‘Cross’ Season 2 Prime Video Series Review - Bad Billionaires, Worse Writing

Given the unequal distribution of wealth and the sheer number of incompetent billionaires occupying top positions across almost every sector, "Eat the rich" has become the prevailing mood almost everywhere. People are angry at inept politicians and tech moguls, and they vent that anger through protests, memes, and righteous fantasies in which they clean up the rot in the system. I'm sure some of them dream of a vigilante who would dole out punishment to magnates—someone who would swoop in like Batman and deliver tangible results. The second season of Cross has something to say to those individuals: vigilantes are not a solution. Sure, they might kill that billionaire buffoon responsible for trafficking or running a prostitution racket. But there's always another rich creep ready to replace them, and the justice system itself is hardly staffed by honest, dutiful workers. What's needed, the show suggests, is a detective like Alex Cross (Aldis Hodge), willing to bend the rules and backed by reliable officers, to ensure that the system ultimately punishes powerful criminals—those bad billionaires who exploit the poor for wealth, profit, and business.

Don't take all this as proof that Cross Season 2 is something pathbreaking or brilliant. I didn't think highly of the first season, and this new batch of episodes is just as much of a chore. The villain this time is a vigilante named Luz (Jeanine Mason), who seeks vengeance. Well, she's a "villain" only from the police department's perspective; the real bad guys are characters like Lance (Matthew Lillard), who justify the sacrifice of humans—immigrants, to be precise—as "humankind's advancement." Yes, he's a stock character, a walking, talking cliché of an evil rich man. Lance is almost cartoonish, so obvious and outdated that he evokes neither disgust nor unintentional laughter. The same can be said about Luz and her two companions. Instead of fleshing them out, the show treats them like chess pieces. In the name of history, Luz is given a dreamy flashback that also fuels her present-day mission. All the series really tells you about her is that she was Mama's little princess. Where did she learn to fight? How long did it take her to conceive her plans? Cross can't be bothered with such basic information.

The series also fails to develop the complex moral roots at its center. Luz's fatal arrows, though aimed at sinners, end up destroying the lives of innocents. We sense this when two children are left without a mother or when a woman loses her lover. The crooks Luz kills are human beings with personal relationships, and their deaths ripple outward to those who loved them. But Cross never explores this idea beyond a cursory nod. It never rises above mediocrity, settling instead for plot points and narrative threads that reek of unoriginality and predictable outcomes. Creator Ben Watkins doesn't want to complicate things—but then, he doesn't even manage to offer cheap pleasures. Nothing in Season 2 is allowed to be thrilling, gloriously pulpy, or genuinely suspenseful. The story trudges forward; the images carry all the urgency and vigor of bland point-and-shoot filmmaking. The dialogue exists merely to advance the narrative. It adds no depth, produces no insight, and offers no revelations—except for superficial twists that don't make your jaw drop.

I suppose sex is the only believable aspect of Cross. All those characters on screen, with their curves and abs, look sexy and hot. Of course, they sleep with each other. I would have labeled the series pure fiction if they hadn't. Unfortunately, like everything else here, sex doesn't excite the senses either. The scenes are brief and end just when things begin to heat up. Cross not only fails as a heart-pounding thriller; it also proves incompetent at sexually titillating its audience. Alex talks about aiming for higher standards, but Season 2 doesn't even manage to aim at something— ahem— lower. Nothing, after all, is more frustrating than foreplay that never leads to a climax. All these failures would make anyone cross.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times