Although Scarpetta was clearly intended to be Prime Video’s Reacher replacement, the streaming service’s new number one show can’t compete with the iconic action thriller. Reacher and Scarpetta have a lot in common. Both shows are Prime Video thrillers that adapt a long-running, best-selling novel series with over 29 books to its name.

However, if Scarpetta’s season 1 ending proves anything, it is that no show can quite match the appeal of Prime Video’s already-iconic adaptation of Lee Child’s books. From the casting of Alan Ritchson as the titular Reacher to the show’s consistently faithful adaptation of its source material, Reacher has become a huge hit with viewers for numerous reasons.

Scarpetta’s Rotten Tomatoes Ratings Are Much Worse Than Reacher’s Scores

In contrast, although Scarpetta’s muddled story ambitiously attempts to do more than season 1 of Reacher did, this ultimately proves to be the show’s downfall. A quick glance at the Rotten Tomatoes scores of both Prime Video shows’ first seasons paints a picture, as Reacher hit the ground running with an instantly successful first outing, while Scarpetta struggled from the off.

Scarpetta season 1 boasts an adequate 69% rating from critics, but the show only managed a meager 45% rating from audience members. In contrast, Reacher season 1 not only earned a superb 91% critical rating, but the show’s debut season also managed to complement that with an equally impressive 92% audience rating.

Although plenty of shows have improved after a shaky first season, such as Parks and Recreation or Community, it is significantly more common for a show’s critical standing to decline with subsequent seasons, not increase. This trend has proven a little less predictable with the advent of streaming, as many shows manage to maintain strong critical ratings throughout their runs.

However, while Prime Video’s Bosch was a rare exception that managed to improve its critical reception after its debut season, this is still an inauspicious start for Scarpetta. Based on the novel series of the same name by author Patricia Cornwell, Scarpetta season 1 introduces viewers to Nicole Kidman’s titular forensic pathologist.

Scarpetta’s Season 2 Renewal Gives The Crime Thriller A Chance To Improve

Brilliant but mercurial, Scarpetta spends the first season of the series trying to solve a pair of gruesome killings that have strange echoes of her first major case from decades earlier. This is where Scarpetta gets ambitious, as season 1 of the mystery series bounces between past and present timelines to tell two stories at once.

Scarpetta season 1 adapts both 1990’s Postmortem and 2021’s Autopsy at the same time, with the show’s present-day storyline focusing on the plot of Autopsy while its past plot is an adaptation of Postmortem. While this idea is solid, Scarpetta’s messy storytelling ultimately ends up over-complicating a potentially clever premise.

The show’s present-day storyline features far too many absurd red herrings, including a crashed spaceship, a cult run by a failed actor, a sentient AI character, and a startup that is trying to grow human organs. By the time the original killer is revealed, the series has spun off in so many directions that its entire past plot line ends up feeling superfluous.

Fortunately, Scarpetta still has a chance to redeem itself. The show’s starry cast, including Kidman, Ariana DeBose, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a standout in the form of Rosy McEwen as a young Scarpetta, will return in Scarpetta season 2, and this sophomore outing doesn’t need to be as bogged down in backstory as the show’s first season.

Now that the admittedly complex relationships between Scarpetta, her niece, her sister, her brother-in-law, and her husband have been thoroughly outlined, Scarpetta season 2 can get straight into the work of adapting another Cornwell novel. However, although the cast shows some considerable promise in season 1, this doesn’t mean the series can live up to its potential for Prime Video.

Scarpetta Officially Can’t Replace Prime Video’s Reacher

No matter what happens, Scarpetta isn’t the Reacher replacement that Prime may have envisioned when the streaming service bought the rights to Cornwell’s influential novels. The show’s starry cast, big budget, and bestselling long-running novel inspiration all combine to prove that Scarpetta was at least intended to be a Reacher competitor, if not an outright replacement for the Childs adaptation.

However, no matter what the plan was in season 1, Scarpetta’s reception goes to show that the series will need to recalibrate before its return. The reviews prove that, even if the show improves, Scarpetta can’t hope to dethrone Reacher as Prime Video’s standout procedural thanks to that earlier show’s instant success with both critics and viewers upon its debut.

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Fortunately, this could be a good thing for season 2. If Scarpetta’s muddled season 1 story proves anything, it is that the show tried to do too much at once and ended up dropping the ball as a result. The lowered expectations heading into season 2 could be a good thing, since no one expects Scarpetta to be a blockbuster Reacher replacement now.

Release Date

February 3, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Nick Santora

Directors

Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent

Writers

Cait Duffy