Warning: Spoilers for the Sugar season 1 finale!
The film noir detective story gets a contemporary twist with Apple TV+’s Sugar, a provocative series starring Colin Farrell as a hard-boiled gumshoe with a devastating secret. While pursuing the missing granddaughter of a powerful Hollywood film mogul, horrible revelations rise to the surface that threaten to unravel Sugar’s faith in humanity. James Cromwell, Amy Ryan, and Kirby co-star in the series, which just wrapped up its 8-episode debut season.
Executive Producer Simon Kinberg may be best known for his work on feature films like Fox’s X-Men film series, Sherlock Holmes, and Ridley Scott’s The Martian, but he’s no stranger to television, having worked on shows as varied as Star Wars: Rebels, Designated Survivor, and the Paramount+ revival of The Twilight Zone. Sugar is the latest feather in his cap, and it’s one that manages to subvert and reinforce genre conventions simultaneously thanks to the sincerity of its characters, the quality of its writing, and the boldness of its big creative decisions.
While promoting the finale of Sugar‘s debut season, Simon Kinberg spoke to Screen Rant for a post-mortem interview. In this spoiler-filled discussion, he discussed the risks inherent to the show’s big twist, as well as various ideas for Sugar season 2 and beyond.
Screen Rant: It’s been a long time since I’ve had a favorite show, and this is my favorite show. I fell in love immediately, and as it developed, I was more and more entranced. And then it flips the table and goes, “This is what we’re doing now!”
I remember, after the sixth episode aired, there were interviews where people were saying that networks passed on the show because of the twist. They were, like, “Could you not have this sci-fi twist?” Is there a version of this show in your head that doesn’t have that?
I don’t know if you have a renewal yet, but I’m so looking forward to the idea of a one-on-one cat-and-mouse between John and Henry. Was that baked into the premise? Was there a version of this where it was a one-and-done miniseries, or is the plan always “six seasons and a movie,” as they say?
There are so many different potential avenues. The main sequel hook we’ve got is with John and his sister and Henry, but I feel like there’s room for Jonathan Siegel to return. Would the idea for Sugar season 2 be for it to be a whole new story with John Sugar, or could we see the Siegel story continue?
I’m thinking of that last scene between Sugar and Jonathan. On the surface, there’s a lack of judgment between these two guys. But at the same time, you can see him taking in all of Jonathan’s horribleness and thinking, “What am I going to do with this marble of knowledge?”
Is there a giant book, or a giant PDF of the alien culture and their planet and how they travel and all of that lore, stuff that’s not necessary for moment-to-moment storytelling, but that you still need to have? Do you know everything about John and his planet and his culture and his mission that we don’t ever have to learn about, or can you just make it up as you go?
Maybe this is too absolute of an answer for you to give, but will Sugar always be a film noir cupcake with sci-fi sprinkles? Or could it go into other genres or become more sci-fi first? Is this the ratio you prefer?
Thank you for the show, I can’t tell you how much it means to me, personally, and just how much I enjoyed it every single week.
In this noir drama, award-winning actor Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.
Check out our other Sugar interviews here: