Sugar, having just completed its second season, doesn't try to obscure or downplay its reliance on old-school Hollywood noir tropes: Its characters are driven to emulate the style of antiheroes of old, and clips from old movies even play alongside the action as a means of driving the point home. The central mystery, at the outset of the series, sees detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) summoned to the mansion of a rich movie producer (James Cromwell), whose granddaughter has gone missing. It all plays in a very new-noir sandbox until an absolutely wild, love-it-or-hate it plot twist that drives the rest of the series.
I'm not looking to give anything away here, but Sugar's pivot makes it tough to talk about—some of these shows might represent mild spoilers, but only in the sense that they reveal that there's a bit more going on in the show than in a more traditional detective drama.
Lady in the Lake (2024)
Moving from modern-day Los Angeles to 1960s Baltimore doesn't take us as far afield as you might expect given that, after all, noir is timeless. Natalie Portman plays Jewish housewife Maddie Schwartz, who, bored with her life, locates the body of a missing child and uses the experience to get a job at the Baltimore Star. Meanwhile, Black mother Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) is working to protect her family and community, running up against gunrunners and racketeers in the process—the two women's lives, before long, colliding. Stream Lady in the Lake on Apple TV.
Lady in the Lake (2024) at Apple TV Learn More Learn More at Apple TVPerry Mason (2020 – 2022)
This addictive odd duck of a show places the Perry Mason of print, film, and television into a dark and gritty Depression-era prequel. (I'm not excessively familiar with the Erle Stanley Gardner source novels, but I gather they don't go nearly as hard into noir as this show.) Matthew Rhys is perfectly cast as the brilliant but hard-living defense lawyer, going through a divorce while still facing trauma from the his experiences during Great War. In the show's opening, he's hired to investigate the case of a kidnapped and mutilated child, one which ends up having ties to crooked cops, local business leaders, and politicians in 1932 LA. Juliet Rylance co-stars as no-nonsense legal secretary Della Street, with Tatiana Maslany as a creepy evangelist. Stream Perry Mason on HBO Max.
Perry Mason (2020 – 2022) at HBO Max Learn More Learn More at HBO MaxMonsieur Spade (2024)
An original drama from Scott Frank (The Queen's Gambit) and Tom Fontana (Homicide, Oz), Monsieur Spade finds Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, of The Maltese Falcon fame, living a quiet life in retirement in the South of France. It's all going very well for the rumpled former detective—until six nuns are brutally murdered at a nearby convent, the same convent that's been home to Sam's ward for some time. Naturally, he finds his past has caught up with him, and is forced to surrender his idyllic life in order to help uncover the complex mystery that endangers his (very few) loved ones. Clive Owen is great as the rumpled, emphysemic detective, and the story feels like a fitting sequel to Hammett's defining noir detective novel. Stream Monsieur Spade on Prime Video and AMC+.
Monsieur Spade (2024) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime VideoBosch (2014 – 2021)
Many of these shows offer up twists on the noir formula, but Bosch is a more traditional crime drama, one that wears its new-noir aspirations on its sleeve—and no less effective for any of that. Titus Welliver is in the title role as LAPD detective Harry Bosch (star of the Michael Connelly novels), kicking off the series on trial for shooting a suspect in self-defense while investigating the murder of a 12-year-old. The second season even sees him investigating the murder of a film producer à la Sugar's first-season case. Stream Bosch on Prime Video.
Bosch (2014 – 2021) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime VideoCowboy Bebop (1998 – 1999)
This may seem like an odd fit here, but this iconic genre classic wears its noir influences on its sleeve, and given Sugar's now-infamous plot twist, a little sci-fi is perhaps not out of the question. Cowboy Bebop is one of the undisputed GOATs in the anime sphere, blending western, comedy, and crime genres and setting the resultant mashup to a killer soundtrack. The title's "cowboys" are bounty hunters in a near-future in which humans have been forced to colonize the solar system after Earth became uninhabitable. Former hitman Spike Spiegel leads his crew on one nearly disastrous mission after another, their standalone adventures all building to a thoroughly memorable climax. Stream Cowboy Bebop on Crunchyroll or buy it from Prime Video.
Cowboy Bebop (1998 – 1999) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime VideoSpider-Noir (2026)
Given that the franchise includes live-action takes on Morbius and Madame Web, I'm not sure this qualifies as the most unexpected Spider spin-off—but it's weird, no question. Nicolas Cage reprises, in live-action, the role he voiced in the Spider-Verse movies: that of Ben Reilly, a rumpled private investigator in the 1940s coming to terms with his past as superhero the Spider while being nudged into putting the suit back on. Cage is as deliciously unhinged as you'd expect, and he's clearly having fun with the classic noir-movie tropes, but there's also enough violence, mystery, and style here that it plays more as homage than parody. Stream Spider-Noir on Prime Video.
Spider-Noir (2026) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime VideoLucifer (2016 – 2021)
The title doesn't refer to a nickname or a euphemism: we're dealing with the literal Lucifer. Tom Ellis plays the fallen angel who, having grown bored with ruling over hell, decides to open a Los Angeles nightclub because hey, why not? When that's not quite enough entertainment, he teams up with homicide detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) to use his special skills and knowledge to help out, especially on cases involving the supernatural. As wacky as that sounds, the show deals somewhat poignantly with Lucifer's trauma, while also exploring our world as an outsider, not at all unlike John Sugar. Stream Lucifer on Netflix.
Lucifer (2016 – 2021) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at NetflixTwin Peaks (1990 – 1991, 2017)
You want neo-noir that subverts the tropes? I'm not sure that any show does it better than this groundbreaking bit of weirdness from David Lynch and Mark Frost, in which teens and adults in the deceptively quiet Twin Peaks face tragedy accompanied by supernatural threats from outside of our normal space and time. (I think?) Kyle MacLachlan plays FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper, who arrives in the title town to investigate the murder of teenager homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), precipitating a (very) long night of the soul as Cooper uncovers secrets and mysteries among the town's delightfully, and often disturbingly, weird residents. Stream Twin Peaks on Paramount+.
Twin Peaks (1990 – 1991, 2017) at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+The Expanse (2015 – 2022)
Set in a somewhat near-ish future, The Expanse (based on the book series by James S.A. Corey) imagines a colonized solar system into which we’ve carried all of our old familiar problems, and then some: Earth sits at the historical and cultural center of things, while Mars colonists, by virtue of having to survive in a challenging environment, have developed technological and military superiority, and folks living in "the Belt" have had to scrabble to survive. Greed, fear, and shortsightedness make conflict nearly inevitable, even if the series isn’t quite as cynical as it at first appears. Despite its space-opera trappings, The Expanse wears its noir influences very much on its sleeves; never moreso than when Thomas Jane's rumpled, hard-living (and hard-dying), detective Joe Miller is about. Stream The Expanse on Prime Video.
The Expanse (2015 – 2022) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime VideoSignal (2016 – )
Blending police procedural, mystery, and science fiction, this K-drama remains one of the most-watched dramas in South Korean TV history—enough that a second season is coming after a wait of nearly 10 years. Police profiler Park Hae-young (Lee Je-hoon) finds a discarded walkie-talkie that connects him with Detective Lee Jae-han (Cho Jin-woong), who disappeared in 2000 but who is able to communicate from an earlier time. The two detectives are able to work together, across time, to solve a very cold case—but soon discover that there are disturbing consequences in the present when they fiddle with time. Stream Signal on Netflix.
Signal (2016 – ) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at NetflixHence then, the article about 10 shows like sugar you should watch next was published today ( ) and is available on Live Hacker ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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