LONDON: In its admirably committed bid to monopolize the ‘gritty cop drama adapted from books you might buy for your dad’ market, Amazon has turned to James Patterson’s Washington DC-based detective (and forensic psychologist) Alex Cross to follow in the footsteps of previous hits “Reacher”, “Jack Ryan” and “Bosch.” “Cross” (there’s a pattern here..
.) stars Aldis Hodge as the recently bereaved eponymous homicide detective. Assigned to investigate the murder of a prominent Black Lives Matter activist, our hero is all consummate professionalism and cerebral calmness as he attempts to unpick the increasingly sinister machinations of a deranged serial killer even as his bosses try to sweep the case under the carpet.
What makes “Cross” more interesting than a lot of airport-novel adaptations is that Alex is also working a second case, obsessed as he is with hunting the murderer of his wife, who was shot in broad daylight a little over a year earlier. And when it comes to that case, he is neither a consummate professional nor cerebrally calm. The details of the two cases are better left unpacked here — spoiling the developments of either would be a shame — but it’s safe to say the show’s MVP is Hodge (“One Night in Miami”, “Black Adam”).
The detective is, at times, more like two characters — one striving to deliver justice for his city, the other bent on nothing more than revenge and a desire to keep his family safe. And Hodge deserves .