Hero Complex – As the opening episode of Cross begins, Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge) watches the game with John Sampson (Isaiah Mustafa) and Maria Cross (Chauntee Schuler Irving). When they’re alone, John tells Alex he needs to tone it down with Onika is there. Maria is fatally shot seconds later. A year later, Alex works at the police station. In an interview room, a man is questioned about killing his pregnant wife. The man tells Akbar (Dwain Murphy) that they have to get him medical attention soon. Eventually, Akbar gets upset and gets physical with the accused. Oracene Massey (Sharon Taylor) complains about his actions. They don’t think he’s ever going to give it up. Alex Cross argues that he already did. Cross is allowed to interview the suspect, Richard. The suspect says he’s smarter than Cross and Akbar because it’s a matter of genetics.

Cross argues that his penis is larger than Richard’s. Cross believes he’s living rent free in Richard’s head. He also thinks Richard has already confessed by saying, “Life’s fitful fever.” Richard doesn’t think he’ll get a conviction with that. Cross says the DA is already ready to file charges. Later, a killer looks through their book of information. The book also has pictures of two men. The killer begins torturing one of those men. A group of kids see a man killed in his car. Protestors demand justice for Emir. As Chief Anderson (Jennifer Wigmore) walks inside the building, she is asked about the status of Emir’s case. Anderson wants Lieutenant Massey. Chris Wu (Jason Rogel) tells Alex Cross and John Sampson that Massey wants to see them. Cross’s secret admirer has dropped off flowers again. Massey tells Cross and Sampson that they need to take over the Emir Goodspeed case.

He was found deceased in his vehicle several days ago from an apparent overdose, but Massey wants to make sure they check all the boxes. Chief Anderson explains that Goodspeed was leading the “defund the police” charge. She asks if they can get more light in there. Massey can’t because she has a migraine. Emir Goodspeed was a gangbanging ex-con with prior drug offenses. Alex has to explain to her why people are fussing about the activist. They’ll do a press conference in an hour. Alex Cross says he’s not doing a publicity stunt. Anderson asks him to stand in the back and look pretty. Amielynn Vega (Mercedes de la Zerda) and Vanessa Norris (Kristin Dodson) tell Alex everything about the case. Massey wants to get Emir’s family to understand and accept the truth. Alex visits Malika Goodspeed (Ashley Rios). She tells them that someone cut off Emir’s dreadlocks. Malika asks them to call the DOJ so they can get an independent investigation.

Tavio Lemmons (Damani D. Sease) says Emir wasn’t on anything. If anyone served Emir, they’d have to deal with Tavio. Malika insists Emir wouldn’t be using meth. Tavio says no one wants them there and they don’t count on them to bring Emir justice. Malika insists everyone loved her brother. Mother Goodspeed (Kimberly Fairbanks) prays Cross never has to bury one of his kids. He says he lost his wife about a year ago. She says Emir came home from prison and said they couldn’t keep any pork in the house. Cross promises to find out what happened to Emir. Later, he talks to Nana Mama Cross (Juanita Jennings), Damon (Caleb Elijah), and Janelle (Melody Hurd) about it. Alex urges Janelle to eat so she can go to the running practice. When the Cross family is out of their house, someone sneaks inside. Meanwhile, Alex hangs out with Elle Monteiro (Samantha Walkes). Ed Ramsey (Ryan Eggold) promises they’ll break six figures for her foundation tonight.

Elle explains that Ed is a big supporter of The Somewhere Foundation. He already knows who Alex Cross is. Ed reveals his mother was killed when he was in college and he never got answers. Ed tells Alex to call him if he ever needs anything. The intruder hides a Redskins scarf in the closet and almost gets caught in Cross’s house with Mama returns. Shannon Whitmer (Eloise Mumford) speaks to her mom before getting drinks. The clerk behaves oddly and has a tattoo on his wrist. The man snaps a picture of Shannon and her mom. Alejandro ‘Jando’ Galvan (Erniel Baez) tells Alex about the autopsy on Emir (Donovan Brown). He doesn’t think it was a suicide because he ate just before his death. Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill) speaks to the barber Shorty (Bobby Daniels). Bobby receives a message from someone saying the same car has been in front of their house again. Bobby leaves.

Alex speaks to Chief Anderson and Massey. Alex admits he thinks Emir was murdered. He goes through the reason why he believes that. Alex says Emir was Muslim and didn’t eat pork, but it was supposedly the last thing he ate. Chief Anderson refuses to believe it. Sampson admits he trusts Cross’s gut. Anderson eventually agrees to give Cross 48 hours to put some proof behind this. The killer adds another photo to his book. He reads about the Sandman who was put to death. His last meal was grilled pork chops. Then, the killer turns his attention to Aileen Wuornos. He looks at a picture of Shannon taken by the man from the coffee place. Sampson learns that Alex got flowers again. Cross says that is creepy. Vega questions whether it’s a man sending the flowers. Vega reveals Emir last called a burner phone and Salerno says it’ll take weeks to find out who he called. Cross will see if Kayla can do them a favor with that. Cross has to go to the school because Damon has been caught with Redskins paraphernalia.

