Cross

I have been struggling, the picture is so dark. I actually have to hit pause to see which characters are on the screen. Everyone wears black and the background is dark even in the daytime. Visually, it's very unappealing. I had planned on binging the series in one day but this constant pausing to see who is in the scene is frustrating. The story is interesting and I want to watch all the episodes but I'm not super excited about the series now that I've watched half of the episodes.

I love the characters in the books but in my opinion, this series does not accurately measure up.

I think I was expecting a show as good as Reacher or Bosch. Those two series got the characters spot-on.

I just got done binging all eight episodes of Cross and have to say I absolutely loved it. I've been looking forward to it ever since I first heard about it so I had pretty high expectations. Well, this show not only met those expectations but surpassed them in every way. Aldis Hodge gives a breakout performance as Alex Cross here. There was an Alex Cross movie that came out in 2012 starring Tyler Perry that was just awful. Please don't let that deter you from watching this because they are different in every way. That movie was trash, this series is fantastic. Another great adaptation for Amazon Prime, they have done an amazing job with their adaptations for tv series (Reacher, Fallout, Lord of the Rings, Jack Ryan, The Boys, Bosch, The Wheel of Time, Daisy Jones and the Six, Good Omens, etc, etc.). Amazon has so much faith in this show that they already renewed it for another season before the first episode ever aired.

Seriously, the plot and the show is great, but can somebody tell the video editing dude to turn the damn brightness up please. The show is SO dark, literal dark not metaphorically dark, that you can't see what in the heck is going on like 75% of the time. Don't you dare try to watch it in the day time. I really want this review to make it to the editor so they can do something about the lack of brightness. I feel like i've made my point not, but I have one hundred and twenty characters left minimum before I can post, so I'll keep on typing until I get there. Sorry for the inconvenience, almost there, there we are!

To start with, it's a good, solid, serial-killer show. So I've got that out of the way.

However, I think it's the poor cousin to the UK's Luther with Idris Elba. Both he and Cross are billed as having extraordinary psychological analysis skills. With Luther you get that. With Cross you don't. There are only two times in 8 episodes where he does the whole "Spideysense" thing and gives an analysis that others just don't see.

Then there's the inconsequential acting from some of the big part actors. Their scenes just don't do justice to the great acting of the main characters.

And the last point is Iasiah Mustafa. In this show he is the spit image of Andy Farrell, the Irish Rugby team coach. One's a black guy and the other's a white guy but, boy, the resemblance is uncanny!

Enjoyable show but I think Luther does it better.

Even though I've never read any of the source material from the James Patterson books, I've still heard of Alex Cross long before this tv show was in production. It's definitely something that I knew I would like and did...a lot. Aldis Hodge is an up and coming and underrated actor and he absolutely kills it as Alex Cross. The series follow Cross, who's a decorated D. C. homicide detective and forensic psychologist. He studies the victims to better understand who murdered them. Here he tracks a serial killer with his partner, John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) that also has ties to his past. Besides being a detective he's also a family man and he's dedicated to being great at both. The best thing that this show has going for it is it's never boring. That's the very least you want from a show, to be invested in the story and never be bored. Cross does that.