Los Angeles could be the most hated city in the country. Of course there is Houston, crippled by its lack of zoning, but L.A. is bigger, second only to New York, and it’s in California, which has been successfully vilified by the right wing. So why should anybody live here?

As the story goes, L.A. has no center. And is therefore incomprehensible to city dwellers. But that’s its magic. The sense of decentralized possibility.

Go to Chicago, any metropolis, and there’s a mayor and a group of business people who run the city, they lord over it. There’s a hierarchy, there’s nearly a feudal system. But in L.A? No one is in charge. For all the blowback about Mayor Bass, the truth is the office has limited power and is ultimately beholden to the Board of Supervisors. Not that I know for sure how it works, despite having lived here for half a century. That’s L.A. in a nutshell, everybody’s into their own trip, there’s no cohesiveness. Which means no one is paying attention, and you can get away with things. And you can be nobody from nowhere and somehow burst on to the scene fully-formed, not only impressing the town, but the entire world.

And all this is encapsulated in “Sugar.” Which is the best shot show on television. You should sign up for Apple TV just to see it. But first buy a top of the line OLED set. And while you’re sitting there in your cocoon you will ask yourself why you’d ever bother to go out to the movies.

Now in the old days, all the television and much of the movies were shot in L.A. And people had a feel for it, which is one reason so many people moved here. Now, as a result of government incentives, production has gone elsewhere, mostly overseas, but Canada too. Yet L.A. is still here.

And what you’ve got is broad boulevards and neighborhoods that you can only discern after you’ve lived here a while. And you can feel the Latino presence. You cannot separate yourself from it. Furthermore, so many Anglos marry into it.

Now the other thing about L.A. is it’s got no weather. Of course the temperature varies, but within a very small range. And there can be some precipitation during the winter, but when the rest of the country starts hunkering down sometime in September or October or even November, it’s still fall here. It’s fall for nearly six months of the year.

And you know the vibe of fall. It’s about dying, not rebirth.

The focus on L.A. is the sunniness and the celebrities, whether A-list or D-list. But if you live here, those are just people you see at the supermarket. There’s a darkness that permeates the place, especially after the sun goes down, it may be pitch black, but it’s still warm and…

You wander.

There is a downtown, but almost no one goes there, never mind walks there…I mean who would, it’s too dangerous. Of course there’s L.A. Live and Disney Hall, but really, the action takes place elsewhere. And not so much in public places, but inside homes. You don’t go out to party, you go to someone’s abode to do so. And it never lasts all night. Because you’ve got to get up in the morning…to work out, to work, you need to be on it.

Perception is that L.A. is hedonistic, that people don’t work, never mind read, but this is patently untrue, L.A. people are working all the time. Hustling when they’re not in the office. You see it’s a mobile society, and you want to get ahead.

But there is no game board. You get a piece, but where you go and how you win is up to you.

Such that the narrative in “Sugar” is not universal, but particular. It’s just another city story, one of a zillion. In many ways it’s got the vibe of “Dragnet,” and the interstitial movie clips remind one of nothing so much as “Dream On,” and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. But up until recently, everybody in L.A. knew the references, the talent, both on the screen and behind it, because the movie business was bedrock.

Of course it’s not the same, but the truth is L.A. is influencer central. They group together and live in houses…

As for the music business, it’s still as present as it ever was, only it’s different.

Of course AEG and Live Nation and Universal are all located here. But really, it’s about the players, who’ve now gone underground. The club scene is kaput, as is the major studio business, never mind the big budgets that supported them, but everybody’s got a Pro Tools rig, a home studio, and they’re working all the time. You can make a record in your bedroom elsewhere, you’re just lacking the top-notch players, the community. As for Nashville… That’s a completely different vibe, homey. There is nothing homey about L.A. It’s every person for themselves, it’s just that there’s enough elbow room for you not to impinge upon others.

So it’s happening here, but if you’re an outsider, it’s not palpable. You can go to Grauman’s and see the handprints, you can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, but a regular Angeleno hasn’t gone there and done that in decades. That’s for tourists.

Once again, the center is not findable. It’s all about scenes. And by time the media gloms on, they’re passé.

But how to convey this to nonresidents?

You can start by watching “Sugar.” Not for the plot, never mind the alien angle, but for the vibe.

It’s perennial nighttime in Los Angeles. What I mean is no one is breathing down your back, everything is possible.

But no one has got your back other than your friends. Good luck depending upon the police, in a vast territory where gangs run rampant.

So you’ve got to be on guard.

And it can be scary, but also titillating.

Most shows are shot fast and flat, it’s the nature of television. But not “Sugar.” “Sugar” gets L.A. right. You view downtown from a distance, you don’t go there. And sure, there’s the beach, but since it’s there all the time you don’t go there regularly either.

You get in your car, and it may not be a ’63 Corvette, but wheels are important in L.A., and you go out for tacos, other ethnic food, not to restaurants that have a profile, but the endless stands and holes-in-the-wall in your neighborhood.

But, having said that, L.A. is a first class city. Its restaurants, its food scene can only be compared to New York, at least as long as you stay in the States.

So that’s the conundrum. It feels like a suburb, it feels like you’re living a life of domesticity, but just around the corner, or over the hill, the world is being changed, oftentimes by people you’ve never known the name of previously.

And this isn’t San Francisco and tech, a one horse town based on education and smarts. No, L.A. is based on wiles. How you interact with people and your desires. Your personality, not so much the one you show to your friends but an external identity, an image, that you will utilize for advancement.

And if you’ve got the bug… If you live here… You laugh at the naysayers. You don’t have to convince them they’re wrong, after all you’re here and you know how great it is.

Then again, if you’re basing your life on your parents and education, those mean nothing here, unless your parent is a celebrity.

So it’s easier to come to Los Angeles and dismiss it. After all, it is spread out and incomprehensible.

But in truth it’s the future. No one here is baked in their ways, no one wants to return to the past, everybody is searching for the new, we’re addicted to the new. And others eventually get it, but by that time we’ve already moved on to the next thing.

So does this sound like a place for you?

If you’re not scared by the above…

Then again, so many arrive here to make it and don’t and then leave.

But those of us who stay here… We know it’s not like any other place. You’ve got the contrast between suburb and city, the mountains and the sea, and good weather all year ’round.

Seeing the streets, the vistas in “Sugar,” makes my heart palpitate, I get excited, because I know this is the place.

And I am here.