Season 1 was fantastic. It opens with a woman, Cora, played by Jessica Biel, with her family in a crowded summer beach scene, when she experiences a mental break, then attacks and kills a man, seemingly unprovoked. The lead investigator is Ambrose, played by Bill Pullman. The rest of the season tells a twisted tale that explores what lead Cora to the point of violent attack. The value of a woman and the definition of womanhood is a looming theme throughout.
I like to think of good storytelling as onion peeling. Have you ever cut into an onion and found that other baby onions were inside that one? That’s what The Sinner is like. Each episode peels back the onion, but then you find a whole other story that needs to be peeled…. And there are multiples of those.
At a certain point, season 1 started to go down a True Detective vector, but then it totally distinguished itself. The casting and acting are statue-winning caliber. Biel, Pullman and the actor who plays her husband, Christopher Abbot, are phenomenal.
In season 2, Ambrose assists a friend’s daughter, who is a budding local police department detective, with the investigation of a child who murdered the two people who kidnapped him from the cult-commune where he lived with his mother. That was a hard sentence to write! See all the potential baby onions? Motherhood and what constitutes nurturing a child seems to be the overall theme in this season.
One baby onion is Ambrose’s personal story: Can’t have a brooding detective without a troubled past or current life. Ambrose’s personal stories, in my opinion, parallel the stories of who he is investigating. In season 1, he has a S&M relationship with a prostitute and at the same time, his relationship with his wife is crumbling as she becomes fed up with his increasing emotional distance.
In season 2, the majority of the investigation takes place in the town where he grew up and experienced a traumatic early life and the death of his mother.
Season 3 is where that changes. Instead of his personal life paralleling the suspect’s, Ambrose is challenged by Jamie to come to terms with how he defines himself. Why does Ambrose not take pain medication for such obvious discomfort? Why does he not enjoy his life? He starts to feel sympathy and a need to protect Jamie because Jamie has become his guru.
Again, season 3 features top quality acting, but it feels too long and repetitive. We learn over and over again about Jamie’s relationship with Nick. We learn over and over that Nick’s philosophy is intoxicating and irresistible to Jamie, Ambrose and Sonya. We see repeatedly that there is no one who can control Ambrose (not even himself) and no one (who is alive) who can rein Jamie in. I just wish they would have wrapped this up in 6 episodes instead of 8.
At a certain point, season 1 started to go down a True Detective vector, but then it totally distinguished itself. The casting and acting are statue-winning caliber. Biel, Pullman and the actor who plays her husband, Christopher Abbot, are phenomenal.
In season 2, Ambrose assists a friend’s daughter, who is a budding local police department detective, with the investigation of a child who murdered the two people who kidnapped him from the cult-commune where he lived with his mother. That was a hard sentence to write! See all the potential baby onions? Motherhood and what constitutes nurturing a child seems to be the overall theme in this season.
One baby onion is Ambrose’s personal story: Can’t have a brooding detective without a troubled past or current life. Ambrose’s personal stories, in my opinion, parallel the stories of who he is investigating. In season 1, he has a S&M relationship with a prostitute and at the same time, his relationship with his wife is crumbling as she becomes fed up with his increasing emotional distance.
In season 2, the majority of the investigation takes place in the town where he grew up and experienced a traumatic early life and the death of his mother.
Season 3 is where that changes. Instead of his personal life paralleling the suspect’s, Ambrose is challenged by Jamie to come to terms with how he defines himself. Why does Ambrose not take pain medication for such obvious discomfort? Why does he not enjoy his life? He starts to feel sympathy and a need to protect Jamie because Jamie has become his guru.
Again, season 3 features top quality acting, but it feels too long and repetitive. We learn over and over again about Jamie’s relationship with Nick. We learn over and over that Nick’s philosophy is intoxicating and irresistible to Jamie, Ambrose and Sonya. We see repeatedly that there is no one who can control Ambrose (not even himself) and no one (who is alive) who can rein Jamie in. I just wish they would have wrapped this up in 6 episodes instead of 8.
Dang it. Now I really want to check it out.
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