Sugar (2024 TV series): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
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* [[Detective fiction]]
* [[Mystery fiction|Mystery]]
* [[Tech noir]]}}
}}▼
| creator = [[Mark Protosevich]]
| director = [[Fernando Meirelles]]<br>[[Adam Arkin]]
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* [[Nate Corddry]]
* Alex Hernandez
* [[James Cromwell]]}}
}}
| country = United States
| language = English
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* Scott Greenberg
* Chip Vucelich
* Fernando Meirelles}}
}}
| runtime = 32–49 minutes
| company = {{Plainlist|
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* [[Kinberg Genre]]
* Chapel Place Productions
* [[Apple Studios]]}}
| open_theme = "Street Fighter Mas" by [[Kamasi Washington]]
}}
| network = [[Apple TV+]]
| first_aired = {{Start date|2024|4|5}}
| last_aired = {{End date|present}}
}}
'''''Sugar''''' is an American [[Mystery fiction|mystery]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] [[tech noir]] [[television series]] created by [[Mark Protosevich]] with [[Fernando Meirelles]] directing 5 episodes and [[Adam Arkin]] directing 3 episodes. The series stars [[Colin Farrell]], who also serves as executive producer. It premiered on [[Apple TV+]] on April 5, 2024.<ref>{{cite web|last=Schwartz|first=Ryan|date=February 5, 2024|url=https://tvline.com/news/apple-tv-plus-tv-shows-2024-new-returning-1235141679/|title=Apple Sets Dates for Jake Gyllenhaal's ''Presumed Innocent'' Remake, Michael Douglas' ''Franklin'' and 10 Others (Watch)|access-date=February 5, 2024|website=TVLine}}</ref>▼
The first season received positive reviews and was nominated for the [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour)]] at the 2024 [[Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award|Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards]]. In October 2024, the series was renewed for a second season.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McPherson |first=Chris |date=2024-10-02 |title=Will Colin Farrell's Neo-Noir Thriller Series 'Sugar' Get a Season 2? |url=https://collider.com/sugar-season-2-renewed/ |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=Collider |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Porter |first=Rick |date=October 2, 2024 |title='Sugar,' Starring Colin Farrell, Renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV+ |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/sugar-renewed-season-2-apple-tv-1236022437/ |access-date=October 2, 2024 |website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]}}</ref>
▲'''''Sugar''''' is an American [[Mystery fiction|mystery]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] television series created by [[Mark Protosevich]] with [[Fernando Meirelles]] directing 5 episodes and [[Adam Arkin]] directing 3 episodes. The series stars [[Colin Farrell]], who also serves as executive producer. It premiered on [[Apple TV+]] on April 5, 2024.<ref>{{cite web|last=Schwartz|first=Ryan|date=February 5, 2024|url=https://tvline.com/news/apple-tv-plus-tv-shows-2024-new-returning-1235141679/|title=Apple Sets Dates for Jake Gyllenhaal's ''Presumed Innocent'' Remake, Michael Douglas' ''Franklin'' and 10 Others (Watch)|access-date=February 5, 2024|website=TVLine}}</ref>
== Premise ==
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===Guest===
* Maeve Whalen as Djen
* [[Miguel Sandoval]] as Thomas Kinsey
* Travis Richey as Gary Bascomb
* Jon Beavers as Carl
* [[Natalie Alyn Lind]] as Rachel Kaye
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* [[Scott Lawrence]] as Dr. Vickers
* [[Jonathan Slavin]] as Everett Roberts
* [[Joey Pollari]] as Moss
* Elizabeth Anweis as Mrs. Siegel
* [[Adrian Martinez (actor)|Adrian Martinez]] as Glen
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* [[Paul Schulze]] as Miller
* Cameron Cowperthwaite as Ryan Pavich
* [[Ben Mankiewicz]] as himself
==Episodes==
{{plot|section|date=June 2024}}
{{Episode table |background=#8094DA |overall= |title= |titleR=<ref name="RT"/> |director= |writer= |writerR=<ref name="WGA">{{Cite web |title=''Sugar'' - WGA Directory |url=https://directories.wga.org/project/1240054/sugar-2023/ |access-date=July 8, 2023 |website=[[Writers Guild of America West]]}}</ref> |airdate= |airdateR=<ref name="TFC">{{cite web |title=Shows A-Z – Sugar on Apple TV+ |url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/showatch/sugar-apple-tv-plus/listings/ |website=[[The Futon Critic]] |access-date=February 28, 2024}}</ref> |released=y |episodes={{Episode list
