Carrie Coon, one of several reasons to watch The Sinner season two. Photo: USA Network/Zach Dilgard/USA Network Carrie Coon is the star of The Sinner season two, which premieres tonight on USA. Honestly, that could be the end of my review, since she’s reason enough to watch the latest installment of this anthology crime series. Coon established herself as such a commanding presence in The Leftovers and Fargo that whenever she joins a show, it automatically becomes must-see TV. But there are plenty more things to recommend about The Sinner, including another murder-driven narrative that immediately draws in the viewer, a precise balance between character development and plot advancement that doesn’t succumb to lulls, and a fine lead performance by Bill Pullman as the grizzled yet compassionate Detective Harry Ambrose. In particular, Ambrose serves as the primary connective tissue between the first season — which starred Jessica Biel as a wife and mother who suddenly stabbed a man to death for reasons that slowly came into focus — and the second, which also begins with a crime that seems to solve itself, until motive enters the picture. (Biel remains onboard, but this time off screen as executive producer.) The first episode opens on a couple and a preteen named Julian (Elisha Henig) taking what appears to be a family summer road trip to Niagara Falls. After car trouble delays their journey, they find a hotel to stay in overnight where, the next morning, Julian returns from the breakfast bar with mugs of tea for his parents. Shortly after a few sips, Dad falls dead in the shower and Mom does the same on the floor of the hotel room. We see what happens, so we know what happens: This 13-year-old boy just killed his parents. Except we don’t totally know. There’s something off-kilter about the kid and odd about the circumstances surrounding that trip to Niagara Falls that suggests there’s more going on here than meets the eye. Heather Novak (Natalie Paul of The Deuce), the detective-in-training assigned to investigate the deaths, reaches out to Ambrose, an old friend of her father (played by Coon’s husband Tracy Letts), and asks him to serve as a consultant on the case. That brings Ambrose to Keller, New York, the upstate scene of the crime and also his hometown — which, as sparing flashbacks sprinkled throughout the first three episodes indicate, contains a wellspring of troubling childhood memories. While grappling with those recollections, Harry tries to develop a bond with Julian and help Heather poke at the most relevant holes in the story of what happened in that hotel. Then a woman named Vera (Coon) enters the picture, and things get even more complicated. She walks into the Keller police station demanding to see Julian for one very important reason: She says she’s his mother. Elements of other shows may creep into your head while watching season two of The Sinner, the same way memories simmer to the surface for Harry and, eventually, too, for Heather. The whole “reluctantly returning to one’s hometown to investigate a crime” scenario is reminiscent of Sharp Objects. The fact that Vera lives in a “utopian community” just outside of town, a place that’s viewed skeptically by Keller locals, gives this season a whiff of Wild, Wild Country. And naturally, certain story elements — like the fact that what seems to be an easy open-and-shut case is made more complex by Ambrose’s probing — share a lot in common with the first season of The Sinner. Yet it doesn’t feel derivative. One of the greatest strengths of this season is its confidence in the compelling nature of the story itself to carry the day. Under the supervision of showrunner Derek Simonds, who also wrote the first episode, The Sinner takes twists and turns but is neither flashy nor heavy-handed. It’s straightforward, smart, and doesn’t condescend to its audience. The same can be said of the cast’s performances. Coon is, as ever, thoroughly controlled, and she turns that steadiness into Vera’s biggest tell. The more firmly Vera says something, and the more sturdy and calm her demeanor seems, the more you get the sense that she’s hiding something. You also get the sense that you do not want to piss off this woman; if you watched The Leftovers, you already know that watching Carrie Coon dance right up to the line of losing her shit is one of the greatest pleasures TV has to offer. Pullman — whose early reputation was built on playing ridiculously nice guys and presidents — resettles into his role as Harry beautifully. With a beard that’s a month away from going full Letterman, a beleaguered slouch, and eyes that still radiate warmth, he’s a detective raging very quietly against the dying of his own light. Meanwhile, as a confused kid who can suddenly lose all control, Henig (who played Zach Braff’s son on the short-lived Alex, Inc.) is also very believable. The idea of a child killer is obviously disturbing, but The Sinner avoids drowning in its own grimness. Perhaps this is because, at least in the first three episodes, it backs away from getting overly gratuitous in its depictions of violence. The series is dark, but doesn’t revel in that darkness. It tells and shows what it needs to tell and show, and nothing more. That’s why I’m tempted to say it’s a shame that The Sinner rolls out each episode on a weekly basis, since its addictive properties make it highly conducive to binge-watching. But consuming it week after week allows us to prolong the experience, the same way we try to extend the pleasure of a well-crafted, literary summer read. That’s what this season of The Sinner is: an intelligent August thriller that’ll hook you in so firmly, it’d be impossible to disengage from its grasp, even if Carrie Coon were not involved.