Damon says he got it from his mom’s closet. Alex asks Principal Brock (Bam Hall) for a plastic bag since he believes the scarf is evidence. Cross asks Sampson to give it to Quincy to see if they can find any DNA on it. Alex accuses him of reporting him and costing him his job. Nana Mama learns that Alex is having cameras installed outside the house. Alex admits he thinks someone was in the house. Next, Alex meets Kayla Craig (Alona Tal) who says she’s recruiting. Her bosses want to offer him a spot with the FBI’s Forensic Psychology Unit. Before long, they begin talking about the Goodspeed case. Alex wants to see if Kayla can help him get an ID for the burner phone. He asks what she wants in exchange. Before Kayla leaves, she tells him to stay by his phone. The killer uses a dating site with the name “Josh Glatman” to get in touch with Shannon Whitmer. It appears to be Ed Ramsey. Bobby visits the police station where he tells Chris that someone has been harassing one of his clients.

Chris agrees to run a tag for him. He finds out that the vehicle belongs to Tavio Lemmons. Alex speaks to Sampson to see if Quincy said anything. Sampson worries he won’t find the truth. He reminds Alex that he already almost killed an innocent man. Sampson thinks he should talk to someone about his loss. Elle interrupts. During dinner, they learn about Jared (Joseph Pierre) and his work as well as people losing money in their 401ks. They begin talking about Alex and Sampson being cops. Elle admits a lot of people want to defund the police. She says they can defund the police and replace them with peace officers. Jared doesn’t understand how a black man can be a cop nowadays. Alex says it isn’t just dinner party chat for them. Jared claims Alex’s boss will order him to go after those activists one day and he’ll do it. They almost get into a fight. Alex pleads with Elle not to make this bigger than it is.

She asks if this is what he needs to talk to a professional about. Elle says she wants to be there for him and she wants to know. Alex eventually sits down and explains that he has a hero complex. He also says he couldn’t help his wife. Elle insists he can’t blame himself for that although Alex says he always will. He is adamant that talking to someone isn’t going to help. Elle urges him to find a way through this for his kids. Alex plays the piano at home on church day while Damon urges Janelle to get up. Alex apologizes to Damon for yelling at him about the scarf. The family goes to church. Next, Kayla visits Cross at the gym. She says the burner phone was purchased at a car wash in Hillcrest Heights. They have more cameras than the White House. Cross learns that the phone belonged to Tavio Lemmons. The police go to the gathering to see if they can find Tavio.

They see him with a few others. Alex and Sampson approach him. When they’re talking to him, he flees on foot. Tavio flees into an apartment where he takes a woman hostage. He tells Sampson and Cross that he didn’t kill Emir. Tavio won’t say anything until he has a lawyer. They eventually convince Tavio to let the woman go and surrender. Protestors scream at them when they walk Tavio to a squad car. Someone shoots Tavio from a window above them. It appears Bobby Trey is the shooter. Massey meets Alex later and tells him about Chief Anderson’s working theory that she wants to float to the press. Anderson wants to say Tavio was shot in retaliation for killing Emir. Ed Ramsey speaks to Bobby who tells him not to get sloppy again. Bobby tells him to stick to people no one cares about. Ed has been talking to Shannon. Later, Sampson tells Cross that Quincy found a strand of Caucasian hair on the scarf. Someone knotted the hair there because they wanted it to be found.

Alex receives more flowers. He asks the delivery man who says he doesn’t know who sent them. An envelope contains a picture of Maria and the kids. Maria’s eyes are scratched out. Alex receives a call from someone who asks if he wants to know what her last words were. The woman says they’ll meet soon enough.

 

Cross Review

The opening episode of Cross was okay, but it really leaves a lot to be desired. The opening episode felt like everything else on television with lots of politics thrown in. A lot of people will be turned off by the latter, but they’re really there to ensure the episodes drag on for a full hour when that wasn’t necessary.

The same can be said about the personal scenes. Although some may be pivotal to the bigger picture, Amazon has a bad habit of dragging out its episodes to an hour or longer. That was the case here. The episode crawled and achieved very little. 45 minutes would’ve been enough to cover the same bases. Some of the performances are okay here, but some are not that great.

Casting Canadians to argue race politics in Washington D.C. was certainly an odd choice. The whole first interrogation scene was very corny to the point it’d be easy to give it up right there. The dialogue was so infantile and over-the-top. It tried to show us how brilliant Alex Cross is, but it really didn’t achieve that goal. While the camerawork isn’t terrible, other basics are.

The colors are pretty much drained from the show. That seems to be a common trend now and it doesn’t serve any real purpose. For Cross, the low-quality scenery may be an attempt to disguise Ontario, Canada as Washington D.C. That’s another reason why the performances are so iffy. There are too many Canadian actors and actresses badly portraying American characters. The lighting is definitely odd as well.

Massey tried to explain that away by saying she kept the lights dim because she had a migraine. The story itself may be interesting when it finally begins moving, but it may not help that they’ve already given away the killer’s identity and the killer’s partner. Eight episodes are also going to feel like 3 or 4 too many when the whole thing has concluded.

Amazon expects a lot from this having renewed it very early on, but it may also be that the budget is very low with those hefty Canadian tax filming incentives hence the heavily Canadian cast and Canadian scenery. It’s really a shame that a series tackling racism in the DC police force isn’t actually filmed in that area. Otherwise, we’ve seen all of this before and it’s been done better previously.

The story may improve once it gets into the next few episodes, but it’s obviously going to be a slog to finish the eight-hour saga. The opening episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Cross can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.