{{Episode list
| EpisodeNumber = 1
| Title = Olivia
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| WrittenBy = [[Mark Protosevich]]
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2024|4|5}}
| ShortSummary = In Tokyo, private investigator John Sugar recovers the kidnapped son of a Yakuza leader, but sustains a cut to his left shoulder in the process. Shortly after, he is offered a new case and returns to Los Angeles. There, Sugar, who is revealed to be an avid [[cinephile]] and a [[polyglot]], meets with Jonathan Siegel, a legendary film producer whose granddaughter, Olivia, has gone missing. Despite her history of drug-related disappearances, this time Siegel is deeply concerned by her lack of contact. Sugar's handler Ruby expresses misgivings about him taking on the case, but Sugar insists, saying that Olivia reminds him of his sister JenDJen. He begins his investigation at Olivia's apartment, where he encounters her stepbrother David and his bodyguard, Kenny, who act uncooperatively. In the apartment, Sugar finds a suitcase full of memorabilia dedicated to Olivia's late mother, Rachel Kaye, from when she was a young actress. He then tracks Melanie Matthews, who used to be Olivia's stepmother. They bond over expensive whisky, and Sugar reveals that he metabolizes alcohol unusually quickly, allowing him to drink large amounts of alcohol without feeling drunk. He takes Melanie home, but rebuffs her advances. His investigation leads him to discover a dead body in Olivia's car. In his hotel suite, Sugar receives a mysterious invitation to a party by a society of polyglots. After finding compromising Polaroid photos of Rachel Kaye hidden in Olivia's suitcase, suggesting that Olivia was digging into her mother's past, Sugar seems to experience neurological sequels from the wound on his shoulder, which has reopened. He injects himself with a mysterious intravenous substance before losing consciousness.
| LineColor = 8094DA
}}
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| WrittenBy = Donald Joh and [[Sam Catlin]]
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2024|5|3}}
| ShortSummary = David is rushed to a hospital and is declared alive, but brain dead. Charlie, having staked out Stallings' home, warns Sugar that Stallings has returned. Sugar calms Stallings' vicious doberman dogs simply by talking to them. In the house, Sugar is ambushed by Stallings and two of his acolytes, all heavily armed. They reveal they have been tipped off about his arrival, beat him up, and plan to murder him. Sugar pleads with them to stop the violence, saying he does not want to kill them. When Stallings orders his crony to shoot him in the head, Sugar somehow deflects the bullet with his hand. Seemingly showing superhuman strength and speed, he overpowers all three, incapacitating Stallings and killing both acolytes, although he is stabbed in the stomach in the process. He then interrogates Stallings, who refuses to tell him anything, so Sugar executes him. Checking Stallings' phone, he recognizes Ruby's number as the one warning them of his arrival. He investigates behind the locked door in the basement, but finds only caged dogs. Unable to contact Charlie and gravely injured, Sugar asks Melanie to meet him at a nearby motel. There, he refuses to be taken to the hospital, but asks her to contact his friend Henry, saying he is a doctor. Henry arrives, asks Melanie to go get a supply of drugs at the drugstore, and conducts surgery in her absence, apparently giving Sugar a transfusion of a mysterious shimmering blood-like liquid. A partially recovered Sugar confronts Ruby at her home, but she refuses to reveal her reasons for warning Stallings, reiterating instead that Sugar needs to stop investigating. Sugar asks her if Olivia has been trafficked to someone being protected by their organization, and Ruby doesn't answer. She offers him an aspirin and, after checking in the kitchen, goes upstairs to get some, but he abruptly leaves before she returns. She finds the kitchen drawer she approached open with aspirin inside. Back in the motel, while Melanie is sleeping, he again injects himself in the neck with his intravenous drug kit, saying that he wants to take a break and "go home" for the evening. As he stands in front of the mirror, he transforms into a blue-skinned humanoid.
