Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis star in the long-awaited adaptation of Patricia Cornwell's Scarpetta novels, now streaming on Prime Video. Despite a star-studded cast and decades of development, the series has been panned as a chaotic, tech-heavy disappointment that strays far from its source material.
The show jumps between two timelines: present-day Virginia, where Kidman's Kay Scarpetta investigates a murder, and the 1990s, where young Scarpetta (Rosy McEwen) hunts a similar killer. This non-linear structure, absent from Cornwell's original novels, muddles the narrative and replaces suspense with sluggish pacing and jarring gore. Major revelations often come as deus ex machina, and the murdered women are treated as mere plot devices.
Worse, the series introduces an AI chatbot as a main character—Janet, the deceased wife of Scarpetta's niece Lucy (Ariana DeBose). This sub-Black Mirror subplot sees Jamie Lee Curtis's character Dorothy conversing with a screen. Another baffling storyline involves a company that 3D-prints organs, culminating in astronauts' deaths. The show's attempt to address misogyny is reduced to Scarpetta asking a colleague not to use the word 'bitch'.
Kidman and Curtis share strong chemistry as warring siblings, but their scenes feel borrowed from a better drama. Rosy McEwen tries valiantly as young Scarpetta, but her character remains ill-defined beyond trauma. What could have been a tight four-parter is stretched into eight increasingly weird episodes, exemplifying 'Prestige Trash' that relies on star power over storytelling.
