Here's Why You Should Watch The OTT Show Scarpetta

The first time the genius forensic examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta was introduced to the world was in the fictional novel, Postmortem in 1990 by author Patricia Cornwell. Since then, the meticulous and fiercely-driven chief medical examiner and attorney has become one of crime fiction's most enduring characters.

With more than 120 million copies sold and over 29 novels published as part of the series, the character has made the leap from pages to the screen with Nicole Kidman stepping into the role. But Kidman is hardly the reason why you want to keep watching the show. There's so much to unwrap from the 8-part thriller that recently dropped this month on Amazon Prime Videos.

Scarpetta, for any geeky crime thriller nerds means 'little shoe' in Italian and is often used in the phrase fare la scarpetta to mean mop up the remaining sauce on the plate with a piece of bread. Dr. Kay does the same with human remains to trace what happened before their deaths.

Written for the screen by Liz Sarnoff and directed by David Gordon Green, Kidman follows a list of actors who were considered for previous attempts at adapting the novels including Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie. Nevertheless, Kidman proves yet again why she is the hardest-working A-lister in TV right now.

Scarpetta follows the life of its protagonist Dr. Kay Scarpetta through her investigations, often going back and forth in two (sometimes three) timelines slowly unravelling the many truths that in the past seemed to be the perfect crimes. In the present, the icy professional who is workaholic perfectionist is called back to the role as Chief Medical Examiner in the state of Virginia to solve the mysterious death of a woman near a lake in a jogging park. Turns out, her murder resembles to the ones Dr. Scarpetta solved years ago when she first took on the job some 20 years ago(younger version played by Rosy McEwan). Trying to solve the current case, Kidman's Scarpetta has to go back to the old murders opening a pandora's box.

Instead of a typical whodunnit crime thriller, the series focusses on psychological cat-and-mouse style investigation with detailed forensic procedurals and also involve AI video companion as a character. Adding elements of American giallo to the way the series unfolds, like Hannibal and Prodigal Son, the adaptation features a notable abundance of naked and bloody female corpses and delves into the tense, Italian-American family dynamics of the characters that complicate their professional and personal realties.

Adding a little bit of family drama through the brilliant cast that includes Jamie Lee Curtis ( as Dorothy Scarpetta), Simon Baker as Dr.Kay's husband, Benton Wesley- an FBI agent, Bobby Cannavale and Ariana DeBose who plays the niece of the protagonist, while the alternate cast — including Rosy McEwen as the young Scarpetta and Jacob Lumet Cannavale, Bobby’s son, as the young Marino play them in 1998. They cast is so brilliant, especially Rosy McEwen's mannerism that you forget its not Kidman who is playing the younger version, too.

What makes the show worth watching along with an intriguing narrative and visual flow is how it show dips its toes in horror/thriller elements at times to evoke the terror around the gruesome murder, then an soap opera where each character revealing their defining traumas through flashbacks.

The OTT show Scarpetta is an eight-part crime thriller series currently playing on Amazon Prime Videos.