The Sinner (USA)

Jessica Biel (Cora Tannetti) and Bill Pullman (Detective Harry Ambrose) star in this cleverly written mystery drama that portrays the story of a young woman that snaps and kills a man in public. The trigger? A 1980s like song that transports Cora to a darker past that she has mentally blocked. It is up to her, and Ambrose to find out what lurks inside her repressed memories; to figure out what drove this young mother to resort to bloodshed.

As the story progresses, the audience is let in on Cora’s upbringing. She rebels against a very religious and conservative mother who uses sin to manipulate and control her. After her younger sister dies of a chronic illness, our protagonist runs away to numb the pain, stumbling upon a ring of drugs and seduction that she can’t fully truly recall nor forget. Wanting to know the truth, her therapist starts to regress her to figure out her motives for stabbing a stranger to death.

While we wait to find out what caused Cora to go over the edge, the audience is introduced to Ambrose’s secrets and life. Little by little windows open into all the main characters lives, and you start to wonder if everyone is who they seem or claim to be. The acting is superb, because it has to be to make the suspense portion work, and if this were a movie, the performances would be award worthy. It is that good.

Binging once the series is complete will be optimal but if you can catch up, it will air until September 2017.

Enjoy!