User reviews

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.

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.

The James Patterson novels were some of my favorite and to me Aldis Hodge is a perfect Alex Cross. Always liked his character on Leverage, but this role shows another range of his acting chops. Can't go further without saying Ryan Eggold plays a perfectly evil villain. Their interaction at his birthday party was gold. The storyline moves along to reveal surprises and unexpected relationships. My kind of slow burn. I will agree with another commenter that the editing needs to lighten up the scenes. Way too dark and detracts from the viewing. Character development is strong and it's easy to buy in to the friendships and family dynamics. Hope they plan on making this a regular series.

I'm a fan of the Alex Cross books and was pleased to see an actor that fit the bill, at last. He played the character well with just the right amount of aggression and emotion. Ryan Eggold didn't disappoint and played a blinder with his part. He proved how versatile he can be with Blacklist and New Amsterdam. I would've given a much higher score had I been able to actually see who was on the screen at any given time. The lighting technician was having a laugh with the dark, beyond moody and atmospheric set lighting. It was dismal and often made the series difficult to watch. I loved the plot but hated the inadequate lighting needed to follow the story. I hope that there will be another series and they read all the reviews. I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I have read a couple of the Alex Cross books, and I found them to be too gruesome for my taste even though I thought they were well-written with good stories and characters. Somehow, I've found the show more palatable with just as good writing and characters. But the picture is just so dark. I have to switch all the lights off in my room and turn the TV to bright mode (I have an LG OLED). It's like the people responsible for picture quality were out to lunch. The cinematography is great in one respect, but in terms of picture brightness it is so far off from all other shows, it just throws me. If they fixed this, it would be great.

Good way to show People Of Color have different facets. We are not a sad sack broken down violent scary monolith as portrayed in most pieces of fiction. The crimes and criminals are overdone but, hey, THAT'S HOLLYWOOD! Alex Cross, his best friend, girlfriend, family, and coworkers are great. He and his children are dark -skinned! Unheard of. Showing Washington DC have POC? Amazing! Showing people frustrated by cops because of their dirty tactics. Surprising. The lead apologizing for making horrible hurtful choices. Almost brought a tear to my eye. Overall thanks Mr. Patterson and this production for making a strong accomplished black man a lead.

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!

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 started following Aldis Hodge's career when I fell in love with his character in Leverage. His performance as "hacker" Hardison was superb, and I am totally buying his performance as Alex Cross as well. The writing is strong, the performances are excellent all around, and the directing and editing are top-notch. Here is my problem...

The lighting stinks.

I don't know anybody who lives every moment of their indoor life in such darkness. I am only 40 minutes into the first episode, but I already struggle to see details of many scenes. In particular, three scenes stand out. First was the cocktail lounge. I don't frequent cocktail lounges and bars myself, but even the darkest restaurant I ever visited had enough lighting that I could see the faces of the other people at the table. Second was the bad guy's lair. Would anybody working on detailed plans and projects really do it in such dim lighting? Certainly a perfectionist would want to see clearly everything he or she is doing. Third, is the house Alex shows up at for dinner. This is not a romantic dinner for two. It is a gathering of family and friends. The whole house is dark - the entry hall, the living room, and the dining room. Plus, every room in the police building is dark. Would a forensic expert not have a very well-lit operating room?

Why so dark? If they are trying to set a mood, I am more focused on struggling to see than I am on plot and dialogue.

This is a choice made by a lot of shows in recent years. You know, anybody with failing vision would simply not be able to watch this. Certainly my Father could not.

That being said, I could be wrong about the reason for the darkness. I stopped watching "How I Met your Father" on a different streaming service because it also was so dark it was not enjoyable. A little digging on the internet revealed that the problem was with the service, not the show. When the show aired on the network, the lighting was just fine.

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.

To start: This is a cop show. There's no pretending otherwise. And, as all other cop shows go, it is inherently pro-cops. In fact, a huge part of the plot revolves around what it means to be a Black cop and what it means to be a Black non-cop. It also isn't afraid to face you directly with cop violence, even if they do just kind of let it go because a character was grieving. (Which is not a justified excuse, but feels in-line with how real-life police departments do excuse away any violence on their parts) I won't speak any further on that, because it's not my place. But it does feel like the show goes into this knowing that it's a heavy subject matter.

But the running theme of the show is grief, and all the messy, complicated, and even weird things that come from it. The whole show is about the family you're born to, and the family you make. It's rare to see such a complex family dynamic shown in TV where it's not all or nothing, and no one is inherently "bad" or "good". They're just... people. And they love each other in those complex ways that families do. Even the twist ending reflects a tangled family dynamic, where there is no black and white.

Overall, it's a decent mystery and cop show. But what really makes it good is the thoughtful writing of family dynamics and all the, sometimes flawed, social systems that shape them.

