I was spoiled for The Big Reveal before I started watching Sugar. I’m a bit mad about it, I’ll admit – it would have been tantalising; it was still tantalising enough; but it did also make me move watching the show further up the list. So there’s that.

ALL THE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 1, stop reading now.

Seriously.

All I had heard was something along the lines of “Sugar is an alien.” I didn’t know what, precisely, that meant. As I watched – coming to it was a SFF eye, rather than just a cop show eye – I could see some of the ways the show was setting you up for “this bloke isn’t what you think he is”. I found myself wondering whether he was an off-the-planet alien, or some sort of angel (at one point that seemed barely plausible), or some other sort of alien, or… something else I hadn’t figured out.

I’ve recently been thinking about how reading with a particular mindset – in this case, a SFF eye – changes, or at least impacts, the way you read or view something. I have watched a lot of cop shows. I have watched more SFF shows. Very occasionally, the two intersect (my beloved Fringe, or arguably Person of Interest). Sugar does a very good job of being a cop show (broadly understood). I think it also does a very good job of being a stealth SFF show.

When the reveal came, at the end of ep6, I was honestly disappointed. It came earlier than I had expected – which, on reflection, I think it needed to, given where the show was going with “we’re just observers.” I could have stood to have the ambiguity a bit longer. My main disappointment, though, was with the actual look of Sugar as an alien. It just seemed so… pedestrian. I imagine it was pretty weird and unexpected for a “I’m just watching a cop show” audience, but the SFF viewer in me found it borderline risible. I was glad we did’t see too much more of AlienSugar.

As for the rest of the show? Well, it’s shot beautifully. I am not a lover of Hollywood as a place, nor do I have nostalgia for old films like Sugar, but I was captivated by the framing of many of the scenes, and was delighted by the use of old films as commentary. I recognised a few of the actors but almost none of the films, so I have no doubt that I missed at least some of the commentary, but it adds wonderfully to the vibe of the show nonetheless. I think Farrell is brilliant – and it made me realise how few things I’ve actually watched him in; I think he doesn’t usually do movies I gravitate towards, but he’s great here and brings Sugar alive as someone who is earnest, almost naive in some ways, and committed to a righteous cause. The rest of the cast, too, are great.

I wasn’t sure, at the end of ep7, how there could be a second season. It makes sense, of course, by the end of ep8. I’m not sure I entirely approve, and I really hope that the writers are making good narrative decisions not commercial ones. I mean, I assume it was a bit of a risky show to make in the first place, so maybe it’s all about the story?

I’m going into season 2 anyway.