Dominique Miller Osborn

(*Spoilers. Heavy thinking. Grab a cuppa. Haha) Look, most of the reviews will bang on about the genre-bending attempt of detective noir with it’s (albeit late) contemporary twist of sci-fi, being exciting to some & infuriating to others. You will make up your own mind. It is fresh. It is fun - if you are not a detective purist. Its pastiche of genres is like modern cuisine - a blend that attempts to cross worlds. I personally enjoyed the slow, moody, creative mix on my tastebuds. My beef with the show is not in its marrying of flavours. It is suprising & palatable. The problem is the timing & treatment of the detective story which carries us the whole series. By the end of this show I have to wonder why we are all obsessed with reviewing a detective show turned sci-fi - when really the plot is lost on the audience with its fantasy sparklers shining in our eyes. It wraps up too quickly & the focus shift in plot dilutes the coherence & the reliance on spectacle & cheap twists wraps up the drama. Olivia who is the main character of the story ends up being tossed in at the end like a happy fairy that can endure weeks of war-like torture yet be polite & laughing the next day. Her story, her sad thread is reconciled abruptly because why? Because they all were complicit and wanted to observe the ‘worst’ of human nature. But everyone is sorry & they hug. I know this is Sugars show.. but the story lacks human integrity with this thin, rushed ending. And in case you were in any doubt - there is a fair whack of the worst. The show displays in particular so much violence against women : the abducted daughter, obsession with sexual manipulation & blackmailing women, the cover up of his behaviour, having sex with trafficked women, trafficking women between borders & killing their families & lastly the terror of being tortured by a sociopath. One audience member wrote they liked the pro-woman story. But in modern story-telling to tell stories of detectives saving women from sociopaths, rapists or killers is well, to tell a story of male sociopaths, rapists & killers. To tell a story of a group that observes humanities’ worst & that in fact one of those ‘higher more peaceful’ characters enjoyed observing sociopathic violence against women puts us into a value system where women are used as objects to tell the tale of male maladjusted power that still prevails on Earth, whilst it is changing slowly. So, is it fabulously filmed? (Gritty, angles yes) Is it acted brilliantly? Is it a contemporary & satisfying way to honour film noir? Is it full of the twists & turns we are used to in a series? Is the female lead great? (Awesome Amy Ryan) Yes. And in the end, we love Sugar. We want Sugar to be defending his sister, Olivia or any other abused person. But how some are stuck on the colour of his skin, or where Sugar comes from, Im stuck on why did we need the dramatic, sick spectacle of an extreme sociopath to tell the story of the contradiction of humanity & Sugars desire to be a part of it. The cinematic ideas are contemporary - as Apple likes to air - but the gender issues presented in this modern package get me in the guts. Sugar is the redeeming character that tries to be kind, show empathy & stop violence perpetuating, but one man against a world of violence paints a world that to me is outdated - not cutting edge like the rest of the show is aiming to be.