Don't know what to tell you. Absolutely nothing that was not telegraphed. Had high hopes, thought it would be a smart Reacher or something like that. Being that I was a fan of Freeman's iteration and even the Perry one, this was a huge miss. Other than Eggold they all felt amateurish. Never got the feeling that Cross was even close to a psychology PHD, easily triggered, rash and immature. Hodge has the range of 2 out of 10,either he's pissed off or pissed off while thinking hard. End doesn't make sense, like they could pick and choose if the bad guy will be charged with one or 11 murders, even though willing to confess, just to make him lose at the whatever the damn game is. Sorely miscast, overacted and every twist visible from a mile away. Hard pass.

PS Just remembered the soundtrack that immediately pulls you out of anything you barely started to feel. Horrible.

I loved this - the actors, writing, and story line are all great. Aldis Hodge is fantastic - but there are just a few flaws, mostly that we need to see more of him and less of that weirdo serial killer. They focused way too much on the criminal and not enough on the hero. And mostly, Aldis Hodge is great, but there are a few episodes where his dialogue comes off as rural-tv-reporter energy, where every 3rd word is stressed, regardless of whether or not it should be. He doesn't always do that, so I'm guessing the director is responsible. Stop doing that! It's tedious.

The other issue is what another reviewer said, that he is the star, and supposedly very smart, but doesn't have a lot of shiny smart moments. I agree, but I think it's because the audience figures out what's happening before he does. How can he be super smart when I figured out the bad grandma before he did, while I'm sitting here in my pjs drinking coffee and working, only half way paying attention? Alex Cross needs to figure out who the bad guy is before I do.

But this show has potential, I can't wait for the next season.

I didn't realize the show was based on books until I started looking up the show online. Perhaps that explains why the story and writing for the show started off so strong and then in a specific episode at the mansion party it went downhill fast. It was a slow trodding show up to that point, then crazy fan-fic level plot twists started happening all over the place. Good acting in general, but the back half of the show became unbelievable, even for fiction. The main character seems to change behaviour during the aforementioned episode too, going from incredibly smart and put together to making the dumbest decision out of nowhere. Seems pointless to do so much character development and then toss it all out the window in one scene. If they had painted the main character as kind of dumb throughout, I would get it, but a lot of the flashbacks seem to indicate that he is supposed to be incredibly smart. Maybe the second season will be better.

Not sure what the critics here have to argue. Sure, the Ms. Nancy thing was dragged out a bit. But other than that this series was something to watch and something you can't stop watching.

The actors are doing their job well, and are playing it so that the viewer can believe them. The topic is hot and if you've been to the US you can just follow the news and here about cases quite frequently - police violence, injustices, crime etc. I'm pretty sure that this show can do something good, not just an epic series, but can really lead to cover more real stories.

Ultimately, Prime is usually not one to bring out the killer series, but here they've really put thought in- one epic show to watch.

I am extremely disappointed with the TV show Cross because of how poorly lit it is. Even with an OLED TV, which is known for its ability to handle dark scenes, the visuals are incredibly hard to watch. It feels like the cinematographer may lack experience in lighting darker-complexioned actors effectively, which is an essential skill in today's industry. Proper lighting is not just about aesthetics; it ensures that all characters are visible and given equal visual representation. Watching this show has been frustrating because the darkness of the scenes detracts from the storyline, making it difficult to stay engaged or even understand what is happening. A show with this much potential and production value should deliver much higher visual standards. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this series, as it feels like a waste of time and a missed opportunity for better execution.

Aldis Hodge is electric as the titular cop "Alex Cross", based on the bestselling book series by James Patterson. But the series waxes and wanes with a prolonged 8-episode run that does not justify its runtime. Ryan Eggold, Samantha Walkes and Isaiah Mustafa shine in their supporting roles but it is Eloise Mumford and Karen Robinsen who catch the eye and even manage to steal the spotlight from Aldis Hodge's towering lead performance. If only creator Ben Watkins had kept the script tighter and focused on the investigative elements rather than the lead character's personal struggles, this could have been a path-breaking series. A watchable one, but don't expect the levels of "Reacher" or "Sugar".

As an avid fan of the original James Patterson series (not including those with co-writers) I was very much looking forward to how the main character compared to the Alex Cross in the books.

Sadly, from the very first scene it was clear that he wasn't going to bear any resemblance whatsoever.

With his moody attitude and bulging biceps you'd think the writers had never read the books. This continues with him being moody, short tempered, lacking self control - nothing like the Alex Cross in the books.

So once you blank that from your mind and watch it for what it is it's pretty enjoyable. Ticks all the boxes in its predictability but all in all an easy watch.

When I drove truck I chewed up a lot of highway listening to James Pattersons Alix Cross, but I do not recall the story or stories this was made from. In fact I think I was into his years where he was working with the feds instead of the city police department. That detective Cross did seem different from what I remembered. None the less. This series had one major flaw for me. They seemed to run too many stories together. It was confusing at times to see the connections. On top of that the main evil man was almost a supervillain because of how well he was set up to get to anyone at any time. Other people here remarked how Morgan Freeman's rendition of Cross differed. I agree, and I too would like to see this Cross actually act smarter most of the time instead of just in spurts.