AppleTV+ Offers Another Spoonful of 'Sugar'

When we last saw John Sugar, the achingly earnest private investigator played by Colin Farrell, he was staying behind on Earth while most of his fellow aliens left the planet. In solving the mystery of Olivia Siegel’s disappearance, Sugar ran afoul of a mysterious criminal organization that threatened to expose the alien presence to the public at large. Fellow alien Henry Thorpe had taken to observing and coaching murderers and Sugar was going to stop him. In the opening of the second season, Sugar slams the reset button and sweeps most of that away.

Sugar has returned to AppleTV+ after two years with a new focus and clarity. The first season was beguiling with its sleek looks and woven-in clips of old Hollywood movies, but it stumbled when it came time to execute its plot and big twist. The revelation that Sugar was one of an organization of aliens on Earth to observe and learn about us came so late that it felt rushed. It made the 8-episode experience feel lopsided, despite the excellent performances from Farrell and Amy Ryan. With the big genre-bending turn out of the way, the series seems more confident in its storytelling and more certain about what it’s trying to be: a stylish contemporary noir mystery with a dash of sci-fi for spice.

In the first season finale, Thorpe is suggested as a new primary antagonist that could take Sugar to new places, but Sugar disposes of that character and his plotline in a cold open. This season, the primary mystery revolves around Ji and Danny Moon (Raymond Lee and Jin Ha, respectively), a pair of boxers on the rise in the LA fighting scene. Ji has gone missing, and a collection of voicemails he left indicates a potential kidnapping. As he investigates, Sugar looks for his lost sister, Djen, a character viewers got a brief look at in the season one finale. He also watches Senator Pavich, the father of the serial killer from the first season, who appears connected to the mysterious organization that menaced the aliens. The alien subplot still informs the plot through Sugar’s more personal investigations, but it’s not foregrounded nearly as much.

While the mystery feels more substantial this season than last, it’s still a straight forward mystery with film noir trappings. The real reason to watch is to see Farrell wear the hell out of a suit and play the preternaturally kind-hearted alien investigator. His performance is as hypnotic and compelling as ever, especially when he’s seen interacting with other characters. The scene of him making smoldering eyes with Charlotte (Laura Donnelly) is a particular highlight. Their electric energy promises a potential new romance, and maybe a femme fatale. Seeing Sugar get hustled by the scrappy Val (Sasha Calle) was another highlight of the premiere. Calle and Farrell are great foils for one another.

Sugar feels more like a well-developed series this time around. If the first season felt weighed down by all the work it was doing to balance its genre-bending premise, the second season feels much lighter on its feet. Watching the premiere made me wish the alien reveal had come much sooner. Sugar did such an uneven and occasionally frustrating job of obscuring the turn that its mystery plot and character development suffered. This season, the series feels refreshed and ready to fully pull us into its gorgeous, seductive world.