Apple TV’s 8-Part Crime Thriller Is The Perfect Weekend Binge For ‘True Detective’ Fans

Apple TV‘s 8-part crime thriller series is the perfect weekend binge for fans of HBO’s True Detective, especially with season 2 on the horizon. Starring Colin Farrell, best known for his Oscar-nominated performance in The Banshees of Inisherin and his Emmy-nominated performance as Oswald Cobb in The Penguin, this Apple TV series serves as a slick and heavily stylized neo-noir detective mystery set in a sun-soaked modern Los Angeles.

Consisting of just eight episodes, most of which are just over 30 minutes long, Sugar on Apple TV was built for a weekend binge and is especially perfect for a late Spring/early Summer watch now that temperatures are getting high. Combining a Hollywood showbiz energy as seen in modern classics like Entourage and Hacks with a hard-boiled detective thriller that keeps viewers constantly guessing like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy, Sugar is one of the very best shows to binge right now on Apple TV.

Watch Apple TV’s Sugar This Weekend If You Love True Detective

In some ways, True Detective paved the way for Colin Farrell to star in Sugar, as both are detective mysteries/crime thrillers set in Los Angeles. Farrell notably starred alongside Vince Vaughn in True Detective season 2, which expanded the acclaimed first season – which many still consider to be one of the greatest seasons of TV ever made – into a true anthology series. True Detective season 2 shifted its setting from Southern Louisiana in season 1 to Southern California, particularly a fictional town known as Vinci in Los Angeles County.

Although True Detective season 2 is often considered the worst installment of the HBO franchise thus far, earning a series-low 47% Rotten Tomatoes score, Farrell proved he can still take on the leading role of a determined yet quietly troubled detective in Apple TV’s Sugar when it first premiered in 2024. Created by Mark Protosevich, the screenwriter behind I Am Legend, The Cell, and Oldboy, Sugar is a completely original Apple TV series that follows private investigator John Sugar as he searches for the missing granddaughter of a Hollywood mogul.

While Farrell is the lead in Sugar, who appears in just about every scene, he’s joined by a strong ensemble that includes Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), James Cromwell (Succession), Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad), Sydney Chandler (Alien: Earth), Dennis Boutsikaris (Better Call Saul), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Barry), and more. Sugar season 1 received a strong 81% Rotten Tomatoes score and a nearly identical 80% audience score, making it both a critic-approved and fan-favorite series worth watching on Apple TV.

Sugar Season 2 Starring Colin Farrell Premieres Later This Month

Sugar Season 2's Colin Farrell as John Sugar — Sugar Season 2’s Colin Farrell as John Sugar

Farrell and several key cast members will return for Sugar season 2, which premieres on Apple TV on Friday, June 19, 2026. Like Sugar season 1, the second season will consist of eight total episodes, which will drop weekly every Friday through August 7. Most of Sugar season 1 centers on a missing 25-year-old woman, Olivia (Chandler), and Sugar’s relentless pursuit to find her after being hired by her grandfather, a renowned filmmaker named Jonathan Siegel (Cromwell). The deeper Sugar dives into the mystery, the more deception and cover-ups he discovers along the way.

Netflix’s New 3-Part Crime Thriller Is An Easy One-Night Weekend Binge

Netflix’s new 3-part crime thriller series is an easy one-night binge this weekend following its world premiere on Thursday, June 4, 2026.

While Sugar season 1 takes a few episodes to really settle into itself, as it can be quite stylized, even to the occasional point of distraction, the lingering mystery becomes enthralling and worth watching until the very end. Sugar himself is a cinephile who makes several callbacks to classic movies in the story itself, and the series often features thoughtfully placed cutscenes to classic films, particularly film noirs, that parallel what Sugar is experiencing or thinking at that moment. Although it’s not exactly a modern-day Chinatown, Sugar is unique, flashy, and darkly twisted throughout, making it one of the best crime thrillers for fans of True Detective to watch now on Apple TV.