My first foray into the crime/serial killer genre was probably Kiss the Girls. Morgan Freeman played Alex Cross, a detective and forensic psychologist who methodically worked the case despite his own personal stakes. Freeman wasn’t exactly the actor I pictured when I read James Patterson’s Kiss the Girls, but hey, it was a pretty decent popcorn type movie.
When I heard Amazon Prime was adapting the Alex Cross novels for a series, I was intrigued. A TV series would allow a deeper, more nuanced exploration of Cross’ character, instead of the quick-paced pulpy thriller Kiss the Girls ended up being. I would say the show is more successful and Aldis Hodge’s performance as the titular Cross is one of the best things the show has going for it. What frustrates me is how things start to unravel the further we get into the series, where all the wonderful things they built up initially start to become frenetically formulaic towards the end.
Emir Goodspeed’s (Donovan Brown) death has divided the community: his sister Malika (Ashley Rios) and others like her feel believe that the police have something to do with his death, while the police look at Emir’s death as an accidental overdose. Emir was loudly anti-police and one of the faces of the Defund the Police movement in the community, and the longer his murder goes unsolved, the more riled up the community gets. Detective Alex Cross (Hodge) is brought onto the case to quell the mounting dissent, and as he investigates the circumstances surrounding Emir’s death, the more he believes it’s murder. But in a community where Emir was so beloved, who could possibly have motive to kill him?
The show doesn’t take a whodunit route, which is to its credit. The killer is revealed pretty early on, so it becomes more of a cat and mouse chase, as we watch the killer plot his moves while Cross makes his. Hodge is utter perfection as Cross – he conveys all sides of the character, the trauma, the anger, the intelligence, that confident swagger. Hodge’s performance will have you rooting and cheering for Cross to succeed in his pursuit.
The subplot involves the death of Alex’s wife Maria, who was murdered a year ago with the case still unsolved. His nana Regina (Juanita Jennings) desperately wants him to deal with his grief and trauma so that his family can move on from the shadow of that tragedy, but he insists on staying in the dark. To him, his brokenness is unfixable, and all he can do is avoid and pretend instead of letting others help him. His family supports him but they don’t enable him. Regina and his partner John (Isaiah Mustafa) are always pushing Cross to get help and connect with his children, and they don’t relent even Cross gives them pushback. The characters thus feel authentic and realised due to the heavy lifting from the actors.
The show also wants us to think about the infamy serial killers gain, and how they have made their mark on American history through blood and violence. The attention they still get all these years later, with all the media that currently exists so intent on diving deeper into their psyches and motivations. Have we given these killers more historical weight than they deserve? Maybe that infamy encourages other to pursue similar paths in order to similarly sear themselves into history.
Where the show loses me a little is that we’re supposed to believe that Cross is this fantastic detective, yet he makes the stupidest of mistakes constantly. Cross is being stalked by a threatening secret admirer who may have something to do with his wife’s murder. This person gains entry to his home multiple times, yet he keeps things status quo when the safer choice would be to move his family out temporarily until the case is solved. No police protection, nada. Am I expected to believe that after his wife’s murder, this man isn’t absolutely paranoid about his family’s safety? Things are left as they are so that the show can build to the big twist and finale, but any twist feels absolutely unearned when the viewers figure out the game way before the detective. I should be in awe at Alex Cross’ skills, not shouting myself hoarse at the TV for the bizarre decisions of the protagonist.
The show also needs to have better lighting. Everything looks so dim all the time, one of the characters even mentions the lack of light in the room at one point. You can do dark and gritty without compromising the visuals.
Cross is an enjoyable, bingeable show, and you will feel compelled to see it through the end. The writing is unfortunately not consistent, and all the cool elements of the show become undermined by terrible plot contrivances by the end. Hodge is excellent though, and should be reason enough to check out this show.
REVIEW SCORE – 3.5/5