<doc-sep>“The Sinner,” USA Network’s sleeper hit starring Jessica Biel as an amnesia-prone murderess and victim, was intended as a limited series when it premiered in summer 2017. A psychological thriller wrapped in a murder mystery dipped in a detective drama, the show was a critical success, garnering top Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. And as an extra added bonus: The show’s surprise success was followed by another surprise — the announcement of a Season 2. The series returns Wednesday with a new plot and a new lead, Carrie Coon. “The Leftovers’” star plays enigmatic and menacing cult leader Vera Walker, a character whose intensity permeates every corner of this story. Returning to the fold is Bill Pullman, once again excellent as the dysfunctional and empathetic detective Harry Ambrose, a man whose rumpled emotional baggage has proliferated between seasons. In the first three episodes available for review, Season 2 continues to pull viewers in with a carefully curated balance of talent and story. Included here is the same brand of dark intrigue and twisted storytelling that initially made “The Sinner” stand out among other lauded dramas like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Crown.” Advertisement Like its predecessor, Season 2 of “The Sinner” kicks off with a deadly crime perpetrated by an unlikely suspect who belies no discernible motive. The mystery here is not how he did it, but why. Middle-schooler Julian (Elisha Henig) poisoned and killed his parents at a roadside motel in the small town of Keller when the trio stopped for the night on their way to Niagara Falls. Except they weren’t really on vacation, and they weren’t really his parents, and that licorice taste in their morning coffee wasn’t a Starbucks flavor of the month. Keller detective Heather Novack (Natalie Paul) is in over her head on this one, so she requests the help of her father’s old friend, detective Ambrose. The investigator, who grew up in the region, returns to help solve the puzzle. Dealing with the boy, however, causes Ambrose to face his own haunted inner child. Something bad happened way back when, and it likely explains why he’s such a mess as an adult. Ambrose’s disturbing flashbacks — curtains (or perhaps a nightgown) ablaze, bubbling oil, creeping shadows — and the concern of childhood friends who know more than we do are early clues that lead to some bigger reveal. Both seasons of “The Sinner” are produced by Biel and are rife with images of devout spirituality, or perhaps it’s blind faith. Last time around, Biel’s character Cora was the product of a fanatical Catholic zealot who raised her to believe that even something as innocuous as eating a chocolate bar was a devilish indulgence that might result in the death of her sick sister. In Season 2, it appears that Vera is Julian’s mother and that she’s brought him up to believe that his adherence to their faith (whatever it is) also has life-and-death implications for others. The result is two perpetrators, seasons apart, informed by the warped religious teachings of their guardians. Then again, this is “The Sinner,” a show with so many twists and turns that it’s hard to pin down any one character’s background or motives until presented all the facts, during the finale, which is months from now. Advertisement But if the first few episodes are any indication, this is yet another disturbing/thought-provoking mystery worth unraveling. ‘The Sinner’ Where: USA When: 10 p.m. Wednesday Advertisement Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17) lorraine.ali@latimes.com @lorraineali<doc-sep>
The first season of USA’s The Sinner was a big surprise — who knew that Jessica Biel had that kind of raw and powerful dramatic performance in her? The second season (premiering Aug. 1st) will either be much less or even more of a surprise, depending on whether you’ve heard of the anthology drama’s new leading lady, Carrie Coon. For three seasons on HBO’s The Leftovers, Coon was the best actor on television, going to astonishingly deep and painful places as a woman who had lost her entire family and hated herself for continuing on without them. And she was the highlight of Fargo Season Three as a sensible cop in an increasingly senseless world. But almost nobody watched The Leftovers and even Fargo was only a boutique hit for FX, which means that if Sinner viewers recognize Coon at all, it may be from small roles in big movies like Gone Girl and The Post. The first season had Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) trying to figure out why Biel’s young mother Cora Tannetti randomly stabbed a man to death. Coon’s character, Vera, isn’t the killer in this new storyline; rather, she’s the leader of an isolated small-town cult that produces both our new adult victims and the young boy, Julian (Elisha Henig), who’s poisoned them. Neither Harry nor Heather (Natalie Paul from The Deuce), a rookie detective from his hometown who asks him to consult on the case, can figure out the reasons why. It’s a smart way to mix and match elements of the original so the sequel doesn’t just feel like a rehash of what worked the first time. Instead of another mom, our puzzling killer is a kid. And this time, the flashbacks to a gradually-explained childhood trauma go to Harry himself, who’s not wild about being back in this place — even if he’s old friends with Heather’s father, Jack (Coon’s husband, the playwright Tracey Letts). Though there are oblique references to Harry’s failed marriage and the Tannetti case, Season Two is completely newcomer-friendly. I was able to follow everything despite having lost interest in the original story midway through — not even Biel’s performance was enough to overcome the the first season’s relentlessly dour quality. And while this new batch of episodes isn’t exactly a laugh riot, it’s weirder than its predecessor, and not just because Henig has an unnerving, wide-eyed stillness that serves the early episodes well. Strange things are afoot at Vera’s compound, involving some kind of unconventional therapy sessions she used to conduct with the boy, a mystery object inside a barn and perhaps Heather’s long-missing high school girlfriend. It may run out of steam, too, but it feels like a story better-designed to play out over a full season; there are so many more moments that will inspire profanity-laced questions about what could be happening here. It’s in those more bizarre parts of the story that Coon gets to tap into some of those primal emotional moments that became her Leftovers stock in trade. The early emphasis is on Julian, and when we see Vera, she’s an imposing and self-righteous figure — but she’s also someone who plays things close enough to the vest that it doesn’t quite feel like a showcase role. As we start to see both Julian and the compound through her eyes, the match of actress and role begins to feel more seamless. In particular, there’s a moment in the third episode inside the barn where Coon is so physically alive, it’s mesmerizing. At one point, Vera warns the detectives that Julian “is so far beyond anything you can understand. You have no idea.” With a few more moments like that barn scene, The Sinner viewers may come to feel the same way about Carrie Coon.