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Mixed:
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Negative:
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Critic Reviews
IndieWireOct 14, 2021
Season 4 Review:
Add on a thin veneer of mysticism and you have a missing persons story that isn’t revolutionary, but one that throws off convention by just enough degrees to make it worth checking out. “The Sinner” was never just about the answers. Now, more than ever, the man asking the questions has become the show’s biggest draw.
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IndieWireJul 27, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The exploration is carefully laid out so each twist is effectively teased, and it’s also made to be a good time, even when it gets dark. The cast of likable actors helps out on that front, and Letts, in particular, stands out early on as a good ol’ boy who’s almost too well-meaning to be trusted.
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ColliderFeb 6, 2020
Season 3 Review:
The Sinner quickly pulls you in with a riveting first episode and gets its hooks in you. The haunting ambience of the show seeps in slowly and runs deep. This season is graced with three strong leads in Pullman, Bomer and Messina and the chemistry between Bomer and Messina is obvious from their first scene together
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Aug 1, 2018
Season 2 Review:
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.
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The Daily BeastJul 31, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Harry remains something of an inscrutable protagonist. It’s a credit to Pullman’s charisma (and his ability to infuse the character with an innate goodness) that such impenetrability isn’t alienating but, on the contrary, captivating. ... Alongside the sturdy Paul and disturbing Henig, they more than ably justify The Sinner’s continued existence--and help make it a late-summer saga of unconventional, and unnerving, thrills.
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Jul 31, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The Sinner deserves more than a passing glance, if for no other reason than to admire its balance: The core mystery is complicated but not overly so; the ambiguities are presented in terms of human flaws rather than philosophy tracts; the gore is politely measured out in necessary doses; the twists are plausible enough to pass muster; and, above all else, The Sinner’s pace and writing lure you in and resist the urge to drift, promising a conclusive wrap-up.
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Jul 31, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Sinner directs all of its artistic energy toward the viewer’s empathy, which is a tricky place to be. Deglamorized and grief-stricken, Biel is immediately convincing as both a victim, of sorts, and a possibly psychotic murderer. A viewer can’t help but wonder where it goes from here.
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Jul 30, 2018
Season 2 Review:
The plot twists are absurd, but the fine cast shimmers. [3 Aug 2018, p.53]
Aug 1, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Biel is excellent as Cora--her facial expressions resonate with tortured emotions--and she’s ably supported by Abbott as the bewildered Mason. ... The opening episode of The Sinner features lots of blood and some requisite (tame) nudity; if you can get past that, it promises an eventful ride over the next eight weeks.
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Uncle BarkyJul 21, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Pullman and Biel are solidly in charge of their pivotal roles in a drama where “close-ended” presumably means a firm conclusion and no Season Two. So at an economical eight episodes, all this gloom and doom at least has the benefit of also being foreseeably finite. Expect your tolerance to be tested, though, particularly in the first half of Episode One. But if I were you, I’d proceed.
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Aug 1, 2018
Season 2 Review:
[Bill Pullman as Detective Harry Ambrose is] not a great performance, but with its introductory quirks somewhat reduced, it's a sturdy and inquisitive one, allowing the new figures in the story to attract his attention and that of the viewers. Paul is comparably meant to be more solid than exciting. ... Coon is perfectly enigmatic, not quite the season's villain and yet utterly unsettling.
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RogerEbert.comJul 30, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Some of the storytelling feels less refined than last year--people often sound like they’re over-explaining everything or verbalizing every question flitting through their minds when more subtlety would make for more effective drama--but the cast is again strong enough that The Sinner could again be an addictive summer distraction right when we need it.
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TV Guide MagazineJul 19, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Skeletons from Harrry's past further rattle his composure in an atmospheric tale that might be just the thing for those who find HBO's similarly unnerving Sharp Objects too pokey. [23 Jul - 5 Aug 2018, p.11]
Apr 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
Whatever one feels about the story being told, the discomfiting mood established before a single line of dialogue is uttered is unquestionable. ... The overall quality of the performance [by Biel] will depend on what shadings The Sinner gives her to play, but it's a good start.
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Jul 31, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The Sinner does have a nicely lyrical visual style: It’s shot with a keen eye for detail, with an appropriately gloomy, unsettling musical score. But strangely, the more we learn about Cora’s complicated past, the less interesting her story becomes. The answers we do get are either too pat--the flashbacks to her childhood, with a young Cora being tormented by her fanatically religious mother, are painfully overwrought-- or they’re simply erased by the latest plot twists.
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Jul 28, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The premise and psychology of the main characters capture your interest. But the oppressive portentousness squanders it--the heavy-handed slo-mo and symbolism, the glum gravitas of the acting. Biel’s intense performance of despair isn’t helped by a story that keeps Cora a cipher or by clipped scenes that don’t let her stretch and breathe.
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Aug 1, 2017
Season 1 Review:
The series depicts the realities of living with trauma most honestly when it leans toward attributing Cora's behavior to a culmination of physical and psychological suffering. But when The Sinner turns to the investigation and the courtroom, its shifty execution only serves to demonize Cora and reaffirm harmful stereotypes of mental illness as source of irrationality and violence.
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RogerEbert.comOct 12, 2021
TV Guide MagazineOct 11, 2021
Season 4 Review:
This sleuth's psyche is as disturbing as the mysteries he solves in this unsettling franchise. [11 - 24 Oct 2021, p.11]
Aug 1, 2018
Season 2 Review:
Too much of what Season 2 presents feels dully familiar, less playing with genre tropes than serving them back up, reheated. ... But the show is anchored by performers who engage even when the enterprise threatens to fall apart. Bill Pullman returns as Harry Ambrose, a detective whose deep wells of angst help him to read situations other cops can't fathom. His saltiness and Coon's smug disregard make for a potent combination, one that deserved a richer premise. [24 Jul 2018, p.65]
Apr 26, 2017
Season 1 Review:
There is merit to The Sinner, but it remains to be seen if the story will find a way to transcend its hokier elements to tell a larger story about mental illness or post-traumatic survival. Hopefully at some point the show will also explain who the titular sinner is supposed to be.
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