Essentially the most succinct piece of TV criticism I’ve learn within the final decade was this 58-word tweet from Topher Florence:
There may be, sadly, no actual present known as Surf Dracula, however the Surf Dracula Downside is all over the place in tv today. Too many sequence now deal with their whole first season as a premise pilot, requiring six to 10 episodes earlier than they will get to the story their creators really wish to inform. Sometimes, audiences are keen to be affected person, as we noticed when Home of the Dragon Season One turned its first 12 months right into a slapped-together prologue for the civil struggle inside Home Targaryen. As a rule, although, reveals that take eternally to get to the purpose don’t stick round for very lengthy. HBO did a Perry Mason sequence that waited by a lot of its first season to permit probably the most well-known fictional attorneys of all time to observe regulation. (Season Two, with Perry as a full-time lawyer, was significantly better, however the viewers had understandably bailed by then.) We additionally had a brand new Mosquito Coast adaptation whose first season ended with its characters nowhere close to mentioned coast, plus others like The Nevers, Preacher, and I Am Not Okay With This that dawdled for some time earlier than revealing what what sort of present they needed to be after they grew up.
The brand new Apple TV+ drama Sugar is an excessive case even by Surf Dracula requirements, the place it’s extra like there was a present simply known as Surf Man, and it took till late within the season to seek out out that our would-be surfer was, actually, lord of the vampires.
I can not inform you what Sugar is absolutely about. What I can inform you is that it begins as a up to date hard-boiled detective drama, starring Colin Farrell as John Sugar, a well-dressed, highly-paid gumshoe who focuses on discovering misplaced folks and issues for wealthy and highly effective shoppers. He’s employed by legendary film producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to seek out his lacking granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler), and has to determine whether or not her half-brother Davy (Nate Corddry), her father Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), or stepmothers Melanie (Amy Ryan) and Margit (Anna Gunn) had something to do together with her disappearance.
Primarily based on all the things we are able to see, Sugar is a pure-hearted hero. He persistently gives unhealthy guys a peaceable method out of their messes, assured that he’ll at all times win if issues flip violent — and afraid of the aspect of himself that’s so good at hurting others. He volunteers to pay for an unhoused man’s fare to go house to stick with the sister the person is just too ashamed to name with out prompting, and later takes in that man’s canine. When he inadvertently will get ex-rock star Melanie too blitzed to correctly reply his questions, he makes positive to get her house safely, and to disregard her drunken advances. Ruby (Kirby), who manages his enterprise affairs, is perpetually fearful that Sugar is investing too emotionally into each case.
If Sugar appears to be good to be true, then… properly, no. He actually is that good. However he’s additionally not simply a saintly non-public detective, and it’s the opposite half that makes Sugar lots messier to each focus on and watch.
There are hints within the early episodes that Sugar isn’t totally who he appears to be. As Melanie places it of their first assembly, “There’s extra to you than meets the attention. You’ve secrets and techniques. You retain issues hidden.” But it surely takes till the tip of the sixth episode (out of eight whole for the primary season) to disclose what his secrets and techniques are, and what the true story of Sugar is.
Apple has described the sequence, created by Mark Protosevich (The Cell, I Am Legend), as “genre-bending.” That is one thing of an understatement. When readability lastly arrives, it makes the lacking girl plot really feel like an entire lot of throat clearing earlier than Protosevich acquired to the true present.
That is irritating on a number of ranges, not least of which is that the non-public eye pastiche stuff may be very entertaining. A number of episodes are directed by the nice Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles (Metropolis of God), and he and Protosevich lean method into their influences. Sugar is a giant movie buff(*), significantly of the sort of Forties and Fifties noirs that the sequence is knowledgeable by, so his travels by modern-day Los Angeles are continuously interspersed with clips from Double Indemnity, Evening of the Hunter, Kiss Me Lethal, Candy Odor of Success, and extra. It’s not a brand new system, although higher recognized for being utilized by satires like Lifeless Males Don’t Put on Plaid or the early HBO sitcom Dream On. It might be simple for this to make Sugar appear to be a really poor imitator of Mike Hammer and firm, or for the clips to really feel like they’re hitting the viewers over the top with the purpose of assorted sequences. However they really feel deployed good, largely as a result of Colin Farrell’s efficiency is so charismatic and lived-in, it’s not onerous to think about him starring in a model of The Large Warmth if he had been born again concurrently Glenn Ford.
(*) Amusingly, he mentions loving L.A. Confidential at one level, by no means remarking on the truth that he’s at present working for a person who seems to be precisely just like the villain of that film.
The thriller itself is pretty convoluted, however in the way in which the style virtually calls for. And there are some odd hiccups, like Anna Gunn enjoying Nate Corddry’s mom regardless of being solely 9 years older than him. (Davy is a former baby star, and maybe the artistic group thinks Corddry can cross for a lot youthful, however their scenes collectively are awkward.) The model that Sugar principally pretends to be for six episodes would most likely do exactly high quality with out the massive twist. (It helps that many of the installments hover round 35 minutes in size, protecting the story from bogging down in the way in which so many streaming sequence do.)
For that matter, the present that Sugar seems to be is attention-grabbing, too. It simply utterly undercuts what got here earlier than, whereas additionally arriving a lot too late to really feel fully-formed when Protosevich decides it’s time to show his playing cards face up. It additionally seems like a cheat, as a result of the sequence is informed from Sugar’s POV, full with voiceover narration that under no circumstances discusses [REDACTED] till after the viewers has came upon about it. Every thing is introduced this fashion totally to tug the rug out from underneath viewers, however with out practically sufficient worth gained from it. If we had been watching issues unfold by, say, Melanie’s eyes (Ryan is terrific, as are all of the supporting gamers), after which [REDACTED] got here out, that may have actual weight. Ditto a model of the story the place Sugar one way or the other didn’t find out about [REDACTED], and we realized it on the identical time he did.
That is simply trickeration for its personal sake, and it’s counter-productive and annoying. The decision of the thriller turns into an afterthought, whereas the fact of what Sugar is doesn’t get sufficient room to totally stand up to hurry. The 2 ideas might work collectively very properly, with this star, this ensemble, and this a lot care given to the feel and appear of the world. However they must be allowed to co-exist, somewhat than one being held in reserve for weeks and weeks, all in favor of a one-shot burst of WTF.
After I get to the tip of one among these premise-pilot-style seasons, I attempt to be hopeful concerning the meant ongoing model of the sequence. That optimism is usually rewarded (once more, see Perry Mason Season Two, not that it mattered). However typically, these sorts of reveals don’t get second seasons as a result of viewers rightly develop impatient. And those that do return have a tendency carry on dragging their ft, as in the event that they’ve gotten too used to transferring slowly. The separate, conflicting components of Sugar are attention-grabbing sufficient to as soon as once more make me a hope-watcher if it comes again. But when it doesn’t, the storytellers can have nobody in charge however themselves.
Simply let Dracula surf, guys. Please. Folks wish to see the present you are attempting to make, not an countless warm-up for that present.
The primary two episodes of Sugar at the moment are streaming on Apple TV+, with further episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen all eight episodes.
