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.

Glad I read this thread before I launched myself into this series. I read about 10 of this books eons ago. I do remember the wierd one in Paris as a pp described.
I wondered why in the tv series they gave her sister such a big part. Don’t remember her in the books much. Except I remember her niece (sisters daughter) being important and flying helicopters and them becoming partners or something.

They actually bought out a book with all Kay Scarpetta’s recipes in it too!

It was a ridiculous moment. Really unrealistic and creepy.
Got as far as episode 2 and turned off. Cannot bear gratuitous shots of murdered naked women. Jamie Lee Curtis' acting was also dreadful.

I was saying to my mum earlier that I too assumed Wesley was black or at least very dark haired so was jarring to see him as blonde. Wonder where we got that idea from?

They bought out 2 books, I have them both! This woman must be worth a bomb.

"Food to Die For' has 11 chapters for the 1st 11 books with recipes mentioned in each. So chapter 1 Postmortem has a recipe for Grilled Marinated Rib-Eye Steaks (illuminating, not) and Chapter 2 Body of Evidence has a recipe for Mrs McTigue's Cheddar Cheese Biscuits (these actually sound quite nice). The photos are laughably 90's, omg the table settings are hilarious!

"Scarpetta's Winter Table" is much shorter and written like a mini novel with recipes in the text. So for example, Kay argues with her mother and makes Scarpetta's Bad Mood Pasta Primavera. At Xmas there's Marino's Cause of Death Eggnog. It's pretty bad.

Nicole Kidman......please retire! It's so cringey watching you and feeling sorry for you.

I've read Patricia Cornwell since I was a teen and loved following Scarpetta. Watched the first episode and was muh about it, got halfway the second and it went off. It was horrendous.

so disappointing.

Silent witness used to be as bad without the dead bodies.
Finished it last night it did get a bit better. Was also initially put off by the aggressive arguments and there was no need for the childhood flashbacks for any of them.

It is awful, I gave up.

Cornwell is supposed to be a bit of an oddball. I noticed she made a cameo appearance. It was disconcerting seeing her and NK's big rubbery heads!

I enjoyed the hooks back in the day but dont remember a lot about them. But this... putting aside any similarity or lack thereof...its just got so many holes in it. From the fact they think 1998 was about 1960 ito, well, everything. To a complete lack of actually providing information. From the original murderer to this one. And the ridiculous cliff hanger?! Ffs.

I stumbled upon this the other day and having read some of the books years ago, thought I’d give it a go. I absolutely couldn’t believe how shockingly awful it was!

Ive actually spent more time thinking about this than is healthy. What I can't work out is considering the big names on this project and, one assumes, a production budget in the stratosphere. How on earth did they manage to mess it up?

Putting aside casting issues - there are ALWAYS people who agree/disagree with casting - the actual STORY is unbelievably weak. You see that sometimes in more budget shows, but there's just no excuse here.

Spoiler alert ....

..... So pure co-incidence that the two women in the current timeline have fake skin?
...... why did was their an attempt to cover up the first woman's murder?
..... Total coincidence that Peterson MET the spy woman and went home with her shortly before she was murdered? I mean, sure, that's TOTALLY believable.
.... Did we ever find out WHY those woman called 911 in the earlier timeline? At least one, I thought, had called 911 becuase the guy who would then murder her was there except..... apparently it was the 911 call that made him find her?
.... again, TOTAL coincidence that the journalist got raped and then stalked by the sleazy attorney who did it and then her sister ALSO got murdered!? (or was the sister calling 911 because of the stalking!?)
..... the dodgy police officer who did the subsequent killings had weird different strategies but a calling card?
.... scarpetter beat the shit out of him and bashed his head into a total pulp?

Honestly, it was so bad I actually find it offensive.

I bought this book for my daughter who was a fan of the early Scarpetta books. She brought it with her to a Patricia Cornell book signing even though she knew perfectly well Cornwell had nothing to do with it. She gamely signed the book anyway but apparently her expression was very "we are not amused!" My daughter had the new book too to be signed so I suppose she felt it would be churlish to refuse. We were amused to see Cornwell in a cameo playing the judge in the first episode who swears Scarpetta in. I didn't like this adaptation at all for many reasons but my daughter was more forgiving.

Know this is a bit of a hate thread but I quite liked it! Never read the books or seen Nicole Kidman in a tv show so it was a novelty and very easy to watch if you’re after lowbrow and no effort. Impressive cheek twitch acting from Simon Baker in the final episode.

It seemed totally unnecessary to turn Benton Wesley into a psychopath which he isn't in the books. Simon Baker was so handsome when he was in The Mentalist. Unlike many men, getting older doesn't seem to suit him. Good actor, though, and I'd prefer his "cheek twitch acting" to Nicole Kidman's impassive, immobile features any day

I’ve pushed through three episodes in total denial that such an A-list cast could be associated with such a mish-mash dump of drivel.

The constant over-reliance on sexualized, lingering shots of corpses is what really bothers me - it’s lazy, indulgent seeming to only serve as a 'clever' distraction from Nicole Kidman's surprisingly flat performance.

I mean that shower scene was a total mood-killer for any suspense built up in earlier scenes (cringe). Glad to see others found it just as 'off' as I did.

At one stage I could not speak highly enough of Apple, but have become disenchanted with it and only could get to episode 3 of some new seasons of shows I had previously really enjoyed. So I have cancelled it for a while.

I must admit, though, I would walk over hot coals for the new series of "Slow Horses" later this year.

I loved these books too,stopped awhile ago after giving up halfway through on a couple.
I remember thinking benton was black too(he isnt?) And started to become annoyed by lucy.
Was looking forward to this but think I will only watch if absolutely nothing else(and ive a list longer than my arm of shows still to watch)

This is so disappointing. I can’t stand JLC in this at all 😬 Too OTT and so screechy. Aren’t I just wacky me 🙄And why is an AI bot getting so much airtime too?

I read the books back in the day, when they were hot off the press. I have to say I don’t remember much. My least favourite character was Lucy the niece, yawn.

As for Marino, I always pictured Dennis Franz from NYPD. He’s obviously too old now but he would have been perfect.

I guess the series haven’t aged that well either. I can’t imagine the books being in demand with a new
generation of readers? As all the forensic detail would be woefully out of date.

These

I love the books, read them all, some twice and this series is absolutely awful
Awful acting, terrible dialogue, charcters all wrong.
I wanted to like it and really tried to watch it but just couldn't

Thanks for the heads up, will give this one a miss.

I’m another person who loved the first 5 or 6 books, and then gave up when the storylines got more and more unrealistic - Benton being killed off and then coming back from the dead.

I used to like the conflict between her and Marino, and I also thought the Benton character was dark skinned - I’m pretty sure that’s how she describes him in the book.

I hate when they butcher good stories like this.

No thank you ⛔️

I used to enjoy the earlier books, was astonished at the casting of NK. Couldn’t get further from Scarpetta. I mean wtf???

I used to like NK but everything she does now is a soft-focus, well dressed vanity project and it’s unbearable.

Had Forgotten this was being made. Have been hoping they were going to do a series since I was a teen.

You lot are not filling me with hope about this one.