As engaging and brilliant as it is cringe and clichéd. And that’s just the first five minutes.

Cross on Amazon Prime Video is almost unwatchable at times, but also kind of unmissable, too.

The heavily trailed series tries admirably to cover social commentary and institutional racism in America, but never quite lands its punches.

It’s especially poignant given our protagonist is black and something of a literary legend of James Patterson’s.

So we all wanted it to be good. Reacher good. But alas, it’s just not.

For me, it inadvertently comes off as slightly misogynistic as most of the female characters are written as either incompetent or powerless. Shame.

Big genuine shout needs to go out to Cross actor, Aldis Hodge who is good, very good.

He follows in the footsteps of the cinematic legend, Morgan Freeman, and the not-a-cinematic legend, that is Tyler Perry.

Right, so Cross is better than Perry, but not as good as Freeman.

The highlight for me is Isaiah Mustafa, who plays Cross’ partner and is superb. If ever a show needed a spin-off, I’d be all over that.

The action takes place to a backdrop of a creepy Lecter-esque psycho who is almost too good, too slick and one dimensional. Mwah ha ha type villain ahoy.

Audiences want a gritty real edge to their stories these days – or at least something shocking in their crime dramas.

This baddie and many of the characters are cliched, stereotypical and at times lazy, rather than deeply layered characters that are rich in content and nuance.

Compared to Bosch, this is paper thin

The first five to six minutes are so obvious you could literally predict with 99 per cent accuracy what would happen. And it does.

The racist bad guy in this instance was from the Joey school of acting and not the disturbing could-be-anyone-how-do-you-fight-this-kind-of-evil type character.

That said, it gets better. It draws you in and does enough right to make you hit that ‘watch next episode’, but not without trepidation – especially for the time poor people.

Verdict:
Story: 6.5/10
Characters: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Should you watch it?: Yes, but only just.
AMAZON PRIME VIDEO

*all images and video credit AMAZON