The biggest stumbling block in the first season of the neo-noir Sugar

Sugar (English)

Season 2

Episodes: 8

Runtime: 32–49 minutes

Creator: Mark Protosevich

Starring: Colin Farrell, Jin Ha, Tony Dalton, Raymond Lee, Sasha Calle, Laura Donnelly, Shea Whigham

Storyline: Sugar’s new case has him searching for a missing sibling while continuing to investigate a sketchy senator

Once you accept that twist, then you can return to loving all that is wonderful about Mark Protosevich’s genre-bending series. Protosevich, interestingly, wrote the script for Tarsem Singh’s feature film debut, the kinetic psychedelic ride that was The Cell.

For a lover of classic cinema and noir like yours truly, Sugar is the ultimate catnip. From references to Casablanca and Roman Holiday, and various other classic movies to Colin Farrell’s cool, sweet (never vanilla) turn as the titular sleuth, there is a lot to enjoy in Season 2.

Episode 1, ‘Home Away From Home’, opens with Sugar tracking down his friend-turned-foe, Henry (Jason Butler Harner), who is the only one who knows what happened to Sugar’s sister, Djen.

Having decided to stay on, Sugar has to deal with loneliness and feels the best way to tackle it is by burying himself in work. He gets a new case when a rising Korean boxer, Danny Moon (Jin Ha), tells him that his wild, elder brother, Ji-Seok (Raymond Lee) has been missing for three days.

Admitting that Ruby (Kirby), who handled the business side of things, would not approve of him taking on a missing sibling case, Sugar listens to Ji’s panicked voicemails.

Apart from staying at the lovely Hotel Del Corazon, Sugar also buys a house, drawn by the expansive view of the City of Angels spread out below him like a quilt of stars and the opportunity to keep an eye on Senator Pavich (Cameron Cowperthwaite).

Sugar meets the beautiful and mysterious Charlotte (Laura Donnelly) in the hotel and sparks fly, while he gets the other enterprising young woman he meets, Val (Sasha Calle), to help him with the case.

Through the eight episodes, which ends in yet another almighty twist in the finale, we follow the detective through a labyrinth of love and longing in L.A. Sugar solves the case of the missing sibling, which involves mob bosses, drug-related deaths, a housing scam and corrupt law enforcement officers. He also uncovers the bigger conspiracy involving a lonely professor and his parrot, tropospheric nodes and a dying planet.

Farrell anchors the beautifully shot and scored (Bad Bunny gets a mention) show as he drives around LA in his exquisite silver blue ’66 corvette Stingray. He wears his uber-cool suits (14 of them not including the ones in storage) and shades as armour against the slings and arrows of outrageous human behaviour.

He misses Wiley (he has the dog’s picture as his screensaver) and chooses to show his true self to a bunch of solemn canines at the dog park. And then there are always the movies and American Cinematographer (Ruby has kindly renewed his subscription).

Tony Dalton makes for a venal antagonist while Shea Whigham is the federal officer who still believes in the good fight and is helping Sugar. Like all noir, the city is a character in Sugar. Spellbindingly opaque, Los Angeles is variously described in the show as “the homeless capital of the world”, and as the place where if you “tip the world on its side, everything loose lands”.

The mystery holds up but just like the melancholic sleuth, we know instinctively, that the mystery is only part of the story. Some characters from season 1 make a welcome return and while the series has left the door open for Season 3, it is not so wide open as to make the finale seem incomplete, which does hit the sweet spot neatly.

Sugar is currently streaming on Apple TV+

Published - August 08, 2026 12:22 pm IST