Cross (2024 – present)

I don’t read thrillers, and don’t watch many as movies either, so perhaps that should be taken into consideration with my review. Overall, I wasn’t impressed by the series. I don’t have much patience with stereotypical super-villains — you know, the evil geniuses who always seem to stay a step ahead of the good guys until there is about eight minutes left to watch. No wonder most of them value their careers over their lovely families. Okay, I exaggerate. And the whole ‘who can I trust’ thing goes right off the charts as well. I don’t need my movies to be total realistic, but sheesh, once I twigged to how the screenwriters think, I saw some plot twists coming a city block away. And what is this modern tendency to mostly film scenes in the dark? But the acting and the dialogue seem okay, but didn’t quite distract me enough to enjoy the show.

I've read quite a number of James Patterson's Alex Cross, crime thrillers over the years, so I came to this with an enthusiasm that was quickly quashed. The heavy handed script full of trite cliches, stereotypes and clumsy characterisations, is downright irritating. Its not the actors fault, in fact, most hand in pretty decent performances. Sadly, so much else feels contrived and over stated, its hard to recommend this production. A production that's a million miles away from how the academic, astute and gentlemanly Cross, is depicted in the novels. Or put another way, what we get is an overdose of tough guy and not enough of a Sherlock Holmes style of character. In summary, if this series had adhered more closely to the manner in which the characters were presented in the novels, I believe, it would have been inherently watchable. Instead, what we get is a clumsy, stereotype ridden proposition,that conspicuously limits any potential appeal this series might have had. What a shame.