Prime Video’s Scarpetta Is “Bones Meets Big Little Lies”

In the crowded streaming landscape, platforms need to find a way to stand out, and Prime Video does this with its spectacular lineup of original crime thriller series. From the thriving, long-running Bosch franchise to Reacher to Cross, if it’s an excellent crime adaptation, chances are, it’s on Prime Video.

All of these aforementioned shows bring something gripping and unique to their viewers, but there’s no denying that the crime genre is overwhelmingly male-dominated. That’s what makes Prime Video’s Scarpetta stand out from the rest. Executive produced by and starring Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis, and based on the Patricia Cornwell book series, the show centers on the brilliant and stylish forensic pathologist, Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

With its female protagonist and focus on forensic investigation, Scarpetta is one of the best crime shows like Bones in recent memory. As the Chief Medical Examiner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, most of Dr. Scarpetta’s investigative work takes place in the lab, setting Scarpetta apart from the myriad crime series predominantly taking place on crime scenes.

Scarpetta is also different from other shows in the genre in that it tells a dual timeline story, with season 1 revolving around Kay’s first case as Chief Medical Examiner coming back to haunt her nearly 30 years later when she resumes the position after years spent living in Boston. Both timelines perfectly play off each other, ratcheting up the tension and delivering stellar performances from Scarpetta‘s young cast that rival their older, more famous counterparts.

In the present timeline, Kidman and Curtis are joined by the Emmy-winning Bobby Cannavale and Oscar-winning Ariana DeBose, giving Scarpetta one of the starriest casts of any Prime Video series, crime thriller or otherwise. This is reminiscent of the A-list cast of Big Little Lies, the HBO thriller series that made Kidman a bona fide TV star. But a famous ensemble led by Nicole Kidman is far from the only thing Scarpetta and Big Little Lies have in common.

Scarpetta Is The Perfect Blend Of Bones & Big Little Lies

Too many crime shows rely on car chases and gun violence to liven up the plot, but Scarpetta — though very graphic and violent — delivers its thrillers via a whipsmart protagonist who is phenomenal at her job. This puts the Prime Video series perfectly in league with Bones, a 2000s procedural that left a void in the genre when it ended in 2017.

Though Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, not a pathologist like Kay Scarpetta, she is at the top of the game and loves her work, traits integral in solving the cases she’s involved in. As a result of their fierce dedication to their jobs, both characters face blatant sexism for coming across as cold and emotionally detached. However, it’s their brilliance and commitment to their work that make both Bones and Scarpetta so fascinating to watch.

Scarpetta and Bones are also similar in that both feature a professional partnership between their protagonists and a law enforcement officer — Bones has FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, and Scarpetta has Detective Pete Marino (a former detective in the present timeline). While Bones and Booth share a “will they, won’t they” dynamic from the beginning, and eventually get married, things are a lot more complicated with Scarpetta and Marino.

This is because Marino is the husband of Kay’s older sister, Dorothy, while Kay herself is married to FBI profiler Benton Wesley. However, there’s a palpable sexual tension to Kay and Marino’s relationship, and it’s obvious to seemingly everyone but Kay that Marino is in love with her.

These messy personal dynamics put Scarpetta on par with Big Little Lies, a series just as interested in the deep, dark domestic secrets of its characters as it is its central murder mystery. Though Scarpetta’s marriage isn’t affected by abuse as that of Kidman’s Big Little Lies character, Kay and Benton have plenty of problems, ranging from Dorothy and Marino’s suffocating presence in their home to Benton keeping professional secrets from Kay to his own hidden demons.

From the outside, the main characters of both Scarpetta and Big Little Lies have idyllic, affluent lives that are quickly revealed to be anything but. Scarpetta certainly leans more into camp than Big Little Lies, and audience mileage may vary in this regard. However, those who enjoy intentionally melodramatic storylines from top-tier actors will have a new favorite show in Scarpetta.

Scarpetta Has The Potential To Be The Rare Long-Running Streaming Crime Thriller

Falling in love with a crime thriller series on streaming is often bittersweet because, on the one hand, you get a great new show. However, on the other, it’s unlikely to run for very long, with 12-season shows like Bones becoming relics of a bygone TV era.

However, this is yet another way Scarpetta stands out from its crime show contemporaries. With so many series canceled after just one season, it’s reassuring to know that Scarpetta season 2 is guaranteed, with Amazon having ordered two seasons of the show before it premiered.

Scarpetta has the potential to run even longer than that thanks to its literary source material. Thus far, Patricia Cornwell’s book series consists of 29 books and is still ongoing with the most recent novel, Sharp Force, published in 2025.

With its dual timeline, Scarpetta season 1 adapts the novels Postmortem and Autopsy, while season 2 is set to adapt Cruel and Unusual and The Body Farm. If future installments follow this formula, that’s at least 14 seasons, making Scarpetta the rare crime thriller series that could last forever.

Scarpetta Is A Hit Prime Video Series Despite Divisive Reviews

Even with a stacked cast and acclaimed literary source material, Scarpetta was far from a hit with critics, earning a 58% “Rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes. Pundits felt the series bit off more than it could chew with the dual timeline — the novels tell a single-timeline, linear story — and dinged Scarpetta for being “a little messy and occasionally all over the place.”

This is a reasonably fair criticism, and Scarpetta season 1 gets particularly muddled in the middle. (Minor spoiler alert: 3D-printed human organs are involved). However, the show regains its footing well before the wild and edge-of-your-seat-thrilling Scarpetta season finale.

Interestingly, general Rotten Tomatoes audiences are even harder on Scarpetta, and season 1 has a current Popcornmeter of just 44%. However, the naysayers don’t seem to reflect the overall opinions of Scarpetta as a whole, as it currently sits at #3 on Prime Video’s worldwide top 10 list of most-watched shows (via FlixPatrol).

This is impressive, given that Scarpetta premiered over a month ago, releasing all of its inaugural season at once. Like the Prime Video crime series that came before, Scarpetta is clearly resonating with subscribers, and luckily, it has the potential to be the platform’s next flagship show.

Release Date

March 11, 2026

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Elizabeth Sarnoff

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