One of 2024’s best mystery thriller shows is now available to stream

It features not one, but two gripping mysteries.

And indeed Sugar is a very good, albeit quite unusual show - one which starts off as an almost hyper-traditional detective noir series before mutating as it goes into its own compelling little oddity.

Created by Mark Protosevich (The Cell), Farrell stars in the programme as John Sugar, a modern-day private investigator who specialises in finding missing people whose work takes him around the world. After an excellently taut black-and-white opening sequence set in Japan, the PI is hired by famous Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to locate his missing granddaughter Olivia (Sydney Chandler).

A recovering addict, the rest of Olivia's family - including her less successful producer father Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), her rockstar step-mother Melanie (Amy Ryan) and her former child actor step-brother David (Nate Corddry) - are not as concerned about her disappearance. As Sugar investigates, however, he uncovers the seedy underbelly of LA hiding just beneath the glitz and glamour.

So far, so classic noir and if the series just comprised of these elements, it would make for a standard if extremely watchable throwback. Yet, when the project was first announced, it was described as "genre-bending" and in fact, there is more to the show than meets the eye at first. The further it goes on, a second mystery begins to unfurl itself: who exactly is John Sugar?

Characters are constantly pointing out how the PI - who models himself off of heroes from old noir films (clips from which are spliced throughout the series) - is unusual, as if he is almost too perfect.

More and more of these odd details stack up on top of each other throughout the show until you're tuning in less for the traditional mystery for what happened to Olivia but more to get to the bottom of what the deal is with John Sugar.

Read more:

Having already played a very different type of detective in California in True Detective season two, Farrell accomplishes something similar with his performance - managing to put a modern spin-on the type of tough detectives with a heart of gold that the likes of Humphrey Bogart played complete with the hard-boiled narration. But through subtleties in his line deliveries, his eyes and his movements, he also suggests a secret inner life.

Though a couple of details in the overall mystery are left a little hazy, the series ultimately wraps up in a rewarding fashion while setting up a potential second season. If Farrell returns, we would too.

Sugar's first two episodes are available to watch now, with its other six being released weekly.