Aldis Hodge makes a triumphant return in Cross Season 2, as the Prime Video series picks up where it left off. The second season is another dark and unflinching story, but underneath the gore and gloom, the real draw is that Hodge is the definitive Alex Cross. And in Season 2, he has another fun villain to play off of.

Based on the novels of James Patterson, Cross is one of the best detective series-to-screen adaptations currently going—second only to Prime Video’s own Bosch franchise. That starts with Hodge, who makes it easy for audiences to see the growth in his character between seasons. It’s been a year and a half since the mayhem of Season 1, and he plays Cross as someone who’s really trying (and struggling) to grow. At the same time, he still has the swagger that audiences expect of their titular hero.

Yet it’s a fascinating thing that he’s at his best when Cross is away from his crime-solving duties. The brilliant but tortured detective has become such a cliche at this point, yet in Hodge’s hands, there’s an earnestness to Cross under the cockiness that makes that dichotomy work so much better. The actor juggles both sides of the character’s personality so well, giving audiences a reason to root for Cross’s personal growth and not just whether or not he beats the bad guy.

Speaking of the bad guy: Ryan Eggold set the bar impossibly high for villainy with his performance as Ed Ramsey in Season 1. Cross Season 2 features another wonderfully out-of-left-field pick with Jeanine Mason as Luz. The audience is most likely to know her from her charming work in Roswell, New Mexico—and this role couldn’t be further from that. Like Eggold, it’s genuinely discomforting to see Mason hurt and kill people. But whereas his character was just purely evil on so many levels, Mason has a little more emotional meat on the bone. Luz’s motivations are far more relatable than Ed Ramsey’s, which is what gives Season 2 its spice. She and her associate Donnie (Wes Chatham from Sheriff Country) are the people Cross is chasing, so viewers have to root against them. But they can also understand why Luz and Donnie are doing what they’re doing, which puts the whole season into a deliciously grey area. Mason may not quite be as jaw-dropping as Eggold was, but she comes pretty darn close.

Elsewhere, the returning cast members each have storylines of their own to chase, although these subplots flow better later in the season than they do at the start. John Sampson gets the best one as Isaiah Mustafa’s character is forced to re-examine his past, and it’s a lovely reminder that Sampson is a lot more than Cross’s best friend. To see both Sampson and Elle Monteiro in ways that are separate from Cross deepens the appreciation of both of those characters. Cross’s FBI ally Kayla Craig has a skeleton in her closet too, though that story doesn’t go over quite as well—through no fault of actor Alona Tal. It just ends up changing one’s perspective on Kayla, rather than enhancing it.

Now for the things that are a little rougher around the edges: Cross is still a show that isn’t for the faint of heart, so it won’t be for everyone. Season 2’s violence is less creepy than what was shown in Season 1, but there’s still quite a bit of gore and sex throughout the season. One of the opening scenes is the murder and mutilation of a very unlucky man, and the biggest piece of evidence in the premiere is a trio of severed fingers. Cross doesn’t ease viewers back into its consistently dark world. But people watching Season 2 probably saw at least part of Season 1, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The most obvious issue is that Cross often struggles to integrate its humor within that darkness. There are other series, most notably the aforementioned Bosch shows, which mix grit with humor much more organically. Many times when Cross is being funny it feels like an aside rather than a natural part of the scene. One early instance is when Cross and Sampson return to their police precinct with the underscore sounding like something out of a 1970s crime drama. Maybe it’s a tongue-in-cheek way to say that they’re cool, but it just ends up being on the nose and distracting. Levity is a must when the story gets as dark as Cross does, but it misfires sometimes here, which means it’s less successful in providing the audience any kind of break.

But on the whole, Cross Season 2 preserves everything that Prime Video subscribers enjoyed about Season 1. It has another off-the-rails mystery to keep them guessing (and cringing). It provides another memorable villain that they won’t be able to take their eyes off of. And it has a core cast who are even better in the quiet moments than they are in the big, loud, scary ones. Aldis Hodge deserves even more praise than he’s already gotten, and Sampson, Tal and Samantha Walkes turn in reliable performances every episode. This series is just a few small steps from crime drama perfection.

Cross streams Wednesdays on Prime Video. Photo Credit: Ian Watson/Courtesy of Prime Video.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.