The Sinner season 4: The Festering Seaside

The Sinner starring Bill Pullman as Harry Ambrose came to a hard end last night -- hard in terms of it's not only the end of the season but the series (unless another enlightened network or streaming service picks it up), and hard in terms of everything is difficult for Harry, as he tries to navigate his life through the murders and mayhem he's always prone to investigate.

Harry is really a detective like no other.  Plagued with his own problems, including his masochistic taste in sex, utterly devoted to his investigations, to seeking the truth, with or without a badge, no villain or pervert wants Harry on his or her case.   But each investigation, even though it results in the truth at last revealed, takes its toll on Harry.

At the beginning of the fourth season, Harry is so distraught he's on the verge of taking his own life.  What saves him is witnessing a suicide, as Percy, whom Harry has briefly established a connection with as some kind of kindred sufferer, jumps off a cliff, literally, before Harry's very eyes.  He cannot help but be drawn into an investigation of why that happened, even though it's not a murder.   His investigation uncovers all sorts of underbellies of life, in a sleepy seaside town in Maine festering with crime, resentment, dysfunctional families, and touches of depravity. Fans of Hightown will recognize the environment.

Harry finds some peace in the end in working through the labyrinth to finally understand why Percy jumped.  But he doesn't yet have much peace in his soul, and this means there's ample opportunity for future stories in the world of The Sinner, Harry's world.  I hope we can see them sooner rather than later.  But Harry is such a timeless character, and Pullman brings him to life so well, that I'd be up for seeing more of Harry any time that's on a screen.

See also The Sinner 3.1: Second Degree Murder, First Degree Detective ... The Sinner 3.2:  The Contractor and the Contractee ... The Sinner 3.3: The Baby Monster ... The Sinner 3.4-5: Why Doesn't Harry Just Arrest Jamie ... The Sinner 3.6: Faustian Bargains ... The Sinner 3.7: Confession and Connection ... The Sinner season 3 Finale: Short Hair, with a Beard

And see also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2:  Heather's Story ... The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother ... The Sinner 2.5: The Scapegoat ... The Simmer 2.7: Occluded Past Unwound - Mostly ... The Sinner Season 2 Finale: The Ambiguity of Harry

And see also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

 

The Sinner 3.1: Second Degree Murder, First Degree Detective

The Sinner was back tonight for its third season, which, at first blush, looks to be more of a straight-up whodunnit than the first two seasons, or at least the second season, which is fine in my book,

Harry Ambroise is in pretty good shape, suffering mainly from an intermittent sciatica.   Bill Pullman, as always, is perfect for this role, with just the right mix and degree of savvy and vulnerability. He's suspicious of the passenger survivor of a car crash which killed the driver.  As ever, Harry is right.

The survivor is some kind of psycho, a high school teacher in upstate New York, Jamie, well played by Matt Bomer.  His wife is very pregnant.  His college buddy Nick shows up, apparently unannounced, and references some kind of unexplained things they did together in college.

Those things were presumably not good, and at least in part involved a woman who now lives in some kind of driving distance from Jamie.  Nick wants to pay her a visit, Jamie does not. Nick refuses to listen, Jamie pulls the emergency break on the car which causes it to crash.   Jamie is relatively unhurt, and refuses to call 911.  That act, according to Harry, would constitute second degree murder.

But how will Harry prove that, and what else will he find in Jamie's past and present?  I don't think we knew so much about the killer in the first two seasons, this soon in the narrative, and that makes this season of The Sinner especially interesting.  See you back here next week.

See also The Sinner 2.1: The Boy ... The Sinner 2.2:  Heather's Story ... The Sinner 2.3: Julian's Mother ... The Sinner 2.5: The Scapegoat ... The Simmer 2.7: Occluded Past Unwound - Mostly ... The Sinner Season 2 Finale: The Ambiguity of Harry

And see also: The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

 

The Sinner season one: Wild, Unconventional, Irresistible Mystery

My wife spotted an admiring review of The Sinner, which just began its second season on the USA Network.   Before watching that, we binge watched the first season on Netflix.  Herewith my review - and then in my next post, a review of The Sinner 2.1.

The Sinner (season one) is a police detective mystery like nothing I've seen before on television.  A seemingly happy woman, married and with a young child, stabs to death a guy on the beach, in front of everyone.   Cora, brilliantly played by Jessica Biel, knows that she did this, but hasn't really a clue as to why.  Clearly, she was the furthest thing from happy.  Fortunately for her, Detective Harry Ambrose, takes an interest in her case.

Bill Pullman does a great job playing Harry, a sort of modern-day Columbo, with the some same schlepish qualities as Columbo, and certainly as smart, but endowed with dark past that, as far we know, Columbo didn't have.  Against all odds, Harry pursues the case and discovers why Cora did what she did.

The burden of the story was enormous - how can someone, who we saw with our own eyes brutally murder a guy who was posing no immediate threat to anyone, have any justification for doing this? But the first season pays off amply and in full at the end, as the complicated motive and all the moving parts fit into place.  The result leaves of us wanting more of this indefatigable detective.

The name Sinner is no accident, since a crucial part of Cora's story is why she was motivated to take her sickly sister out of their house, with a mother whose religious bent crippled rather than supported her daughters.   The locale - the Kingston area of New York - also worked well for the ambience.  Harry would have had much more trouble getting his way had he been obliged to conduct the investigation in New York City.

Anyway, enough said about the plot, I don't want to give anything more away.  Snap this up if you're in the mood for a wild, unconventional, irresistible mystery.  And I'll be back in a few minutes with my review of The Sinner 2.1.