Colin Farrell’s Sugar is on the Case

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“I don’t like hurting people. I really don’t,” says John Sugar. And then he does hurt someone, and the sadness in his eyes murmurs his regret.

Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar in the private investigator series “Sugar,” streaming on Apple TV+. Sugar is Philip Marlowe for a more sensitive epoch, a tarnished knight seeking justice in a sordid world, but with some distance as well similarities between his character and the original model. If Marlowe’s creator Raymond Chandler returned to life, he’d recognize those LA streets and the corrupt Hollywood milieu, even though 90 years have passed since the debut of his cynical yet idealistic private detective. 

One difference between Sugar and Marlowe is that Sugar’s heart isn’t as calloused. He feels genuinely bad for the homeless people encamped on LA sidewalks. And when one of them dies from a fentanyl overdose, he takes in the man’s dog—after severely hurting the drug dealer. Yes, Sugar drinks whisky and scotch, like his predecessors, but his ability to hold his liquor becomes a joke about his metabolism in one scene. And he also has a mysterious disability with seizures that periodically flare up. He’s on prescription meds.

“It’s tough business, but steady,” Sugar says. If Marlowe and his contemporaries were hardboiled detectives, Sugar is closer to soft boiled.

“Sugar” has been called neo-noir, but meta-noir is more accurate. It’s about how a 21st century private detective steeped in classic films goes about his work. “Sugar” flashes often to black and white film clips. Bogart pops up repeatedly as Sugar gumshoes around LA, seeking clues in the disappearance of a twentysomething woman. When he feels emotionally alone, Bogart and Gloria Grahame (In a Lonely Place) fill the screen. Swimming in his hotel pool reminds him of William Holden, floating dead in the pool of Sunset Boulevard. And although he’s in a work-related hurry, he stops to watch a favorite scene from Double Indemnity. “Sugar” is a series best appreciated by TCM fans. The movie channel’s host, Ben Mankiewicz, even appears in episode four.

Sugar’s imagination is shaped by celluloid images from the past, yet he’s hands on with all the latest surveillance and tracking technology. He even has a device that overrides the lock mechanism of cars. If you’re parked anywhere in LA, Sugar can get inside your trunk—and find a body if you’ve stashed one in there.

The story is ultimately less interesting than the character Farrell plays and the meta-noir world he inhabits. Sugar is hired by an aged Hollywood producer, Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), to find his missing granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler). But as in many an old film noir, the protagonist descends into a labyrinth of duplicity involving Olivia’s dad, Bernie Siegel (Dennis Boutsikaris), the producer of sub-Rambo schlock, and her nerdy half-brother Davey (Nate Corddry), a Harvey Weinstein stand-in. A nasty criminal kingpin worthy of Blue Velvet is also mixed up in this. Is Olivia’s #metoo activism behind her disappearance? And is Sugar’s partner, Ruby (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) up to something?

We’ll find out when the season finale for “Sugar” airs Friday, April 26.