Colin Farrell has had one of the more interesting careers of any actor of this century. His versatility allows him to a play a wide range of roles, many involving some involvement, intended, innocent, and inveigled, in crime, some comic book figures (The Penguin in “The Batman”), some that epitomize being human (“The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Saving Mr. Banks”), some historical (“The New World”) some quirky (“In Bruges,” “Intermission”), and some just plain bizarre (“The Lobster”).
Currently, Farrell stars as another quirky, but this time ultra-talented character in one of the series that breaks through the competent mundanity that marks even the best programs, too engross you in both its lead figure and its plot. The show is “Sugar.” It’s on Apple+, and Farrell plays the title role, John Sugar, a highly trained, unusually canny, and sweetly sentimental detective who works internationally and specialized in finding the lost and bringing them back to their families.
“Sugar’s” first episode, of eight, sets the show’s tone from the beginning. Using black & white, a seemingly popular trend these days, it presents Sugar as an operative from the noir school. Scenes in Japan and early scenes in Los Angeles, where “Sugar” is primarily set, remind one of movies starring Humphrey Bogart or Dick Powell.
There’s also an overtone of John le Carré, who spies and agents often had the extraordinary gifts and compulsive dedicated we see in Farr.