As the streaming bubble reaches critical mass and threatens to swallow us all whole, there’s an unspoken truth it’s time we all made peace with: there is such a thing as too high concept.
I get it, there’s only so many ways to stand out amongst the stampede of “smart” TV shows. Why not throw in a genre twist? Apple TV is the new poster child for this intersection, and all the wild and wonderful ways to elevate material that wouldn’t necessarily need it. But some stories — like Sugar, a vibes-y crime thriller returning to Apple for its second season — really do not need it. The series is a pretty blatant love letter to the Old Hollywood noir, fashioning its eponymous private eye (Colin Farrell, who also executive produces) into a modern Humphrey Bogart. It is also, bafflingly, a grounded remix of the Superman story, in that Sugar is an alien (one of many sent to Earth to observe the human race) searching for his missing sister in his downtime between missing persons cases.
