Although Prime Video’s new thriller series could technically last for decades, judging by its source material, the show still has to overcome one major issue standing in the way of its potential success. A long-running best-selling book series can be a goldmine for streaming services, even if some of the novels have already been adapted to the screen before. Morgan Freeman played writer James Patterson’s iconic psychologist/ detective Alex Cross in 1997’s Kiss the Girls and 2001’s Along Came a Spider, while Tyler Perry played him in an ill-fated 2012 movie reboot. However, Prime Video’s Cross still managed to become a massive success.
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Similarly, the streaming service’s Lee Child adaptation Reacher is a huge critical hit and has a massive fan base, even though there were already two existing Jack Reacher movie adaptations starring Tom Cruise in the 2010s. Within this context, the murder mystery series Scarpetta seemed like a home run for stars Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis. Based on author Patricia Cornwell’s long-running series of psychological thriller novels, Scarpetta starred Kidman as the title character, a mercurial but brilliant forensic pathologist, and Curtis as her outspoken sister Dorothy.
There Are 29 Scarpetta Novels For Prime’s Nicole Kidman Show To Adapt
The messy relationship between Scarpetta and her sister anchors most of the novels in Cornwell’s beloved series, which manage to balance the gruesome details of Scarpetta’s many murder investigations with the more intimate personal drama of her family life. INN terms of viewership, Prime Video’s Scarpetta adaptation was a major streaming success for the streaming service as director David Gordon Green’s show bounced between two timelines, one starring young Scarpetta and the other starring her older self. Season 1’s past storyline adapted the 1990s first Scarpetta novel Postmortem, while its present-day storyline was borrowed from 2021’s Autopsy.
This seemed like a fun, unusual way for the series to adapt two novels simultaneously, thus distinguishing Scarpetta from the likes of Reacher and Cross. However, the psychological thriller bit off much more than the show could chew. Although there are 29 novels for future seasons to adapt, Scarpetta first needs to ensure that the show itself actually lives up to Cornwell’s books. Sadly, season 1 was a tonally misjudged mess where crashing spacecrafts, sentient AI characters, and a mysterious cult leader ensured the storyline felt far more outlandish and absurd than the grounded source novels.
Scarpetta Seriously Needs To Fix Season 1’s Problems For The Crime Thriller To Last
While Reacher season 1 debuted to a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% from critics, Scarpetta earned a comparatively embarrassing 60% from reviewers. Its audience score was even worse, so, even with its season 2 renewal already secured, the show massively needs to up its game if Scarpetta ever hopes to compete with Reacher or Cross as a long-running adaptation of a beloved novel series. With a supporting cast that includes Ariana DeBose, Bobby Cannavale, and Simon Baker, the show seemingly has the ingredients to achieve this.
However, Scarpetta’s hopes of adapting more than one or two more Cornwell novels hinge entirely on season 2 outdoing the shaggy, misjudged season 1. Whether it means borrowing the more straightforward, single timeline structure of hit Netflix thrillers or doubling down on season 1’s approach of cutting between past and present, Prime Video’s Scarpetta has a long way to go to reach its full potential.
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