“I think there’s something wrong with me,” Cora Tanner (Jessica Biel) says in the newly-released trailer for “The Sinner.” That’s probably an understatement, considering she’s talking to the investigators trying to figure out why she randomly killed a stranger at the beach.
Based on Petra Hammesfahr’s bestseller, the close-ended first season of “The Sinner” will explore the fallout after Cora is seized with rage and commits a violent, apparently arbitrary act. As the clip emphasizes, the bulk of the USA Network series will focus not on what Cora did, but why she did it.
The trailer for “The Sinner” repeatedly cuts back and forth from Cora in the interrogation room to her seemingly happy life with her family to her attacking the stranger. The shifts are jarring and disorienting, and while the clip doesn’t reveal too much about the series, it’s certainly atmospheric, and effectively puts us in Cora’s shoes.
In addition to starring, Biel will executive produce “The Sinner” alongside her Ocean Films banner partner Michelle Purple. Christopher Abbott (“Girls”) and Bill Pullman (“American Ultra”) co-star as Cora’s partner and an investigator, respectively. “Christine” director Antonio Campos helmed the first episode.
While Biel did a brief stint on “New Girl,” “The Sinner” marks her first series regular TV role since the long-running “7th Heaven,” in which she played Mary Camden. Biel’s recent credits include “BoJack Horseman,” “A Kind of Murder,” and “Bleeding Heart.”
“The Sinner” will debut this summer.
