It dawns on me that with all of the crime procedurals we have on television, and how it constantly feels like there’s a new detective or investigator showing up across networks, streaming services, and film franchises, there must be twice as many living on the shelves of libraries waiting for their turn. Every time one series ends, somebody discovers another bestselling author with twenty novels sitting there ready to adapt. The latest character to join that ever-growing lineup is Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell’s legendary medical examiner, who finally gets her own television series courtesy of Amazon. The show has already been renewed for a second season, so clearly Amazon is confident this franchise has legs.
The series stars Nicole Kidman, who might genuinely be the hardest-working actress in Hollywood. I’m fairly convinced she hasn’t actually seen her house in years. She probably just goes from hotel to hotel, film set to film set, wondering where she lives. At one point Scarpetta was airing weekly on Amazon while she was also appearing in Margo’s Got Money Troubles, and as I’m writing this review she’s already back on television in Lioness Season 3. She’s also still waiting for you at your local AMC theater. Join her. But seriously, it’s nice to finally see Nicole Kidman leading a full-fledged crime investigation series because she’s more than capable of carrying one.
Kay Scarpetta is a respected medical examiner returning to her old position after a professional scandal. Her reinstatement couldn’t come at a better time because investigators believe a serial killer may be targeting victims in ways that resemble a notorious case from decades earlier. As the investigation unfolds, the story constantly jumps between the present day and the original case, attempting to solve both mysteries simultaneously. It’s not immediately obvious who the killer is in either timeline, so both investigations remain engaging right up until the finale.
Kidman leads an impressive cast. Jamie Lee Curtis plays her sister, Dorothy Farinelli, Bobby Cannavale is Detective Pete Marino, Ariana DeBose plays Dorothy’s daughter, Lucy Farinelli-Watson, and Simon Baker plays FBI profiler Benton Wesley. There’s enough chemistry floating around that it feels like somebody is inevitably going to become somebody else’s love interest before the season is over. Benton in particular spends so much time around Kay and Dorothy that I kept waiting for the series to finally settle where those relationships were headed.
One of the more unexpected storylines belongs to Lucy, whose brilliance with computers becomes increasingly important to the investigation. Following the loss of someone she loved, she creates an AI model based on that person that is disturbingly convincing. There’s one episode where Dorothy essentially has a full conversation with the AI, and it’s unsettling because it feels close enough to reality that you can almost imagine people trying something similar in the near future. It’s one of the more interesting modern ideas woven into an otherwise traditional crime procedural.
The setup works, but honestly I was sold the second I saw the cast list. Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, and Ariana DeBose is an outstanding lineup regardless of what the show is about. Three Academy Award winners and an actor who absolutely deserves an Oscar nomination of his own. I’ve loved Cannavale for years. He was terrific in Ezra as a father willing to do absolutely anything for his son, and he made the most of his limited screen time in Blonde. Hopefully his day comes because he’s more than earned it.
My biggest issue with Scarpetta is that it doesn’t seem to understand why people tuned in. We came to watch Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Ariana DeBose, and Simon Baker. Instead, the series spends an enormous amount of time flashing back to the earlier investigation with younger versions of the characters, including Rosy McEwen as the younger Kay Scarpetta and Jake Cannavale, Bobby Cannavale’s real-life son, as the younger Pete Marino. I actually thought that was a clever bit of casting. The younger cast does solid work throughout the series, and they have to because the earlier case is so important to everything happening in the present. My issue isn’t really with them. It’s that the balance occasionally feels tilted too heavily toward the flashbacks when the present-day cast is such a huge part of the show’s appeal.
Rosy McEwen does a good job carrying the younger version of Kay, and the flashbacks generally work on their own terms. I just found myself wanting to spend more time with Kidman, Curtis, Cannavale, DeBose, and Baker. If I were running the show, I would’ve streamlined the flashbacks a little so the present-day investigation remained the clear priority. I have a feeling if Amazon sat down with a focus group, most people would probably say the same thing. They came because of the incredible cast assembled in the present.
You really can’t have it both ways. If you’re going to split your series this evenly between two timelines, the present-day story has to feel like the anchor. Every time the show cut back to Nicole Kidman and company, I found myself immediately more invested. That’s less a criticism of the younger cast than it is a compliment to just how magnetic the veteran ensemble is. They’re the biggest reason people are pressing play in the first place.
Because this is a serial killer story, Scarpetta isn’t afraid to get gruesome. The murders can be fairly graphic, and the audio description does a solid job explaining the crime scenes and forensic details without getting lost in the medical terminology. Otherwise, it’s a fairly straightforward procedural that keeps introducing suspects, throwing in twists, and encouraging you to figure out the killer in both timelines. The evolution of both mysteries is satisfying even if I thought the past occasionally overshadowed the present.
This isn’t the only procedural Amazon has, so I can confidently say it isn’t the best and it isn’t the worst. It’s good enough that I’m looking forward to more, but I’ve also seen better. Bosch still has seasons that I think are terrific, and Reacher remains one of my favorites. Meanwhile, I think Cross has struggled over the past couple of seasons for entirely different reasons, many of them also related to casting. If you’re looking for another twisty crime thriller with a big ensemble, Scarpetta is absolutely worth adding to the list. Nicole Kidman plays Kay like the consummate professional, relentlessly focused on the work and determined to find answers, while Jamie Lee Curtis brings just enough free-spirited energy as Dorothy to keep the series from becoming relentlessly bleak. That contrast is important because this is a dark serial killer story, and without Curtis there really isn’t much relief from the heavy tone.
Scarpetta may feel familiar, but the combination of Nicole Kidman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Ariana DeBose, and Simon Baker is ultimately what keeps you watching. They’re the reason you tune in, and they’re the reason you’ll come back for Season 2. The finale ends on a major enough cliffhanger that it almost feels like the writers already knew they had another season waiting for them. Thankfully they did, because otherwise that ending would’ve frustrated a lot of people. Hopefully next season finds a better balance between its past and present storylines, because there’s a really good procedural hiding inside this one.
Fresh: 7.3/10
