‘Scarpetta’ review: Nicole Kidman leads killer cast in Patricia Cornwell series

Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta hasn’t led her own TV series or movie in 35 years, since then. Postmortem hit the shelves in 1990. Finally, the famous character of the criminal law writer has made his debut on the screen, Nicole Kidman and Rosy McEwen take on the great medical examiner Scarpetta.

Written by Liz Sarnoff (It is lost, Deadwood, Barry) and directed by David Gordon Green (modern Halloween trilogy) and Charlotte Brändström (Rings of Power), the Prime Video series leans on its ’90s and ’00s roots to showcase Cornwell’s legacy in the forensic thriller genre.

Love Mare of Easttown and to some extent The Truth Detective, Scarpetta is a crime procedural that combines a murder investigation with a complex family drama, with an excellent cast – Kidman, McEwen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, Ariana DeBose, Simon Baker – bringing out the best in the latter. If you’re a fan of forensic thrillers with family feuds, dive in Scarpetta files.

Scarpetta takes the detective thriller back to the basics of the ’90s and ’00s

If Scarpetta feels like it hits a lot of modern crime thriller notes, just remember Patricia Cornwell changed the game for the genre in the ’90s and ’00s, making her stand out among contemporaries like Kathy Reichs and Jeffery Deaver. Apart from Cornwell’s early 90s books like Postmortem or Body of Proofthere is no CSIno Bonesno The Cold Caseno Dexter. And Sarnoff knows it; his text has little Scarpetta directly quoting from it Postmortem in the opening scene – “There, somewhere, you’re a man…” – and Cornwell himself makes a cameo in the first episode.

We surround Dr. Kay Scarpetta (Kidman/McEwen), the series explodes between three eras – the ’70s, ’90s, and the present – charting the moments from Scarpetta’s tragic childhood, her first case as Virginia’s chief medical examiner, and her return to work in the present. When murder victims develop symptoms similar to Scarpetta’s major crime-defining 28-year career, the possibility that he may have implicated the wrong suspect becomes all too real.

Nicole Kidman as Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

In both Kidman and McEwen’s talented hands, Scarpetta is a methodical, intelligent, and sangfroid chainsmoker, who excels as the chief medical examiner, scrutinizing the causes of death and throwing the book at his chauvinist colleagues. He’s not a hard-boiled detective who flies off the handle and cuts corners – that’s my handsome but fiery partner Pete Marino (Cannavale Sr. currently, Cannavale Jr. in the past). Instead, he is an epidemiologist who urges his colleagues to wear personal hygiene and avoid profanity. Comparing him to another brilliant detective of the 90s, X files‘ Dana Scully, there’s no trickery, from the suits and sneakers Kay dons to the actual pairing of the two in episode 6.

When Scarpetta and Marino go through crime scenes, the series relies on the blue-toned flashback technique of the 2000s popularized by shows like CSI again The Cold Casewhich may sound a little dated. Similar to the lack of real background of the series of victims of serial killers – we only get small details about the women who have just been killed, the rest are given Post-Is and pictures on the wall of the red thread, while the search for the identity of the killer is mentioned before. At one point Scarpetta even insists that “we don’t know them” when a lab technician shows humanity to victims of abuse, yet she often corrects language that criticizes the sex victim from her colleagues.

Bobby Cannavale as Pete Marino and Nicole Kidman as Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

The series also leans a little on the cat-and-mouse mind game that defines ’90s forensic fiction and the plethora of ’00s crime adaptations that came with it: The Bone Collector, Kiss the Girls, The Red Dragon. Appropriately, Scarpetta’s 1998 story feels very much in line with this particular trend, where a medical examiner finds himself in very dangerous waters.

Scarpetta also hits all the notes in the genre that Alexis Nedd described for Mashable as “a curmudgeonly detective solves the case of a dead girl while their personal/love lives fall apart”. We’re talking about the near-constant presence of large glasses of wine, requisite scenes of meditation in the shower, and open disdain for the media (especially Sosie Bacon’s Abby). The fact that Scarpetta doesn’t do well in the mornings is one of the few signs of the subtype missing from his acting.

Being a Blumhouse production, the details in Scarpetta’s autopsy scenes may be grim, so reluctant viewers may want to look away. However, it is this level of detail that makes it Patricia Cornwell’s adaptation, and the author’s inclusion of intelligence is her signature stamp on the genre.

ScarpettaThe actors are criminally talented

Bobby Cannavale as Marino and Ariana DeBose as Lucy Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

It is full of top level talent, i Scarpetta the cast is the show’s sharpest weapon, led by Kidman in full, glowing, inner-brain rage mode. The physicality shared between Kidman and her ’90s-era co-star, played by McEwen, is convincing; the same goes for Cannavale who is always compelling as Pete Marino and his ’90s self, played by the actor’s son, Jake Cannavale. And while this broadcast may be a little on the kid’s nose, you can’t argue that it wasn’t successful, especially when Cannavales makes the most of the lion’s share of one-liners like, “Looks like our Ted Bundy just bought himself a polygraph.”

While Bobby Cannavale almost steals the spotlight himself as the smart, deeply loyal Marino, he’s up against two other co-stars for it: Jamie Lee Curtis and Ariana DeBose.

If there is a scene with Curtis in it, pray for the scene partners. As Kay’s polar opposite, her fierce, flamboyant, and unfiltered sister, Curtis is incredibly fun to watch, wearing sequins, leotards, and dropping red hot facts. Although they both desire control, Kay’s defiant self-restraint clashes with Dorothy’s passionate combativeness. Honestly, pop the popcorn for Kidman and Curtis (who have somehow never starred together in anything?) bickering only as sisters, with Curtis’ Dorothy seeking attention as the town announcer and seriously dropping dialogue like, “My bull-like spirit feels diminished by him.”

Jamie Lee Curtis as Dorothy Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime

DeBose, on the other hand, is excellent as Lucy, Dorothy’s smart daughter raised by Kay. He mourns his late wife (Janet Montgomery) by befriending an AI. This bright eye of a plot device would sound like product placement on the “good side” of artificial intelligence if DeBose weren’t such a talent, and his performance (along with Curtis and Kidman’s) actually makes me believe this. Black Mirror-style connection.

As its main character, Scarpetta it is not perfect, but it is deeply rooted in the desire and respect of the author who advanced the fictional stories with symbols that we now take for granted. With a cast this brilliant and a cliffhanger, the first season of Scarpetta feels like the beginning of a series, Cornwell style.

Scarpetta airs on Prime Video March 11.