The first novel in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series came out in 1993, followed by 34 more books in the years since, about a Washington, D.C., police detective with a Ph.D. in forensic psychology. In the movies, he’s been played by Morgan Freeman and Tyler Perry, and both performances leaned into the character’s intellectual side. Amazon’s TV adaptation, called simply “Cross,” stars Aldis Hodge, who brings a volatile energy to the role. More than the films, the show is interested in the emotional toll of the job and how it puts Cross’s nearest and dearest in danger.
As a character, the pleasures of Alex Cross lie in his close reading of details that his colleagues tend to miss. And early on, you think that’s where the show is going. A couple of cops lose their temper during an interrogation and complain to their boss: We’ve been going at him for hours, he’s never going to give it up. “He already did,” Cross interjects, standing casually in the doorway, “you just didn’t hear it.” It’s a corny setup, but Hodge knows how to deliver a line. And costume designer Stacy Beverly has put him in the perfect gray turtleneck sweater that shows off his physique. This Alex Cross has swagger.
When Freeman made his two Cross movies, 1997’s “Kiss the Girls” and 2001’s “Along Came a Spider,” he was in his 60s. By contrast, Hodge is 38. His comparative youth means he’s more of a brooding action man with a hero complex. Freeman’s Cross builds miniature ships in his free time. Hodge’s … well, he’s too intense and traumatized to have any hobbies. Whether you see that as an improvement is up to personal taste, but I prefer watching the gears turn inside his head.
Creator Ben Watkins isn’t adapting any particular book, but he’s maintained the essential details of Cross’s world. In the first few moments, we see him canoodling with his wife in such an over-the-top way, you know she’s not going to make it to the next scene alive. All of this happens within the first 90 seconds. A year later, Cross is requesting a leave of absence because his grief is still raw. Then, an activist who has been leading calls to defund the police is found dead and that sabbatical will have to wait, the police chief tells him. She’s calling a press conference and wants him front and center. “Are you trying to solve a crime or a PR problem?” Cross says, staring her down.
Beneath that confident exterior, Cross is a single father of two preteens and he’s white-knuckling it since his wife’s murder. He’s helped by his grandmother Nana Mama (Juanita Jennings, who is mostly asked to be exasperated, but she gets one great scene where she puts the screws to a retired detective who buried evidence) and his partner, played by Isaiah Amir Mustafa (widely known for his Old Spice commercials) who is very good here as a level-headed contrast to Cross’s erratic moods.
If Freeman’s unflappable version of the character is a trope, so is Hodge’s hotheaded one. There’s no shortage of this kind of characterization on TV. The grieving cop who loses their cool is a cliched shorthand meant to convey determination — they care so damn much. We’ve seen it countless times before and it doesn’t make Cross’s story any richer. It’s disappointing the series went in this direction.
And yet the show really only works when Hodge is on screen. He’s an actor with enough charisma to make pretty much any moment interesting, but fundamentally “Cross” is just another violent police thriller with a desaturated aesthetic and victims pleading with their captors. There’s a stop-start quality to the storytelling that robs the show of a much-needed propulsive energy. Tonally, it’s unrelentingly dark, with an emphasis on the creepy factor over the kind of methodical piecing-it-together storytelling that should be the backbone of the series.
Ultimately, the premise is too limited to fill an eight-episode series, and I couldn’t watch the scenes featuring the killer and his victim. They are too frequent. Too miserable. A movie like “Silence of the Lambs” understood the ratio better and is so much more watchable as a result. That’s true of the Cross films, as well. When it comes to sustaining tension, a two-hour movie will alway win the day.
“Cross” — 2 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Amazon
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
