'I envy you ... you're just here a couple of minutes to show everyone how clever I am. Now me, I have a whole season of suffering ahead.' Photos: Handout
James Patterson's vaunted detective/psychologist Alex Cross – memorably played by Morgan Freeman in two movies (the actor being the best part of those uneven efforts), not so enduringly by Tyler Perry in a reboot that quickly got the boot – now gets the streaming treatment in a series that examines the character at a turbulent time in his life.
Far from the grizzled veteran of Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider, here we get Cross (Aldis Hodge, Leverage, City On A Hill, Black Adam's Hawkman) as a younger man, reeling from the family tragedy that shaped him through Patterson's series of some 30 or so stories to date.
This horrific event takes place right at the start of the first episode, and while Cross is seen to be at the top of his game work-wise – as we witness in his methodical demolition of a racist perp during an early interrogation scene – he is far from settled at home.
'Yup, my dawg Alex the chisel, I'm the hammer.'
Fortunately, his partner John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa, IT Chapter Two, Shadowhunters: Mortal Instruments) is there to keep him in check when he comes close to crossing the line at work, and to fulfil certain familial obligations that Cross just can't bring himself to keep.
As we saw in the Freeman movies, and as readers of the books (I'm not among that number, yet) would know, Cross likes nothing more than to dig deep into the psyche of the killers he hunts.
In this eight-episode debut season shepherded by Ben Watkins (Burn Notice), in an original story not based on Patterson's books, he comes up against a tough one: a well-connected, brilliant murderer who is out to create a "masterpiece".
(You don't need a flashing sign over the character when they first appear to know right away that this person is up to no good. Chalk it up to "guest star syndrome" where any reasonably well-known performer showing up in a crime procedural guest role is invariably the villain of the piece.)
'Our job isn't easy like other TV families, you know ... we have to be both the hero's anchor and the fam in distress.'
Also, ignore the huge coincidences and convenient "situations" needed for this premise.
For example, how the season's principal villain can so easily find people who suit his needs in one city and over not that long a period; or the many accomplices needed to pull it off can be so acquiescent/compliant/devoted even given the enormous amounts of cash and manipulation on display.
Or, in the season's secondary mystery involving some highly personal attacks on Cross and his family, how our hero, his loved ones and allies can miss the huge red flags being waved practically a foot in front of their faces.
Enjoy, instead, the layered work by Hodge as Cross navigates difficult personal and professional circumstances while battling the odds and his own darker impulses (and Mustafa's MVP-award-worthy turn, with Sampson having to do most of the heavy lifting while our hero spaces out).
It is mostly compelling, except when the script calls for Cross to make grievous errors in judgment, a) on the excuse that he's grieving (a disservice to the grief-stricken, IMHO); and b) for the lazy device of arbitrarily driving the plot forward or prolonging the suspense. Dang, I sure hope he learns from all these lapses by the time he achieves Freemanhood.
This debut season – reportedly, Cross is intended to be another Reacher for Prime Video, with even more books to mine for material – is a solid if not exactly stellar debut for the character. It does a good job of laying the foundations for a planned series, but they're going to need a steamroller to flatten a few bumps before adding the next storey/story.
All eight episodes of Cross are available to stream on Prime Video.
Summary:
Working at Cross purposes
