Having spent a total of six years living in DC and the metro area, I have often argued that our nation’s capital is severely underrated. This argument is met with groans and screams — mostly from people who still live there — and in a way, I get it. Crime is high, and so are the prices. Plagues of mosquitoes pillage their way across the landscape the minute the temperature climbs, while Maryland drivers are an all-season epidemic, unbothered by frost or insurrection or anything else that should conceivably keep them indoors.
DC has its strange magic, however, and that magic is captured by Prime’s Cross in a way that many locals, or former locals, can appreciate. Besides a banging storyline on the capital’s murky crime world, where sophisticated serial killers align with gangsters and progressive politics are like waves breaking on the rock of bureaucratic reality, Cross is full of unique details such as making fun of people who live in Kalorama and appreciation for mambo sauce.
So much of the entertainment that’s set or partially set in DC is sterile, concerned with the mysterious workings of the federal government to the point of solipsism, that Cross stands out for its attention to real life alone.
Squeaky-voiced congressional interns will have you believe that “nobody is from DC,” which is a statement that completely erases the city’s thriving Black culture and its history, not to mention the rivalries embedded in that culture — cop vs activist, gangster vs business owner, family life vs lush party scene, and so on. Cross is a show that has no time for ignorant arguments about the district’s demographics altogether. Of course people are from DC, and every shadowy old building and crowded street is thick with their stories.
Aldis Hodge is terrific as forensic psychologist and detective Alex Cross, and his emotional scenes are the bedrock of the show. There are good action sequences and spooky tension to enjoy, but it’s moments like Cross comforting an orphaned child by loudly insisting that he is a superhero, or Cross calling into a radio show to mourn his dead wife over whiskey that will really stay with you.
Brilliant men with spiky emotional worlds are always going to be compelling characters, but what makes Hodge’s portrayal of Cross outstanding is that he knows when to dial it back and when to breach the dam. The end result is a rollercoaster, and it kept me hooked in spite of the usual (and, I would argue, necessary) crime show cliches.
There is also a lot to be said about how Prime’s Cross is filmed. DC may be the seat of federal power, but this show is intimate. The home where the widowed Cross lives with his kids and beloved, unflappable grandmother is cozy and at the same time hollowed out by grief, you can see it in the shadows climbing across the furniture, hear it in the tinkling of the piano keys.
There is a similar intimacy seen in the home of love interest Ella Monteiro, played beautifully by Samantha Walkes, and even the cemetery where Cross’ wife is buried is portrayed with haunting affection. It’s rare to be drawn to scenery on a scary crime show, but here the worlds the characters occupy are an organic part of the narrative, and I love the way the camera lingers on them.
Brilliant men with spiky emotional worlds are always going to be compelling characters, but what makes Hodge’s portrayal of Cross outstanding is that he knows when to dial it back and when to breach the dam
The psychopathic serial killer who drives the plot along is the least interesting element of the Prime adaptation, but that’s not necessarily a criticism — the main characters and their lives are so compelling that psychopaths don’t stand a chance.
Cross is based on the Alex Cross novels by James Patterson, and you might remember earlier adaptations such as Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider (nobody remembers Tyler Perry’s portrayal of Cross from 2012, which is probably for the best).
The movies themselves were pretty meh, but it was the great Morgan Freeman who introduced us to Cross on screen, and today we have a Cross adaptation that finally combines both great acting and confident writing and direction, exactly as this character deserves.
It took a long time, but we got there.