CAR TROUBLE
A late-night crash prompts a murder investigation
THE SINNER Thursday, 9 p.m., USA H
ARRY Ambrose is at a crossroads at the beginning of Season 3 of “The Sinner.” The veteran detective, played by Bill Pullman (inset), could retire easily. Some of his colleagues in the police department would applaud that decision. Yet, when Harry goes out on a routine investigation of a car accident, he becomes all fired up again to stake his reputation on finding the solution to a crime. The corpse of a man, Nick Haas (Chris Messina), is sticking through a car windshield on the access road to a house owned by Sonya (Jessica Hecht), an enigmatic painter of male nudes. As Harry learns, there was a passenger in the car, Jamie Burns (Matt Bomer), who waited quite a while before dialing 911 to report the crash.
The mysterious relationship between these men — college buddies who have not seen each other in 18 years — forms the crux of this season’s mystery. The investigation pulls Ambrose way out of his comfort zone as he learns about their affinity for the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and the principle of the Übermensch and how that made them take risks to prove their superiority. Pullman, 66, spoke to The Post over coffee at the Grey Dog cafe near his West Village apartment (he also has homes in Montana and California).
Was that actually Chris Messina who goes through the car’s windshield?
Oh my god. He was on his back on the hood of the car. It’s so challenging to do those uncomfortable scenes. You have the sense that it was a very violent death. An injury to the gut means you bleed very slowly.
When they brought this story to you, how did you react, based on the show’s first two seasons?
There was always this feeling that there would be this [Fyodor] Dostoevsky, “Notes from Underground”-style encounter that brings [the show] from the personal trauma that had been the hallmark of the first two seasons to something larger. And that sense of being outside the law and how you can rationalize that. Übermensch. I’m special. Jamie
Burns is fluid, a shape-shifter. He goes from being incredibly arrogant to being very vulnerable and needy.
Do we find out exactly what Jamie and Nick were getting up to in college?
You see quite more about that. It’s both repugnant and compelling.
There is a connection between Harry and Sonya, the painter. Does she put the moves on him?
You are putting a sword against my throat. She triggers something in him that makes him think, “I should be more available to somebody, maybe I should try this.” At the same time, he thinks something like this always goes bad.
Do you see “The Sinner” going on for a few more seasons?
After the first year, I thought, “How is this going to be a series?” At this stage of life I don’t feel that I’m needy. Something always comes along. But I am still a little surprised at how engaged I am. And I avoided [television] for so long. I wasn’t a watcher of television growing up. Now I feel like I’m in a long Dickens novel.