In the ’90s, James Patterson‘s Alex Cross character felt like a Black contemporary of Tom Clancy‘s Jack Ryan to me. I think it was primarily because of the movies we got for both characters at the time. Morgan Freeman‘s take on Alex Cross, the Police detective who finds and deals with serial killers, were great thrillers with a perfect actor at the time. Later on in the early Twenty-Tens, Tyler Perry starred as the character in a pretty middle-of-the-road adaptation of I, Alex Cross. At that time, I’d have completely lost interest in the character. The earlier take felt familiar after Freeman’s role in David Fincher‘s SE7EN, but without that juice, Perry, who only played his characters, couldn’t make his. Now we’re here in 2024 in a place where people, especially Black folks, are a bit more skeptical of Police shows. The term copaganda has become more visible in social dialog, and while some shows have dealt with this change, many haven’t. Yet when I saw Aldis Hodge announced as taking on the role of Alex Cross, I got excited. Hodge has been one of my favorite actors working today from Leverage, Underground, and City on the Hill; he’s been steadily building up an excellent resume in television and being the best Hawkman in any DC Comic; anything outside of the comic books my interest was piqued.
What we have now is Cross, an eight-episode Police Thriller series where Alex Cross, still dealing with the murder of his wife a year prior, gets involved in a case of the murder of an Activist who was protesting the Police. This leads to a greater tangled web of a serial killer threatening the citizens of Washington, D.C. The first thing that struck me was that it took place in the city that I lived in and not in what I call “Murphy Brown” D.C., which is basically everything around the Federal Government and all the places where the media chooses to focus ideas of the city on. This takes place mostly where the large majority of Black folks live. After seeing most of the previous Alex Cross adaptations, I never paid attention to the fact that it was set in D.C. because, like most things, it is just said and glazed over; in this one, though, the city is much more a character I’ve ever seen. Now, when I was in the press junket for Cross at New York Comic Con, I asked about this focus, and Ben Watkins responded with
“We felt responsible, like, if you’re going to set the show in D.C., we felt responsible to really honor D.C., and then we also felt like, now, ah, this is, D.C. when you normally see it, it’s just the Capitol buildings or the Halls of Power. It’s not actual D.C. So, suddenly, you have a chance. You have an opportunity to make it feel fresh. Because people go to D.C., they expect one thing, and we deliver on that part of it. But then we expanded their perspective, and suddenly, it became a really good hallmark.”
Now, after getting past enjoying how they show the city, it’s the performance of Hodge as Cross that shines the brightest in this show. His performance of an excellently talented and intelligent man with blindspots and an obvious hero complex is written and shown in a captivating and entertaining way. It’s a cop mystery show but elevated. This is a show that can quickly grab the Law & Order or NCIS stalwarts and those of us who don’t like these shows. Cross is layered; he’s a great detective, smooth, sophisticated, charming, and a great father, yet we see him shaken and gasping for air when not focused on solving this case. His friendship with his best friend and partner John Sampson, played by Isaiah Mustafa, doesn’t use the Sherlock Holmes and Watson type of relationship. It feels closer to actual friendships in life, friends who know each other very well and try to help each other out even when they don’t want help. Hodge and Mustafa not only become their characters, but they also have great chemistry on screen.
It was a delight watching Johnny Ray Gill as Bobby Trey, an ex-police who now makes their money on the other side. He’s a thorn in the side of Cross and Sampson and excites the screen whenever he appears with devilish charm and danger. Ryan Eggold, who plays Ed Ramsey, an affluent man who lives in the wealthiest parts of D.C., seems to enjoy playing this aloof and condescending man who honestly represents a lot of people who you can meet in this city if you’ve had the opportunity to move around different circles here. Juanita Jennings, who plays Cross’ grandmother, Regina Cross, aka Nana Mama, is an excellent centering character for Cross and all the heroic characters in the show. The series also does well, for the most part, dealing with the relationship the Police have with the Black areas of the city and the interior dynamics of class within the Black community in the city as well. As the bar is utterly zero regarding this in Film and T.V., the show even trying gives them a boost, but there is also a lot of caring here. The conflict of being a Black police officer is also handled throughout the season’s plot, along with him living in the more working-class parts of the city.
The directing of the show is good. It conveys tension, and the action scenes are clear. The lighting and set direction also do great for the creepier scenes. The show also uses sound in interesting ways. Pay attention in later episodes to how the showmakers use sound to push the story. The costuming feels like what you’d see in the D.C. area by many different people. Back to the sets, this show is primarily filmed in Canada. Most can’t tell, but folks from D.C. can spot it easily. They take great care to make it look close, as well as creating a version of Ben’s Chili Bowl (the show’s regular restaurant setting) that is very impressive. The scenes shot here [in D.C.] really stand out as they have a look and, again, aren’t shots of the National Mall or the Capitol but actual D.C. places where people live. For the season overall, it’s an engaging and entertaining show, giving our hero, Alex Cross, a good mystery to solve and foe to put away with tons of twists and turns. Aldis Hodge provides this character with a three-dimensional feel that, along with the arc the character goes through, I hope, leads to many seasons like the Jack Ryan series, also on Prime Video. Cross is a must-watch on Prime Video this season as it’s one of their best shows in this solid year for the service.
Score: A