| LineColor = 8094DA
}}
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| WrittenBy = Donald Joh and Sam Catlin
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2024|5|10}}
| ShortSummary = Ruby and Miller use a strange typewriter-like device to send a message, and after receiving a reply, Miller leaves in search of Sugar. Sugar awakens in the motel room to find that Melanie has been watching over him. Attending David's Jewish funeral, Jonathan comforts Bernie, who now believes Olivia is truly in danger and missing due to her absence. Miller arrives at the hotel with backup and, after a scuffle, subdues Sugar by grabbing his neck and lifting him up in the air with a single hand, but Melanie knocks Miller over with a towel bar, and they run away. Melanie demands answers but Sugar can only reveal that he belongs to a secret job and that private detective is only his "day job," leading her to believe he is a spy. We learn that David has succumbed to his injury. Attending David's Jewish funeral, Jonathan comforts Bernie, who now believes she is truly in danger and missing due to her absence. Sugar tries to warn Henry at his university job, but finds that Miller has gotten to him first. Sugar later tails Miller to a mysterious house, only to find upon entry that many of his fellow "polyglots" are there. Ruby reveals that the mission is over, and they have been called home. Henry tells Sugar that some influential, powerful humans found out about their presence, and have been blackmailing them threatening to reveal the presence of aliens unless they help them. That is why Miller tried to make him back off the Siegel case. Henry expresses his opinion that the more they stay among humans, the more they become like them, which Sugar agrees with after admitting he killed Stallings not because he had to, but because he felt like it. After Henry gives him an address, Sugar breaks into the house of a senator's son, finding a hiddenthe basement, but is taken captive by a security guard. He tries to report that a girl is held captive there, only to realize the guard is really the senator's son himself. The cuffed Sugar still manages to subdue the son, who suddenly shoots himself in the head. Sugar investigates the basement, finding an array of torture and slaughtering devices, and stacks of recordings. He opens a locked cabinet under the stairs.
| LineColor = 8094DA
}}
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| WrittenBy = Donald Joh and Sam Catlin
| OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2024|5|17}}
| ShortSummary = Sugar finds Olivia in the cabinet, hurt but alive. He returns her to Melanie and her father and grandfather, and notifies the police. Afterwards, Miller is stopped by a cop while driving and is shot and killed. Sugar meets Ruby and Henry, asking the latter for a CD player, and starts listening to the senator's son's recordings about his torture and murder sessions. Sugar visits Jonathan, and apologizes to David's mother. Jonathan wants to hire him as chief of security, but he politely declines, and gives him the photos. Jonathan admits that he had a short relationship with Rachel, Bernie's first wife, confirming that Olivia is his daughter, not Bernie's. After leaving his dog with Melanie, he says goodbye to her, and breaking rules, briefly reveals his alien eyes to her. He also reveals he became a PI after his sister was abducted and never found. As he continues to listen to the recording, he suddenly realizes that the killer was not alone. Talking to Olivia, she says she never saw the second person's face, nor heard him talk, but he has been writing notes all the time. This makes Sugar realize the accomplice was Henry. He drives back to Ruby's place, where Henry calls him on the phone, confirming this. He states he did it to learn from humans, and decides he will stay on Earth. Before breaking the call, he tells Sugar he left rose petals for him - the petals lead to a cupboard which contains the clothes of Djen, Sugar's sister. Sugar meets Ruby at the departure point, who confirms they knew about the experiments with the killer, which was Henry's idea, but not about Djen. Despite the likelihood that his sister is already dead, Sugar decides to stay behind as Henry is their people's responsibility, and departs to find him.
