Scarpetta - Amazon Prime March 2026

[snowibunni]

Love the Scarpetta books, love Patricia Cornwell

Dislike this new adaptation, feels very misogynistic. Nicole Kidman is wrong - too tall, too willowy and too pretty. Jamie Lee Curtis, is wrong as well for about a million reasons. Bit of a vanity project?

Potential trigger warning - it feels like a throw back to when cop shows took great delight in showing dead women in all their gory details.

I dunno it just jars.

I got half way through the second episode...dreadful. The acting from everyone was hammy (not a huge surprise as I can't stand NK and JLC). Even as a stand alone show it was crap but it's a huge betrayal of the books. The book series got a bit silly, however Scarpetta was such a wonderful character.

i’m on episode 4 and so lost with all the timelines and actors looking so alike (i’m looking at end of episode 3 here…)

i’m sort of going along with the flow and hope it eventually makes sense.

also. the sister is so annoying.

I hated it, and I’m so disappointed! JLC is dreadful in it, horribly hammy. NK all wrong, too. And the endless flashbacks…

I have only seen the 1st episode. I will give it a bit longer, it probably helps that I have not read the books

I remember reading the books and they were about forensics and serial killers and a successful woman in a man’s world and this tv show is about relationships with random shite thrown in from some kind of AI plot generator. I don’t recall her sister being a main character, but perhaps JLC helped raise the funding. I disliked the lingering camerawork on naked women’s dead bodies, and it doesn’t sit right to be doing that and then comedy sex scenes in the next minute.

Good grief it is terrible, is it a tax write-off for someone? Over the past few days I've started then abandoned the new Dracula, Young Sherlock and now this. I might need to cancel Prime and try Apple.

It's certainly no Mare of Easttown, that's for sure. It feels so staged. Acting is dreadul. None of the actors have chemistry with each other and I'm distracted by the way younger Kay has more frown lines than older Kay.

Watched the first episode and I don’t think I’ll continue. JLC is over the top and Nicole Kidman, in the 127th TV show she’s done over the last ten years, looks as ridiculous as usual. The flashbacks aren’t needed. I also thought the episode was oddly lacking in tension.

Thanks for the warning. I'll give this one a miss.

Like millions of people I was a massive fan of the first 7-8 books, then gave them away. Cornwall took the series way too far.

I don't have Prime so can't watch it anyway, but I've read enough reviews to know it sounds shite and far removed from the books. Kay's sister Dorothy only popped up a few times in the books for one thing. Apparently in the tv series Marino is Kay's BIL or some such nonsense?

I never understand when they butcher something that was sooo popular and think people will love it. It is kind of strange that this is the 1st screen adaption. There was talk ages ago of a film with Angeline Jolie as Scarpetta (wow that'd be some shockingly bad casting) but it never came off. After this series I doubt a film ever will.

Marino is married to the sister in the books (last 3-4 of them)
I enjoyed first one so shall continue. I assume we have the younger versions to save money and time for the big names.

Gosh, I'd almost forgotten about these books, but I LOVED them as a teen/young adult. As @MarchionessVonSausage says they went a bit mad after a bit and I gave up (spoiler alert- it was around about the time Benton died horribly for a book or two then came back from the dead as he has been undercover or something).

I read about the TV adaptation and though I haven't yet watched it, I honestly can't think of an actress less suited to the role of scarpetta than Nicole Kidman. I'll watch the first episode and cringe.

I recently listened to one of the books on the library app and I didn't enjoy it as much as I remembered. Too much frustrating sexism and Marino was more annoying and Macho. Think it was book 1 though.

Oh really? I gave up on the books long before then. Marino & Dorothy are the most unlikely couple ever, that makes me laugh!

I thought this as well - the old-fashioned-ness of the naked corpses being shown in detail and the snippets of the murders. I hadn’t actually realise how much things had changed until it was so jarring to see it.

And when the secretary walked in on NK showering (!), had a good long look and complimented her figure!!!! NK probably had it as a clause in her contract.

The 2 sisters with such vicious arguing is a huge turn off for me. And the AI chat bot....WTF !

Why do people obtain the rights to a book series and then chop it up and throw away the good parts?
it's years since I read the novels, I too gave up as the series continued but I remember being fascinated by Lucy and her abilities. She struggled with life as the result of trauma but was exceptionally gifted, especially in the then new field of computers/coding etc.
The over acting, the confusing time flips, the gratuitous fascination with nakedness of dead women's bodies.
Not one believable character.
Jamie Lee Curtis was in a different show to everyone else!
I hated it, can you tell?

Try The Capture? Excellent.

Watched about 20mins of it and gave up.

Why this endless glorification of women's dead bodies and gratuitous detail of violence against them? Really think it's gone too far now, it sickens me.

We watch a lot of tv, scandi detective/murder/serial killer stuff in particular. I also read some of the books many years ago. We watched the first two episodes last night. It literally gave me a nightmare about naked women being cut up.

NK also looked like Cindy Lou Who - some weird mouth thing going on. JLC seemed like she was on something in every scene. We’re unlikely to continue

Ai chat bot is also a thing in the books recently.

the books used to be excellent and then went very odd. Rushed endings where a random killer is revealed and caught in 2 chapters. Like many series after 20+ books.

One of the worst adaptations I've ever seen

it would be much better without Jamie Lee Curtis who
makes it almost unwatchable with her ridiculous over the top performance of a completely unlikeable character. I like the actress who plays young Scarpetta. Nicole has done too much messing with her face and struggles to show emotions.

Saw the title and clicked on as I had read a few of the books . Now know to give it a complete body swerve .
I dislike Nicole Kidman intensely in tv adaptations now . I dislike her lack of facial emotion and the constant pairing with younger men . Not sure if the latter is a feature of this programme . She is still very attractive , has an amazing figure but I think she has gone too far in the tweakments . I do totally get that there is intense pressure on female actresses in particular not to be too old , so I am not unsympathetic to it . It just puts me off watching her .
Disappointing though re JLC as thought she was very good recently in “The Bear “ .
Haven’t had a chance to watch the second series yet - but I enjoyed Ellis ( another detective series ) on Ch 5 . I think only 4 episodes per series . It had great actors and storylines .

Used to love tge books until they became ridiculous. I remember one with a killer who was covered in hair and looked like a gorilla and I think ended up hiding in Notre Dame or something. Even if it didn’t happen that was the ridiculous levels it reached so I stopped reading. Also Scarpetta became a bit of a humourless know it all along with her insufferable niece Lucy. Didn’t realise Marina got with Scarpetta’s sister in tge books. I thought it was another hatchet job in bringing it to TV.

I managed two episodes before I gave up. The interminable rows between Scarpetta and her sister were too much. If I watch a crime drama I want them to concentrate on the actual crime not sibling rivalry. Also JLC overacting and NK’s frozen face and duck lips in every profile shot totally put me off. I always imagine Scarpetta as looking like Andi McDowell so she would have been a better casting. Also for some bizarre reason I always imagined Benton as being black. I assume I got that wrong but also jarred when ‘ The Mentalist’ turned up as him.

Well, I slogged through all 8 episodes. It did not improve.

Bet there's a series 2.

The only only bit of light where the younger actors. I think a better series might have been based them fully