision to someone else, but which in our opinion represents the true flash of the genius behind this amazing TV series. Sugar Series is undoubtedly an original and courageous product, which dares to surprise the viewer and challenge their expectations, offering us a decidedly anomalous twist by the standards of contemporary TV. Regardless of what your reaction will be, we invite you to watch the series until the end, trusting Mark Protosevich and the writers: despite apparently going very far from what was the initial premise, Sugar Series never betrays its noir identity profound, and indeed enhances its with a truly unusual combination. In some ways, indeed, it is precisely thanks to this sudden narrative and thematic upheaval that we understand what the true essence of the noir genre is.
It is not, as we are often tempted to believe, an empty gallery of images and archetypes – including tormented detectives, impossible cases, beautiful women, and soft shadows – but rather a true philosophical vision of the world, entirely based on the antithesis between purity and corruption, candor and contamination. A dualism that, even when every other certainty of ours is overturned, will continue to loom over the series and will accompany us towards a solid and satisfying ending, while leaving the door wide open for a second season. There’s no point in beating around the bush: if Sugar Series works in the best possible way and manages to land on its feet even after a truly daring narrative somersault, it is also above all thanks to the superlative performance of Colin Farrell, who confirms himself as one of the best actors in the world, as well as the right man for this story.
There is no point in going over how misunderstood the second season of True Detective was, in which he was the protagonist, or recalling other titles for the big screen, more or less celebrated by critics and the public: here Farrell is truly in a state of grace and gives us a truly memorable acting performance, all based on his natural charm, his elegance and his charisma. John Sugar’s suit is truly tailor-made for him, which enhances his skills and his stage presence: although the supporting actors are valid, it is above all thanks to Farrell’s ability to completely absorb our attention and stratify the identity of his character that the Apple TV+ series manages to achieve success. Sugar Series feeds on a lack of truth and sincerity which is the great theme of the story, carried on the shoulders of Colin Farrell who moves with a soft step, building a character that is both seductive and difficult to interpret. Her John is a control freak, a misanthrope who conceals this element in a search for a higher meaning with which to redeem himself from a past that is revealed to us little by little.
He is a sort of crazy variable rejected by two worlds: his own, full of hypocrisy and false friendships, and that of his clients, who use him and who need his services but who fear him for what he could bring back to the light. And it is on this double reading that the series manages to connect to Ellroy, Chandler, and Miller who have always wanted to talk to us about the dark and vicious face of society, of the rich, of power in a world of cinema which here is deconstructed and demystified. Sugar Series is a refined detective, a man of action only out of necessity, he is a sleuth who reassembles puzzles piece by piece but above all a fine connoisseur of human nature and its contradictions. He moves inside Los Angeles where he frequents the opposites, inhabited by vicious old white men, families full of moral tumors, sadistic criminals, and the myth of cinema as a glue. However, a retro taste emerges to embellish everything, the elegance of a rot that he represents and fights, which amplifies our sensations by making us move between high and low, bums and killers.
Hollywood stars and women are besieged by sexuality which here always reeks of violence, blackmail, guilt, and mechanics. Farrell is charming but not excessively, alongside her is Amy Ryan who like him has youth behind her but an immense desire to live and forms a couple that is not at all banal. Is this series for a few? It’s difficult to say because it brings with it a smoothness, a fluidity of narration, in which it is very easy to get lost. However, in the end, Sugar Series makes a U-turn and intercepts a completely different genre, a passage as crazy as it is interesting, carefully crafted for timing and coherence. This adds to the perfection of the direction, with the desire to give verisimilitude and naturalness to every dialogue, every turning point, every moment even when everything goes towards the most total fantasy. We avoid easy effects and excessive complications because it’s not what you say that matters but how. And Sugar Series‘s like is one of those that we hope to have again and again in the future, because there is truly a great need for quality on the small screen, rather than quantity.
Sugar Series Review: The Last Words
With a truly unexpected twist, Sugar Series overturns all our expectations and gives us an evocative encounter between very different genres, which enriches but does not distort the noir identity of the story. A superlative Colin Farrell contributes to embellishing everything. In Sugar Series there are all the stylistic features of the genre in the right place, making this series a beautiful homage that confirms how much it is still loved and that if reworked intelligently, as in this case, it can still surprise. We won’t reveal anything else about this latest confirmation of the high quality of the Apple series to make you enjoy the show, as it should be, and to let you discover for yourself who John Sugar really is.
Sugar Series Review: Apple TV+ Crime Series That Will Leave You Speechless - Filmyhype
Director: Mark Protosevich
Date Created: 2024-04-05 17:04
4.5
Pros
- To date, the most original plot twist of 2024 on television!
- A wise management of cinematographic quotes
- Colin Farrell is amazing
Cons
- The abrupt and radical gender change may not please everyone