| LineColor = 8094DA
}}}}
}}
== Production ==
It was announced in December 2021 that [[Apple TV+]] had won a bidding war for the rights to the series, which had [[Colin Farrell]] attached to star.<ref name="SeriesOrdered" /> Farrell would officially join the series in June 2022, when it was given the greenlight from Apple TV+.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Goldberg |first1=Lesley |title=Colin Farrell to Star in Genre-Bending Apple Series 'Sugar' |date=June 9, 2022 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/colin-farrell-to-star-in-genre-bending-apple-series-sugar-1235161762/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=June 11, 2022 }}</ref> In August 2022, [[Kirby (person)Howell-Baptiste|Kirby]], [[Amy Ryan]], [[Dennis Boutsikaris]], Alex Hernandez and [[Lindsay Pulsipher]] joined the main cast, with [[Anna Gunn]] and [[James Cromwell]] cast to recur.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cordero |first1=Rosy |title=''Sugar'': Kirby Howell-Baptiste To Star Opposite Colin Farrell In Apple Series |url=https://deadline.com/2022/08/sugar-kirby-howell-baptiste-colin-farrell-apple-series-1235094554/ |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |access-date=August 17, 2022 |date=August 17, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Petski |first1=Denise |title=Amy Ryan Joins Colin Farrell & Kirby Howell-Baptiste In Apple Series ''Sugar'' |url=https://deadline.com/2022/08/amy-ryan-colin-farrell-kirby-howell-baptiste-apple-series-sugar-1235095623/ |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |access-date=August 18, 2022 |date=August 18, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Peter |title=''Sugar'': Alex Hernandez, Lindsay Pulsipher & Dennis Boutsikaris To Star In Apple Series, Anna Gunn & James Cromwell To Recur |url=https://deadline.com/2022/08/sugar-alex-hernandez-lindsay-pulsipher-dennis-boutsikaris-apple-anna-gunn-james-cromwell-1235102264/ |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |access-date=August 29, 2022 |date=August 29, 2022}}</ref> In September, [[Nate Corddry]], [[Sydney Chandler]], [[Miguel Sandoval]], Elizabeth Anweis and [[Jason Butler Harner]] were added to the cast.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cordero |first1=Rosy |title=''Sugar'': Nate Corddry, Sydney Chandler & Miguel Sandoval Among 5 Cast In Apple Series |url=https://deadline.com/2022/09/sugar-nate-corddry-sydney-chandler-miguel-sandoval-among-cast-apple-series-1235127873/ |website=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |access-date=December 16, 2022 |date=September 27, 2022}}</ref>
Production for the series began in August 2022, which was expected to extend into the fall, delaying another project for series star Farrell.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sharf |first1=Zack |title=Colin Farrell Hopes Penguin Series Starts Filming in 2023, and He Still Wants to Star in ''The Batman 2'' |url=https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/colin-farrell-penguin-series-films-2023-batman-2-1235330690/ |website=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |access-date=September 2, 2022 |date=August 1, 2022}}</ref>
== Reception ==
On review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], 82% of 6674 critics gave the series a positive review, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A modern noir steeped in the classic tradition, ''Sugar'' could use stronger clues to go along with its ample style, but Colin Farrell's cool performance keeps things compelling."<ref name="RT">{{Cite Rotten Tomatoes|id=sugar_2024|type=tv|title=Sugar|season=1|access-date=AprilJune 1810, 2024|publisher_hide=y}}{{cbignore}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the series holds a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{Cite Metacritic|id=sugar|type=tv|title=Sugar|season=1|access-date=April 18, 2024|publisher_hide=y}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
===Awards and nominations===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|-
!scope="col"| Award
!scope="col"| Date of ceremony
!scope="col"| Category
!scope="col"| Nominee(s)
!scope="col"| Result
!scope="col" class="unsortable" | {{Refh}}
|-
| rowspan="3" | [[Astra TV Awards]]
| rowspan="3" | [[4th Astra TV Awards|August 18, 2024]]
| Best Actor in a Streaming Drama Series
| [[Colin Farrell]]
| {{pending}}
| style="text-align:center" rowspan="3" | <ref>{{cite web |url=https://awardswatch.com/hca-astra-tv-awards-nominations-the-bear-hacks-the-morning-show-baby-reindeer-lead-nominations/ |title=HCA Astra TV Awards Nominations: 'The Bear', 'Hacks', 'The Morning Show', 'Baby Reindeer' Lead Nominations |last=Anderson |first=Erik |website=AwardsWatch |date=July 9, 2024 |access-date=July 10, 2024}}</ref>
|-
| Best Supporting Actress in a Streaming Drama Series
| [[Amy Ryan]]
| {{pending}}
|-
| Best Directing in a Streaming Drama Series
| [[Fernando Meirelles]] {{small|(for "Olivia")}}
| {{pending}}
|-
| [[Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards]]
| [[76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards|September 7-8, 2024]]
| [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour)|Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour)]]
| Richard Rutkowski {{small|(for "Starry Eyed")}}
| {{nom}}
| style="text-align:center" |<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/creative-arts-emmy-nominations-2024-full-list.html |title=The 2024 Creative Arts Emmy Nominations |date=2024-07-18 |access-date=2024-07-20 |website=[[Vulture (website)|Vulture]] |last=Guy |first=Zoe}}</ref>
▲}|}
== Notes ==
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[[Category:American English-language television shows]]
[[Category:Apple TV+ original programming]]
[[Category:Neo-noir television series]]
[[Category:Television series set in 2023]]
[[Category:Television shows set in Los Angeles]]