For all the money Amazonoriginal programming department expenses vaguely connected international espionage stories or origin stories of low cultural impact for various hobbits and dwarvestoS.What the publisher does most successfully is return to its “where you start buying books when Waldenbooks at the mall goes out of business” roots by making polished, middle-grade TV series adaptations of glossy, middle-grade bestselling novels.

This is an emerging category of pragmatic urban fabric. Bosch’s probably the smartest example, blind pleasures reaching most satisfactory and jack ryan It’s a show that definitely exists.

That’s enough of a positive track record that Amazon has already renewed To go past for a second season before viewers even had a chance to sample a series awkwardly sandwiched between an unlikely star vehicle for a leading role. Aldis Hodge and a bloated, overly familiar episode Criminal Minds It spanned eight hours. Although Hodge’s down-to-earth centerpiece alone makes the series watchable from start to finish, the material around him is exploitative, frustratingly trashy, and absolutely destined to be a hit.

If you haven’t read any of them James Pattersondozens Alex Cross Those who have seen or watched the film adaptations starring Morgan Freeman and then Tyler Perry, creator Ben Watkins, and first-time director Nzingha Stewart waste little time in introducing this highly acclaimed character. (A lot of time is wasted later, but To go past at least it starts properly before faltering).

Cross is a Washington DC police detective with a doctorate in psychology. He became a local celebrity after solving the Gary Soneji case, a very important case in book science. With a beautiful wife (Chaunteé Schuler Irving), two precocious children (Melody Hurd and Caleb Elijah), and a helpful grandmother (Juanita Jennings), Cross seems to have it all. Then, in the opening scene of the premiere, Maria is killed. Cross enters a downward spiral that leaves behind his family and closest collaborators, including his partner John Sampson (Isaias Mustafa) and FBI agent Kayla Craig (Alona Tal) are very concerned about his health.

After resisting therapy for a year and seeing his outbursts escalate, Cross is on the verge of asking for a leave of absence when he becomes involved in an investigation into the death of a local Defund the Police/Black Lives Matter activist. The politically ambitious white police chief (Jennifer Wigmore) also needs a Black detective to go public on the controversial case and wants the case buried as soon as possible.

For a few minutes, it looks like the plot will be an opportunity for a nuanced exploration of what it means to be a Black law enforcement officer in a majority-Black community that views police as an occupying force. There is a bet that something provocative will happen. But no! Instead of using thriller trappings as a Trojan horse for contemporary subtext, the first season To go past It revolves around a terrifying serial killer who actually likes other serial killers, as well as a separate but possibly related case linked to Cross’ past. Although it is not based on a specific book, the story is completely in line with the formula of the Cross brand. But in this case it is disappointing because of the current potential that is turned into window dressing and then completely squandered.

Without spoiling too much, the main mystery, which relates to our societal obsession with serial killers but actually provides another mystery for viewers to obsess over, involves Ed Ramsey (Ryan Eggold), a wealthy DC kingmaker; Bobby Trey (Johnny Ray Gill), an ex-cop with problems; and Shannon (Eloise Mumford), an ordinary woman who wants to become an art curator at a hotel chain.

Although the season’s antagonist is a fanatical enthusiast for famous serial killers—the show’s mix of real and fictional killers and real and fictional victims of police brutality is a deeply insensitive mix— To go past As a series, it is fanatically devoted to pop cultural depictions of murder solving. Wink and nudge references from obvious nods The Silence of the LambsSherlock Holmes and Easy Rawlins (a role I’ve wanted to give Hodge for a decade) make jokes about the genre’s penchant for dark lights and detectives whose magical processes involve suddenly staring off into space until they get to big reveals.

But if you spend an episode or two arguing that you’re commenting on stereotypical tropes and six or seven reproducing them, the preponderance of evidence shows that what you imply you’re better at is actually what you are.

You know the scene in most serial killer narratives where the bad guy talks through his nefarious motivations, often while torturing (and in one case) a crying victim. The Silence of the Lambs scene that To go past replicas that mimic the victim’s sobs)? Part of what I’ve always found consistently repulsive Criminal Minds The formula allows this scene to be reproduced on an almost weekly basis. what does To go past What is exhausting in its own way is that, by taking a story that could have been told in 42 minutes or as a two-hour movie and expanding it into series form, the fetishized abuse is spread across nearly two-thirds of the season.

Just for NBC Hannibal Just because he did something similar, and did it well—with a similar background criticizing the moral decay of the Beltway and Mid-Atlantic aristocracy—doesn’t mean everyone can do it.

Overextending these clichés To go past is often oppressive. There’s a lot of torture, a lot of whining, and a lot of violence against a woman – sometimes presented to trick you into thinking you’re seeing more than you are, and sometimes shown directly – and after maybe an episode or two, there’s almost no commentary on anything. These suspense sequences are just variations on what you see executed elsewhere, mostly performed in Ontario locations disguised as DC.

I constantly offer hope To go past can turn into something more Lever Hodge senior proves equally convincing when portraying Alex Cross as a suave intellectual terminator or a broken soul constantly on the verge of lashing out. Alternately angry and seething, dressed in tailored suits and turtlenecks, he’s raw nerve exposed, and Hodge makes Cross’s carefully calibrated control seductive and his lack of control threatening and frightening. Playing opposite Hurd and Elijah, who are mature beyond their years, Hodge is able to represent both the perfect example of fatherly love and a man in desperate need of therapy.

At work, she fares well with Mustafa (the butt of just one Old Spice joke) and Tal, but doesn’t fare so well with a plethora of supporting characters and actors (Sharon Taylor plays Cross’s boss, who’s pregnant and has nothing). more) to one-dimensional (only the lack of a moustache keeps Wigmore’s Chief Anderson from turning evil non-stop) to pointlessly incoherent (note the rival detective who is hostile for half the series and then becomes inexplicably friendly).

Adding Criminal Minds Eggold’s proud but predictably against-type performance is a powerful actor who you immediately recognize as harboring dark secrets. He definitely feels like the weekly guest star of a crime procedural, and he doesn’t look like a human at all. Mumford convincingly gives the impression that he’s having a terrible time throughout the series. Gill gives the impression that she’s been told she can’t expand her character too much, and as a result, she exudes frenetic energy whenever she appears. But when he’s gone, you forget he had anything to do with it.

While the reverse Trojan structure is annoying and the meta serial killer noodling adds layers of tiresome repetition rather than anything new, you can expect it. To go past finally giving Hodge the career-defining spotlight that prospects enjoy City on a Hill And Black Man They failed to do it. He’s great, and the show is something Amazon has done well, if not always well.