For over thirty years, James Patterson’s character, Alex Cross, has fascinated and entertained crime thriller novel fans with his combination of detective instincts and forensic psychologist perspective. The novels have spawned three film adaptations, starring Morgan Freeman in the first two — Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls — and Tyler Perry in 2012’s Alex Cross.
Prime Video brings Alex Cross to television on November 14 in a serialized form with the first season of Cross. The red-hot Aldis Hodge takes on the titular role, supported by Isaiah Mustafa as John Sampson, Cross’s canonical best friend and partner. Geek Girl Authority was lucky enough to screen the entire thrilling season and it’s a labyrinth of criminal psychopathy, emotional turmoil, and personal truths.
Prime Video’s Cross
Television series offer a deeper dive into character and context that films allow for. In eight episodes, Cross paints a multi-faceted portrayal of a man with a keen intellect but suffering from unresolved emotional trauma. It’s never easy to step into a role once filled by Morgan Freeman but Hodge carves out a new and nuanced identity for a modern and fallible Cross. We experience him in both professional and personal settings where he demonstrates his brilliance and humanity.
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And although he goes his own way, he is no lone wolf. At his side, Mustafa’s John Sampson is a constant and dependable ally. Having known each other from childhood, Sampson is there to make room for Cross to “do his thing,” which is exercising his superpower of getting into criminal minds and working out purpose and motivation in order to identify and catch the bad guys.
Family is Everything
Through optimally placed flashbacks, we learn that Cross lost his parents at a young age and went to live with his grandmother, Regina “Nana Mama” Cross (Juanita Jennings). She has been a guiding and protective star in his life and when his wife Maria (Chaunteé Schuler Irving) is murdered and dies in his arms (not really a spoiler, it’s literally the first thing you see in the premiere), he returns to live with her, bringing with him his two children, Damon (Caleb Elijah) and Janelle (Melody Hurd).
As Cross explains in the premiere episode, he has a hero complex that compels him to protect. The fact he couldn’t protect Maria haunts him and affects his responses to new stressors and frustrations. It also casts a pall over his relationships with his children as he seeks to keep them safe in complex circumstances. The family ensemble has a natural rhythm and believable dynamic as they all cope with the loss of Maria. The kids act like kids forced to grow up too young and Nana Mama is a rock of reliability.
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Add to this Cross’s fragile new romance with Elle Monteiro (Samantha Walkes) and life is a great big ball of internal conflicts some days for D.C.’s most recognizable detective. There’s a lot of personal baggage being unpacked in Cross Season 1 but it is a layered foundation for the changes that need to happen.
Villainy on Two Fronts
Cross Season 1 presents not one but two villains. Both are Alex Cross-level antagonists — meticulous, unrepentant, and pathologically fixated on their objectives. The first is a serial killer intent on turning their kidnap victims into doppelgängers of infamous death row inmates and re-enacting their executions. This killer is known early to the audience and Cross isn’t far behind. However, even knowing the killer’s identity doesn’t offer a resolution as they have resources and leverage enough to evade capture. (On a curious personal note, I felt the exact same ick sensation the moment this killer appeared as I got from Cary Elwes with a Southern accent when I came across Kiss the Girls on TV one night.)
The second (but not secondary) villain is a stalker, out to terrorize and destroy Alex and his family. They taunt him with Maria’s murder and springboard off the family’s grief to surgically target their most vulnerable moments. The harassment is persistent and done with imminent finesse until the moment of reveal. Once the direct confrontation begins, a barely-feasible level of sensational action ensues. To be fair, the stalker’s actions are disturbingly extreme before they’re unmasked so the climactic final moments aren’t really out of proportion. It’s just jarring to see Cross and Sampson drawn into that level of conflict.
Alex Cross, IRL
Another key element to this iteration of Cross is the emphasis on the social climate of modern-day Washington D.C. in the wake of George Floyd and the Defund the Police Movement. Cross and Sampson face considerable criticism as black men on the police force. Several characters of color make deliberate choices out of distrust of the authorities and on multiple occasions, white authority figures are called out of the systemic racism they perpetuate.
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Another real-world element is Cross’s resistance to seeking help for his grief. Of all the components of Hodge’s portrayal — his profiling brain, his detective instincts, his compulsion to do right — this rings the truest. Because until the fear he feeds with his denial actually puts his living family in danger, he’s barely accepted Maria’s death. Although Sampson and Nana Mama (even Elle) encourage and try to coerce him into seeking professional help, he is unable to take that step until he recognizes how detrimental trying the muscle through the pain is to the people he loves.
Scene Stealers
Hodge and Mustafa are solid leads and the serial killer epitomizes narcissism and obsession while the Cross family stokes the home fires with authenticity. However, some performances that pull focus in the best possible ways need mentioning. Kayla Craig (Alona Tal) is an FBI agent who worked with Cross on the Gary Soneji case (in the show’s case) and remains a resource when he or Sampson need something done. She has an edge and a sizzle that spice up her scenes and her interactions with them are highly entertaining.
Chief Anderson (Jennifer Wigmore) is a consummately unlikeable character and chews up the scenery with her bureaucratic BS. There’s ice in her veins on the job and her decision-making ability is questionable in light of the city she oversees, but there isn’t a character with more clarity of perspective. She’s infuriating and dangerously politically minded but Wigmore’s portrayal is more faceted than the caricature Anderson could’ve come off as.
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Finally, there’s Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill) who as the serial killer’s henchman conveys both chillingly effective skills and frightening levels of chaotic brutality. His near-ridiculous narcissism brings to mind Chris Diamantopoulos’s Russ Hanneman (aka Three Commas) on HBO’s Silicon Valley. There’s a Bobby Trey scene in Cross Season 1 Episode 2 “Ride the White Horsey” where he’s preparing for a job that’s possibly the most memorable of the series: it just can’t be unseen. You’ll know it when you get there.
There’s Always Hope
If Cross Season 1 has a core message, it’s that things get better with work. To some extent, that might be the primary criticism of the show itself. Overall, it’s a solid, suspenseful thriller with engaging, memorable characters on all sides of the law. It presents realistic conflicts and tensions drawn from actual societal issues. However, there are a couple of continuity issues that should’ve been caught in post-production (at latest) and there just has to be a better way to film Cross “doing his thing.” Also, with two disparate villains to deal with, there was no elegant way to dovetail the conclusion. None of this takes away from how satisfying a watch the season is.
Cross Season 1 takes the time to develop Alex Cross’s character at several levels and in multiple relationships. With Maria’s murder driving a lot of the action and motivations, it feels like they’ve laid the groundwork for the series to explore much more of James Patterson’s star character’s adventures. With the series already renewed for Season 2, we only have to wait to see what the world throws at him next.
Cross Season 1 streams on Prime Video starting November 14.
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