A private detective with a supernatural secret? This dark sci-fi series is an absolute must-see

These days, it can be difficult to convince someone to watch a slow-burn movie. detective series on a streamer when there are so many fast-paced shows vying for your attention. I understand; I do. But sometimes a show comes along that frees itself from the preconceived ideas that can accompany a genre, while celebrating it. There’s one series, in particular, that comes to mind that ticks these boxes – and it’s currently airing its second season on Apple TV.

Sugar stars Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Colin Farrell as private detective John Sugar. On the surface it looks and functions like a black police showbut something supernatural happens if you look a little deeper.

I’m going to spoil something about the series now. This needs to be done if I want to discuss the new episodes with you. So, if you’re not caught up on season 1, you’ve been warned.

Learn more: New on Apple TV July 2026: Pickleball comedy ‘The Dink,’ Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘Lucky’ and more

John Sugar is an alien: a blue alien, a being with glowing eyes who is not from this planet. And yes, he always looks better in a suit than me.

This science fiction story twist was revealed in 2024, when the first season of the series was brand new. Even if this creative swing disrupted the expectations of the black kindit didn’t overshadow the story or case it was trying to solve in these episodes. It added, like the icing on a cake that didn’t necessarily need it but nonetheless benefited from the sweetness.

When the series first aired, Sugar was searching for her missing sister, and her need to find her and reconcile that grief fueled her work as a private detective. Season 2 opens by closing this storyline and follows Sugar, who, after the events of the first season finale, would be the only member of her clan left on Earth. Without family or community, Sugar returns to work that gives her a purpose: finding missing people.

His gateway into our culture was cinema — old black and white hollywood moviesto be precise – and it is through this glamorous, dramatic and stylized lens that he sees our world. However, this perception is regularly disrupted by the harsh, violent and brutal realities that accompany his work.

Episode 3 drops on Apple TV Friday, which means Sugar is still very focused on this season’s missing persons case. The man he is looking for is Ji (Raymond Lee), the criminal brother of a promising boxer, Danny Moon (Jin Ha). His investigation places Sugar in all kinds of precarious situations, including gang territory, which pivots the series into familiar territory for those who miss shows like The Shield or The Wire.

This tidbit adds a new layer to the series and is a nice reminder that Los Angeles is an important character in the series. Like another Los Angeles-based show, The Lincoln Lawyer, Sugar regularly features sequences in which Farrell is dressed to the nines, driving his classic convertible through city streets, where the scenery changes from a tourist-packed spectacle to a crumbling, disheveled wasteland, and back again, much like it does if you drive around these parts regularly – which I do.

Season 1 introduced voiceover narration, with Farrell delivering an interior monologue to inform the story. Stylistically, it’s a commonly used tool in the noir crime genre and could easily push the series into cheeseball territory, but it worked in its first run of episodes and continues to be an interesting addition in new episodes.

This shouldn’t be surprising, considering the caliber of actor delivering these lines.

Colin Farrell is magnetic as John Sugar, soft-spoken, calculated and stoic. His performance as an alien private detective is the exact opposite of the work he did as an alien private detective. Oz Cobb in The Penguinwhere he disappeared into the role of Gotham City’s brash and loud crime boss thanks to heavy prosthetics.

His voiceover segments, accompanied by clips from classic films featuring many Humphrey Bogarts, guide Sugar’s emotional journey. He is far from being human, but he never tires of humanity. The camerawork, filled with Dutch angles and other stylistic elements, helps to illuminate the series and pay homage to the noir genre while reinforcing the idea that John Sugar is a strange man, stuck living a lonely life in a rather strange country.

Hell, I’d go so far as to say that John Sugar is kind of what I imagine Clark Kent might have become, if he had remained an outcast, if he had fallen in love with the movies and never decided to don the Superman costume to share his powers with the world.

Farrell’s Sugar is always watching, observing, fascinated by the people around him. He is a rudderless being, always looking for a goal. So he’s working to find humans – which I guess means there’s a conversation that can be had here about how cinema benefits and connects humanity, but I digress.

Yes, Farrell is the #1 reason you should watch the show. But the supporting cast is also worth your time. Shea Whigham’s turn as Sugar’s Big Lebowski-style mentor, Tom, adds an energy similar to that of Elliott Gould in The Lincoln Lawyer. Charlotte, Laura Donnelly’s femme fatale, keeps Sugar on her toes. Sasha Calle brings her street smarts as her new assistant, Val, and the always superb Tony Dalton, who is this season’s big bad, Ray Vega, does an unnerving job without chewing the scenery.

Believe me, the scenery could easily be chewed up here, and it’s all so delicious to admire, I assure you. Sugar is a sci-fi series that would still be firing on all dramatic cylinders if it were just a brooding detective novel. Everything is so good, from the writing and cinematography to the ever-rising emotional stakes and nuanced performances from its actors.

But he has that supernatural DNA, of course. And that makes it another unique, intriguing piece, essential entry into the Apple TV range.