There’s a lot to be said for letting things be simple. Yes, plot twists and complications are par for the course in a detective story, but even there the plot tends to be much less important than you’d expect. Character, atmosphere, texture: these are the areas where noirish tales of lonely, hard-drinking gumshoes really shine, and Sugar is no exception. But it lacks the confidence in itself to just be a straightforward detective drama, trying to be something more than that and undermining itself in the process.

John Sugar (Colin Farrell) is a PI on the streets of LA, recently returned from a job in Japan. He’s tasked with tracking down Olivia Siegel (Sydney Chandler), a recovering addict and the granddaughter of legendary movie producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell). A keen movie buff himself, Sugar throws himself into the job and gets inexorably drawn into both the seedy underworld of Los Angeles and his own growing obsession with this case.

Based on that plot summary, you’re probably thinking you’ve seen this before. And fundamentally, you have. Everything you’d expect from this kind of story is present and correct: the main character narrating everything in a film noir-style voiceover, stylishly shot drives through the neon-lit night-time streets of the city, a sexy jazz soundtrack underscoring how cool our detective hero is.

But familiarity isn’t necessarily bad, and Sugar throws itself into the conventions of the PI genre with such enthusiasm that it feels churlish to complain. This is a show that really loves detective stories and is – at first – trying simply to be a really good version of exactly that kind of story. In a show less committed or more tongue-in-cheek, some of the genre cliches might be eye-rolling, but Sugar is so sincere in its presentation that they’re genuinely charming. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it has style to spare, beautifully directed by Fernando Meirelles and stuffed full of the moody underworld atmosphere you’d hope for.

But at a certain point, just being a slick show about a good-hearted detective ceases to be enough for Sugar. It decides that it wants to be surprising and subversive instead, and it certainly manages that, in fairness. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it’s there solely because the writers wanted to surprise the audience, not because it’s necessary or actually makes sense in the story being told. You’re very unlikely to see it coming, but that’s because it’s completely arbitrary, could be cut without meaningfully changing anything and is honestly just silly as hell.

There’s a scene where Bernie Siegel (Dennis Boutsikaris), Olivia’s father and also a movie producer, dismisses a film he made because “the premise was preposterous”. It’s either irable self-awareness or one of the writers sneaking in a joke at the show’s expense.

It isn’t a fatal flaw by any means, and Sugar himself is cool and compelling enough a character to carry us through. He’s a kind, caring polyglot who can drink like a fish, handle himself in a fight and makes friends with an adorable dog; if it feels a little like a wish-fulfilment role for Farrell, it doesn’t really matter because again, this is what we expect our movie PIs to be like. He also probably deserves a do-over after season two of True Detective.

It is a shame, though. Sugar starts out so strongly, making its simplicity one of its biggest virtues, but it isn’t content to just be that. Yes, ambition in storytelling is irable, but in its efforts to be more than it needs to be it just ends up tripping over its own feet. It’s worth watching for the style and for Farrell, but the overall plot just doesn’t hold together. Luckily, as we’ve noted, that isn’t the end of the world in these kinds of stories.