Trailer: https://rb.gy/wljb0c

I really liked watching this, especially after the second seasons of “Silo” and “Bad Sisters.” “Silo” had a couple of episodes that were so slow, with lame dialogue, that I only hung in there to find out what ultimately happened with Juliette. As for “Bad Sisters”…same deal, a few very slow episodes. This definitely should have ended after one season.

But “Sugar”…

These streaming series come out on Apple and you never know how good they are, because they drop one episode at a time, even the reviewers are not privy to the entire series, so you get an impression, and the impression from the reviews was good, no cigar, so I skipped it. But subscribing to Apple TV+ at the moment (I don’t need no application telling me when to cancel, I hate paying for what I don’t use), I decided we should watch “Sugar,” after checking out the RottenTomatoes numbers, which were 81/79, and you know my threshold is 81 on the Tomatometer (the critics’ number), so we dove in.

In other words, now that the entire series has played, those who did watch it felt the experience was worth it. But this is so long after the initial episode aired…

I know, I know, Apple has no product, and that’s why they drip it out week by week, but good shows end up being lost in the shuffle, “The Morning Show” has not recovered from its initial blah reviews. The first season ultimately played out and there was a re-evaluation, but at that point most people had moved on. What do they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression? People are overloaded with choices. You’ve got to make it easy for them. And if you miss your opportunity, if people are turned off once, the odds of getting them back are insignificant. Many series I’ve watched the first episode wasn’t fantastic, but I let it ride into the second and got hooked. But when there’s only one…

Well, all of “Sugar” is available now.

Now “Sugar” would work just fine sans the twist in the plot which is foreshadowed from the beginning and becomes fully evident with a few episodes left. “Sugar” works perfectly well as your standard private eye show, sans this extra layer.

And this extra layer is so whacked, that I thought “Sugar” must be an adaptation from a book, who would come up with such a plot twist, completely unnecessary, but it appears to be wholly original.

Now the star is Colin Farrell. In an understated role. But those clothes! It almost made me want to buy a bunch of Saville Row suits. Clothes make the man. And if you’re willing to drop 10k on a suit, people will notice. (Then again, maybe you need the body for it. And in the book on Babitz and Didion it’s stated that  Tom Wolfe came to the west coast in his white suit early in his career and the cognoscenti laughed at him.)

Although understated, Colin’s performance rings wholly true. And I’ve got to mention his wheels, a sixties Corvette convertible. I’d want to buy one if the air wasn’t so bad in the city, and convertibles are hell in traffic, especially on the freeway.

Amy Ryan as a faded rock star? I’m not sure I buy the rock star bit, but she’s down to earth in a passé way… For all the women on TMZ with plastic surgery looking like zombies, there are a ton of famous people past their peak living in the Valley who have aged gracefully, like Ryan.

Dennis Boutsikaris as Bernie Siegel almost steals the show. Not by overacting, but being totally subsumed by the character. You’ve seen Boutsikaris, he’s been everywhere, even if you don’t know his name. He was great in “Better Call Saul” and he has this ability to radiate intensity, without sacrificing intellect…I know people like this.

And I must mention Eric Lange as Stallings, another guy you know but can’t name. Lange inhabits the Stallings character, he’s a gangster without going over the top.

And sure, the other actors are very good, but the star of the show is…

The cinematography.

Now I don’t know if it will look as good on a non-OLED set, but it’s positively mesmerizing. L.A. is so vivid. Sure, it’s weird to watch after the fires, but this is L.A., definitely. Sunny, easy-living, suburban-like, yet with grit and danger underneath.

And then there’s the intercutting of old film clips. This is especially distracting in the first few episodes, jarring, if not totally superfluous. We haven’t seen this trope exercised to this extent since “Dream On.” As the episodes play out you find out that Farrell’s character Sugar is a film buff, and the scenes make more sense, but I can’t say they add much to the story, or even the viewing experience.

So Sugar is in search of Olivia. This is not “Bosch,” “Sugar” is much more stylized. But there’s the hotel rooms of “Goliath” and…unlike “Silo” and “Bad Sisters” you want to watch the next episode, your mind doesn’t drift, and it’s not an endless slog, there are only eight episodes, none of them an hour long, many not even close.

“Sugar” played out last spring, from April into May. There was a bit of talk about it for a minute there, but I did not get the vibe it is was as good as it is, worth the watch.

Art in today’s world is a time bomb. In many cases, it takes years for a project to resonate with the public. It all comes down to word of mouth, and after you hear about a show, a record, a movie from a bunch of people you trust, you check it out, and in most cases it’s just a touch away on your device of choice. And if you like it, you tell everybody about it.

Sure, they overhype the new projects of the stars, but if you’re starting from scratch, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. Don’t expect immediate accolades. What you’re desirous of is a knowing acceptance of your place in the firmament. And there are so many variables, that almost all you can control is the work. But you want to make it easy for people to partake of. Hell, Peter Gabriel wouldn’t do a podcast with me because I criticized him for dripping out his new album track by trac k. People want to marinate in a Gabriel album, it’s an experience, one cut is not enough, and when all the tracks were available…there was no buzz, more of a whimper than excitement.

Which is the same thing with “Sugar”… By time the last episode played, very few people were still hooked.

I keep hearing people have a short attention span. Nothing could be further from the truth, they just have an incredible sh*t detector. They’re dying to marinate in the long form, and if they like something they’ll tell everybody about it. Young people have got short attention spans? Then why do they spend weekends watching episode after episode of “Friends” or “Sex in the City”?

In any event, I recommend you watch “Sugar.” It’s far from the best show you’ll ever see, but you can tell they’re trying, and there’s this visceral element…

I’m sad it’s over.