Nicole Kidman might be an A-list movie star, but she has been shifting gears to the small screen with projects like Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, and The Perfect Couple. Her latest is Scarpetta, an Amazon Prime Video series with a fantastic cast that also includes Jamie Lee Curtis, Bobby Cannavale, and Simon Baker.
Based on the Patricia Cornwell character and book series, Kidman plays Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Chief Medical Examiner in Virginia who returns to work when a woman winds up dead. The reason she’s compelled to come out of retirement is that the manner of the death and positioning of the woman’s body is identical to what was happening with a serial killer case Kay worked in her early days. Not just an old case, but the case that defined her career. Did Kay get it wrong 20 years ago? Is there a copycat? Or is something else going on? The series explores these questions and plenty of Scarpetta family drama through its eight episodes. But it also leaves a lot on the table.
Scarpetta’s Family Drama is at the Centre
While Scarpetta is a procedural drama with a crime thriller feel, the fractured family dynamics are really at the heart of the series. There’s Kay’s histrionic sister Dorothy (Curtis, Amandha Righetti in flashbacks) who all but neglected her daughter Lucy (Ariana DeBose in present day, Savannah Lumar in flashbacks) to pursue various romantic rendezvous over the years, leaving Kay to care for the young girl more often than not.
Curtis is usually a joy on screen, even in darker roles, but Dorothy is like a scaled down version of Donna from The Bear. She’s a lost, troubled woman who needs to be the center of attention and overdramatizes everything as a manifestation of her insecurities. It’s as exhausting to watch her as it likely is for Kay, Pete Marino (Bobby Cannavale in present day, Jake Cannavale in flashbacks), and Lucy to deal with her. Nonetheless, Dorothy, her wild outfits, and ever-flowing glasses of wine are a standout on the show.
Kay’s former work partner Pete ended up marrying Dorothy, and her FBI profiler husband Benton Wesley (Simon Baker, Hunter Parrish in flashbacks) is an interesting addition to the family. Baker (The Mentalist) is a fine choice to play the charming agent who grounds and calms Kay, apparently something he has been doing since the day they met. Parrish (Weeds) does an equally good job as his handsome younger self who captures Kay’s heart. Lucy has grown to become a talented coder and hacker but spends her days conversing with a computer AI version of her deceased wife Janet (New Amsterdam‘s Janet Montgomery), which adds a whole other complication reminiscent of the “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror.
Yes, this family is as weird and combative as expected. Kay navigating this complicated dynamic, especially with everyone temporarily living in the same house, is largely at the heart of the story. She and Pete probably partly want to get pulled back into this case just to get out of the house.
The story, told in both past and present timelines, True Detective style, has the makings of any good whodunit. It’s exciting to see the juxtaposition between Kay handling this new case in present day and that first one 20 years ago. Rosy McEwen (Black Mirror) does a wonderful job portraying a younger Kidman and Jake Cannavale’s uncanny resemblance to his real-life father Bobby makes him convincing as a young Pete as well. Overall, the younger actor casting is brilliant in this show.
In areas when the plot falls short, performances by the top-notch actors help bring it back to life in both timelines. It’s easy to believe that McEwen is the younger version of Kay, not just because she bears a resemblance to Kidman, but also because she captures the essence of the character just as well.
An Unfinished Story and a Convoluted Plot
The plot of Scarpetta goes in wild directions, some of which work and some that don’t. The show makes too many assumptions about viewers and our attention to detail. There are characters who look too similar to one another, which can get confusing. Some are easily forgettable but clearly not meant to be. Timeline switches happen almost too seamlessly. Without seeing a character like the younger Pete or Kay in a scene, you’re left to question if you’re watching a scene from the past or present. Some shows spoon-feed viewers with title cards or a switch in filming technique so there’s no mistaking past from present timelines. This show is in desperate need of something like that: it’s easy to get lost in the non-linear plot that jumps back and forth far too seamlessly, leaving you guessing until a clue suggests it’s the present not the past or vice versa.
Scarpetta offers up a compelling story that’s not just a murder mystery, but also commentary on topics like the finality of death, grief, women in the workplace, work obsession, mental health, and the true nature of love. Arguably everyone in Kay’s orbit is suffering from deep-seated grief and/or trauma in one way or another, and doing everything in their power not to address it in a healthy way. Whether it’s repression, alcohol, aggression, or even talking to an AI version of your lost loved one, they have all mastered the art of avoidance. It’s inevitable that this will come crashing down on them eventually. After a while, that part of the show takes precedence over the reveal of the identity of a serial killer, losing its focus in the process.
Perhaps because of the attention spent on the family and their personal issues, the story goes in too many directions. That would be fine if everything came together eventually. But it doesn’t, even when it pertains to the actual murder case. I still feel like I need to go back and re-watch the entire season to pick up on details I missed.
Does it deliver by the end? Sadly, not in the way that I’d hoped. The character Kay Scarpetta is as fascinating on screen as she likely is in the books, a testament to the performances of both Kidman and McEwen. She and Pete Marino make a great team, Kidman and Cannavale and McEwen and Cannavale oozing with wonderful on-screen chemistry. In fact, I’d be more interested in watching a procedural with either crime-fighting pair at the centre without all the other distractions and drawn-out plot that seems to go nowhere.
It’s possible this is all by design as a set-up for a second season – Scarpetta was picked up for two seasons – in which case Season 1 is more like Season 1, Part 1. Nonetheless, the story could still be tighter, story angles that don’t fit cut entirely for good measure.
Hopefully, everything comes together more coherently in Season 2, which I wish was a 16-episode Season 1 instead. Scarpetta is still worth a watch if you’re looking for something that’s part procedural, part thriller, part light horror. It’s a lesser True Detective meets Dexter with a killer (pun intended) cast. The fragmented, disjointed story could have been told more cleanly. But it sets up what could potentially be a better Season 2.