My Cultural Diet

John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is a private investigator who specializes in finding lost and missing people, and he’s very good at what he does. But when he’s hired by a legendary film producer to track down the man’s missing granddaughter, Sugar — who is unfailingly polite, immaculately dressed, and something of a cinephile — may just be in over his head, especially when he heads down some particularly unsavory trails. There’s no denying that Sugar oozes neo-noir atmosphere, and Farrell delivers a solid performance. But there’s also no denying that series creator Mark Protosevich had a lot of ideas for Sugar when he started making it, beginning with some genre-bending twists concerning secrets about Sugar’s past. The series frequently embraces non-linear editing and storytelling, various cinematographic and filmmaking styles, and the inclusion of classic Hollywood clips as meta-commentary on Sugar’s noir exploits. Sometimes it really works, adding to the mood, and sometimes it feels really arch and affected. When I described it to my wife, she said it sounded exhausting to watch — and she’s not entirely wrong. But it’s also never not intriguing. A second season drops later this month (watch the trailer), and it’ll be interesting to see how Sugar builds on the big revelations of its first season.

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