Alex Cross is one of my favorite literary characters of the last thirty years or so. He is the creation of very prolific author James Patterson. One of many in his years as an author. This character starts out as a Washington, DC Detective and transitions into a profiler for the FBI as the book series moves forward. This character was first brought to the big screen performed by Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman in Kiss the Girls and subsequently Along Came A Spider. Later the famous actor and director Tyler Perry played the character without much gravitas or conviction. I wasn’t a fan of this portrayal of the character. When I thought all was lost and this character would never see the big screen or small screen treatment ever again a shocker happened and the announcement of a series commitment by Amazon Prime came out of thin air. They’ve turned other popular literary characters such as Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan into successful television iterations. Cross is a third chance and I don’t think this is going to be a failed attempt to bring this character back to the masses.

This version of Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) is one of the modern age of this character. Based on one of the newer books and deals with things that were established in the later books. John Sampson (Isaih Mustafa) is a long time friend and partner. They have a good relationship until a new serial killer comes on the scene, An old adversary has come back to take revenge on those they deemed responsible for past indiscretions. This new killer is very precise and calculated in their style of sadistic killing. Their murders are works of art as they say in the series. The killer does quite a bit of work and preparation to make his victims appear to the police and the investigators who have to study and work on this case. Like all Paterson books the clues are there for Cross and viewers to figure out. This is a good start to this hopefully ongoing series.

The character of Alex Cross is a complicated one. As seen in the books he;s had the loss of his wife to drive him in the past. This loss proved to be a difficult situation for him in his life. Mother has stepped into help raise his children while he;s crossing the country, no pun intended, chasing and eventually catching killers. His children are the world to him as a father, but his work is his lifeblood. He puts everything he has into the forensic pathology and profiling that he does. It’s complicated work for anybody let alone a FBI Agent with two growing rambunctious kids. Of course all shows similar to this one would have subplots and story beats that would do a great job using the supporting cast and in this case the children to good effect. This series is no different.I loved the use of the supporting cast of characters in the show.

Besides Hodge and Mustafa the cast is made up of some actors who’ve had a decent career so far and some new actors. Shannon Witmer (Eloise Mumford) a Washington DA, meets Ed Ramsey (Ryan Eggold) a philanthropist and creepy guy,for breakfast, Janelle Cross’s children’s daughter (Melody Hurd) Damon son (Calrb Elijah) are both well played by two new young actors. Chief Anderson (Jennifer Wigmore) Ltd. Oracene Massey (Sharon Taylor), are two of the other co- workers who help and sometimes get in the way of the investigation. Regina “Nana Mamma” Cross’ mother(Juanita Jennings) has a new rebound relationship after being a widower for many years. The cast is fantastic and I look forward to seeing some of them appear in later seasons of this show, hopefully.  Ben Watkins has assembled a good group here as of right now.

Aldis Hodge is an actor I;ve been paying attention to ever since he first appeared to me in the film Brian Banks where he played an NFL football player from the Atlanta Falcons. He showed me a lot in that movie and I was pleasantly surprised by all the very good performances he’s given in films and television shows since then. I feel this is the role he was meant to play though. He’s played detectives in the past and done some action in others movies. I think everything he’s done up until now has led him to play this iconic role. He was born to play Alex Cross and I loved him in the first season of this series. Here’s hoping he gets to play this role for many years to come in future seans.

With any investigative television show or film for that matter you have a lot of moving parts. There are many details that you have to pay attention to to help follow along with the story. The same goes for the police or in this case FBI, they are following a lot of leads and clues to help them figure out what’s going on. Sometimes the clues lead to the wrong directions dn you have problems as investigators or detectives. Patterson likes to put some twists and turns into his work which help a writer or showrunner because they cause for interesting stories. The source material is important to an extent, but the showrunner, writers and directors of each episode of the show have to show their creativity and individual prowess. All the episodes have a different feel yet fit very nicely into the overall context of the series. I was very impressed by this from Watkins and company.

One note of the episode titles I noticed. In most series the titles of episodes mean something prophetic or important, but in this series they just represent something that happens in that specific episode or said. One episode title I found funny was in episode 8 “You Had Me At, Motherfucker” which represents a subplot involving the relationship between Hodge and Sampsons characters.This subplot in the show was very important and it showed how strong their relationship was as friends and partners. They were like brothers. All brothers have their ups and downs, so this made a lot of sense in the context of the series.

Cross is a fantastic start to this, hopefully, long running investigative series based on the popular literary character created by terrific author James Patterson. The twists and turns are here for viewers to watch and figure out for themselves, but it’s Watkins as a showrunner and writer who shows what he is made of and why he was allowed to bring this character back from the dead. Hodge and Mustafa are both terrific in the show, but this character was made for Hodge. He is perfectly cast as this conflicted family man who wants to do a good job for his country. His demons from the past always seem to creep back up though. The cast as a whole are all fine and the series has some better episodes then others, but as a whole was quite good. Watkins, Patterson, and Amazon have a winner on their hands. Let’s hope they can keep it going moving forward. I genuinely loved season one of this show. I can’t wait for two and more seasons in the future.

All 8 Episode’s Review’d Available November 13th on Amazon Prime Video

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen