Who’s the sinner in “The Sinner”?

Over years many studies have shown that men are more likely to kill than women. Approximately 85% of serial killers and 90% of one-time killers are men. Women are believed to primarily commit murder in revenge, for profit or power. Unless they are like the main character of “The Sinner”, Cora Tanneti, a wife and a mother, who murdered a man in broad daylight on a beach full of people and no one knows why.

The new Netflix Original explores the complexity and the impact of trauma on people’s lives; a subject undertaken many times before in TV series, movies and books. Nobody wants to believe that a married woman running a small business, with no history of mental illness and no criminal record is capable of committing a random murder. However, people accepted the fact that she just snapped. Cora confessed immediately, but there was hardly any need for that as there were countless eye witnesses to the murder. She pleaded guilty, waiving her right to a trial, and the case could easily be considered closed if it wasn’t for detective Harry Ambrose. He refused to acknowledge that she was a psycho and set off to uncover the disturbing past of Cora Tanetti and her repressed memories, which, as we learn, cannot be removed from one’s mind permanently.

Amongst many issued tackled in “The Sinner” like mental health, drug abuse or religion, there is a narrative running throughout the story that many young women might find scarily relatable. Cora, brought up by religious zealots, had always been following strict rules of what’s right and wrong, being severely punished if she broke any. Her mother raised her in a belief that she was a sinner, and the punishment for her sins came in a form of her sister’s Phoebe deteriorating health. Torn between hatred for her mother and love for her sister, who had her fair share of sinning as well, Cora found a way to escape. Hanging out in bars, drinking and doing everything that her family would consider inappropriate, she fell for the first person who was not calling her out for her “sins”, but on the contrary, was encouraging her to live the way she wanted to. JD, whom Cora at the beginning considered to be the best thing to ever happen to her, turned out to be the reason of her later demise, as he himself was everything but a good guy.

So why is it always that the good girls fall for the bad boys? Young people tend to go from one extreme to another. It seems like innocence will always attract corruption and vice versa, and there really is no way of protecting yourself from that, unless you decide to drop your social life completely. “The Sinner” made me think about something that is very much abused these days: trust. It shows the horrible consequences of putting your trust in someone who’s not worth it and of loving someone who’s using you, which sadly happens too often. It is a warning about the shallow, toxic relationships based on sex or drugs, that women desperate for love and affection fall into too easily.

If I learned anything from “The Sinner” it has to be to never lose control of myself. It’s really unnerving to see how vulnerable a woman becomes as soon as she’s not in control anymore. And being a woman will always make it harder to stay in control. Especially if, despite the fact that you try so hard not to be, you’re still innocent, and hence, gullible. It doesn’t have to end as badly as it ended for Cora, however the risk that comes with misplaced trust can be life-changing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, good for you.

I must admit I didn’t think much of Jessica Biel as an actress. Even though I was intrigued by the show’s overview, I wasn’t convinced that she will make a good lead for a story like that. However, I was pleasantly surprised with her performance, which differs so much from her usual chick flicks and really is worthwhile. Bill Pullman, who for some reason reminds me a lot of Robert De Niro, delivers a solid performance as a detective working on a tough case and at the same time going through the usual detective-working-on-a-tough-case problems. His marriage is falling a part of course, which, according to television, seems to be happening to almost every person working in law enforcement. We also learn that detective Ambrose’s way of escaping his professional and personal life is in fact very sinful, which makes him another potential candidate for the sinner from the title.

Ideally, life is about keeping balance between being a sinner and being a saint. I don’t believe that being any of those is particularly healthy. Whoever you are, whatever you do, there will always be people who will consider you a bad person. It’s not easy to identify THE sinner in the show. It might be Cora’s bigoted mother, it might be her a little too curious sister, her absentminded father, corrupted boyfriend, kinky detective or it might be, in the end, Cora herself. No one in the story is innocent, but it does not necessarily make them sinners.

Overall, absolutely binge-worthy, but a little predictable in some aspects. Another treat for crime lovers, however, in this case the investigation goes backwards. It’s not about looking for the culprit, but about finding the motive, which is rather unconventional and, for that reason, very intriguing.