The Sinner Season 1: The Mystery of a Senseless Murder

The Sinner Season 1: The Mystery of a Senseless Murder

One of the failsafe methods to many crime series—whether they be books, films, or television shows—is their instance to leave crimes that happen in their respective universes a mystery. Much of the intrigue from this genre comes from seeing a crime and trying to figure out who the perpetrator is and how they managed to evade the law in committing a horrible act. Investigative characters often take center stage, the audience experiencing the mystery with them as both a participator and an observer. Can the audience use the clues the detective finds to solve the mystery before the big reveal? It’s a race against time, and it’s why I love mystery media so much. Especially because it’s one of the few times where, even if you’re just reading or watching the story unfold, you too can participate in uncovering the mystery.

The Sinner, however, subverts this notion entirely while maintaining a quality story that is less about crime and more about the psychology of someone who never meant to be a criminal in the first place. Loosely adapted from Petra Hammesfahr’s 1999 novel of the same name, the show begins by following a day in the life of Cora Tannetti—played by Jessica Biel—an unassuming woman who, one day while at the beach with her family, watches a young man and woman play-wrestling with one another as the man’s old college band song blasts from their radio speakers. Somehow wrapped in this display, Cora takes a knife she was using to cut fruit and walks over to the couple, demanding the man let the woman go. Before either can respond, Cora has pushed the woman away and has stabbed the man to death. Right at the start of the show, we know our killer and we know what’s happened. Because that isn’t the focus of the series. Instead, the show follows Detective Harry Ambrose—played by Bill Pullman—as he tries to understand why Cora has killed a man that she doesn’t even know on the beach in broad daylight.

What makes The Sinner such a compelling series is how much the mystery of why Cora did what she did builds as different characters begin to discover more information about Cora’s past, her mental state, and how large of a role repressed memory may play in the tale. There are little red herrings—false leads—thrown in here and there throughout, being used to show the audience something that seems compelling and important before throwing them into a tailspin at the next corner. For a series with very little action and a fairly sizeable cast of characters to develop over the course of 8 episodes, the show can get very intense rather quickly. Some of the best moments come from places where subtle leads are showcased to the audience episodes in advance, everything starting to come together in some form or another as the story continues. It really is impressive how the show manages to mold different storylines into one another in order for everything to start making sense. It’s a commendable aspect of the series that makes it engaging despite understanding what crime took place at the start.

The acting in the series also helped to make the world being built by the writers feel real. Biel and Pullman steal the show in every scene they’re in. Pullman especially has a certain draw to his character, as it’s clear from the start of the show that he’s an oddball of sorts. One of his key aspects is that he never seems to finish his thoughts all the way through, something that plays into a side plot in the show that I’ll touch on in the next paragraph. He really is the staple character of the show, and I’m glad they decided to make the detective unique in some rather…interesting ways. But even other actors in the series do great work. This includes actors like Christopher Abbot’s performance as Cora’s husband, Mason, often making rash decisions that may not be best for the case yet owning them nonetheless. There were also the talented actresses who play a young Cora in flashbacks and her sister, Phoebe. Those roles in particular seemed like the kind you would need to have a strong backbone for, so I commend all the actresses involved in those flashback scenes for being able to perform such difficult scenes.

Despite the liveliness of the show, though, sometimes it veered off into being a little too lively. That is to say, there were a few plot developments and fixtures that felt like they didn’t need to be there. Specifically, a subplot involving Ambrose and his wife’s failing marriage. While this offered more insight into Ambrose as a character, someone dedicated to his work to the point that it impacts his personal life, I feel as though something like that could have been subtly alluded to instead of taking up so much time. At first I had believed it to be filler, until I understood what the writers were going for. The plot is used to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, to explore Harry Ambrose as a character more thoroughly than if he was just working on the case all the time. Secondly, to act as a set up for future seasons, given the anthology nature of the series as it continued into its second and third bout. While I appreciated understanding the character a bit more, I do feel as though the plot being more in the background would have helped focus the show on the case more than something unconnected to it.

Be that as it may, the overall show doesn’t suffer from plot developments in this side story, given how far-removed from the rest of the series it is. Instead, the story is just as I’ve described it above. There are complex threads that weave throughout, but overall, it’s easy to follow as you start to unravel the mystery as to why Cora killed a complete stranger on the beach. And when that mystery starts to come together, the writing becomes truly appreciable. I have to give a ton of credit to the writers of the show, as they managed to create a fantastic mystery that, despite knowing the perpetrator and what transpired, dove into the psychology of Cora as a character and the “why” of the murder with care and attention to detail.

This is a show whose memorable moments will always stick with me and whose interesting presentation is proof that you don’t always need to tell a story the way people expect for it to still be engaging. The creators clearly went into this tale with a specific vision in mind. And, from what I’ve experienced over the course this 8-hour plot thread of intrigue and suspicion, this was executed with near perfection. A very good psychological crime story that you can find on Netflix or for digital purchase on any other platform you can think of. The Sinner will be, without a doubt, one of the more memorable crime series I’ve seen excel on TV.

***

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