From direct-to-streaming films to a handful of limited series, Nicole Kidman’s face has become as synonymous with the modern thriller as broody detectives have. In Prime Video’s new series “Scarpetta,” the actress plays chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, who finds herself drawn to a past case when fingerprints of a man thought to be innocent resurface in a new investigation. This shocking revelation not only threatens to jeopardize Scarpetta’s reputation but could also unearth secrets about her first major case that she tried to bury nearly thirty years ago.
Since witnessing her father’s brutal murder as a child, Scarpetta’s life and career have been shaped by death and grief. Now, as she races against time to uncover the truth behind evidence that could lead to her ruin, she must confront the possibility that her obsession with death may have stunted her emotional capacity, shaping her relationship with her work and her family.
An already strained bond with her sister Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis) is put under more pressure when she and her husband, Pete Marino (Bobby Cannavale), who used to work with Scarpetta, move into the home she shares with her husband, Benton Wesley (Simon Baker). Also caught up in the family drama is Dorothy’s tech-wiz daughter, Lucy (Ariana DeBose), whose deceased wife Janet (Janet Montgomery) is reanimated through a computer AI program.
From the present-day to the past—where a spectacular Rosy McEwen inhabits the lead role as a younger Scarpetta—the ensemble is so jam-packed that the characters overwhelm any semblance of narrative the show is trying to achieve. It’s unfortunate that most of them feel like caricatures rather than fully realized characters, as conversations between them often end in a cacophony of overwhelming yelling backed by crocodile tears.
Thankfully, in the ’90s timeline, McEwen breathes some much-needed life into the series. From her work computer being hacked to snide comments being thrown her way, this version of Scarpetta is constantly forced to prove herself to men whose default setting is to doubt her abilities. Each time she’s on-screen, the weight of this burden is present upon McEwen’s shoulders.
Despite a voice that never wavers in its command, the physicality the actress uses reveals the deep unrest within this protagonist, something her older counterpart, unfortunately, doesn’t seem willing to display for the audience. What makes the thriller genre endlessly fascinating, and what makes audiences so willing to come back to it time and time again, are protagonists who are just as flawed as the antagonists they chase.
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With these flaws comes a depth unlike the characters in any other genre, yet “Scarpetta” plays it too safe, sheltering its protagonist and stifling any sense of intrigue she could offer. With the series unwilling to revel in the potential darkness of its protagonist, it never truly takes off and never delivers the material both Kidman and McEwan deserve.
Scarpetta often feels like a bystander in her own story. She’s overshadowed by a detective drama that teeters on the line of soap opera, before sinking into a hole filled with overdone tropes and garishly lit scenes in family kitchens. The series’s overemphasis on its frankly uninteresting, bloated family dynamics forces the more interesting narrative threads of deceit and grief to wither away before they ever truly have a chance to blossom.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t plenty of secrets Scarpetta is keeping from her family, as well as from the audience, because there are plenty. Yet these layers provide only enough intrigue to keep your eyes on the screen for so long, and they’re often stifled by scenes featuring Curtis smoking a joint or downing a glass of vodka.
In a long line of shows like this, “Scarpetta” is a frustrating example of what not to do when you’re attempting to create a new franchise adapted from beloved mystery novels. The series dangles its most interesting pieces in front of its audience like a bone on a string, expecting its viewers to chase after these brief glimpses of substance like starving dogs. Some viewers will, so it’s a good thing that the show was initially given a two-season order, as its most interesting episodes are among the final ones.
These captivating moments suggest a potential for depth that the earlier episodes fail to achieve, and will surely leave certain audiences desperate for more, no matter how sluggish the journey to get here was.
