The Sinner - Pilot - Advance Preview: Breathless

"I wanted some quiet."

The Sinner - Advance Preview

The Sinner will have an eight episode limited run, it is based on Petra Hammesfarh's book of the same name, and it's written and created by Derek Simonds, who previously has been a story editor for The Astronaut Wives Club and mini-series When We Rise.

We follow Cora Tannetti, Jessica Biel's character, a typical mom from Dorchester, or at least that's what everyone else sees. She has a Husband, Mason, and a little kid called Laine. But from the beginning, we can see something is wrong with her, she seems to be battling depression, and maybe a little OCD. We get a little bit of her backstory, there's clearly a lot of trauma in her past, and religion seems to play a big part in all of it, but nothing is completely clear.

Most of the cast is unknown so they probably put all their chips on Jessica Biel, but boy does it pay off, when she's on screen you can feel her unrest, you feel her trauma, even when you don't know exactly what happened to her. And you want to, you want to know everything that happened to her until this moment.

Without a warning, Cora has a violent outburst revolving a song and a guy called Frankie Belmont, and the way it happens seems to point to her having been assaulted at some point in her life. No one understands why she did what she did but there is so much proof that they are willing to let it go, except for Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman), of course, he needs to know how a thing like that can happen for no apparent reason, and here is where the story focusses.

This is a good looking show with dark tones, it creates tension from the beginning and it's all very intriguing, I wouldn't say The Leftovers intriguing, but it has that intangible thing that captivates you, even when you're not absolutely sure why things happen. This is not the twisty typical crime thriller with no depth, it seems to be a well thought out drama that, with the help of the cinematography, knows how to leave you breathless.

"Every single thing he expects of us, we have to do."

Watch The Sinner on Wednesday August 2nd at 10/9c.