Crime
Cross
Though it’s compelling, the content concerns in Prime Video’s ‘Cross’ might be enough to cross it off your watch list.
Jack Dawkins is in a tough spot.
Once upon a time, he led a street gang in London, headed by master thief (and Jack’s father figure) Fagin. Jack earned some notoriety as a crook and soon became known as “The Artful Dodger.”
But then Jack took a young Oliver Twist under his wing, hoping to turn the orphan into a pickpocket. Instead, Oliver got Jack caught with a stolen silver snuffbox. And the last we saw of ol’ Dodge in Charles Dickens’ classic novel Oliver Twist, he’d been arrested and was getting sent to a penal colony.
But while Dickens’ tale ended there, Jack’s didn’t.
Jack managed to escape prison with the help of the very man who sent him there, Captain Grimm. Grimm was impressed by Jack’s quick fingers and set the boy up to become a surgeon in the navy.
Now, 15 years later, Jack’s serving as a doctor in one of Australia’s penal colonies (oh, the irony). He’s an officer, a gentleman and a surgeon.
But perhaps not for long.
Jack’s whole life turns upside down when Fagin—the very man who was willing to let Jack rot in prison in order to save his own skin, the man who taught Jack the skills that landed him there in the first place—shows up and ropes Jack back into a life of thievery.
Unfortunately, they’re spotted in their first take by the governor’s ambitious daughter, Lady Belle. And she blackmails Jack into hiring her as the first female surgeon at the hospital in return for not tattling.
Jack’s comfortable life quickly unravels. He falls in love with Belle, secretly (and illegally) helps her practice medicine and eventually winds up back in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
Jack’s quick hands were useful on the streets of London. But they’ll have to work faster than ever to keep the Dodge away from the gallows.
The Artful Dodger, streaming on Hulu, is a fun continuation of Jack Dawkins’ tale. However, the Dodge isn’t 13 anymore: He’s an adult. And being an adult comes with more grown-up problems.
First, there’s some language. Whereas the original novel included a few milder profanities, this TV-14 show has multiple uses of the s-word and some crude British terms, such as “bloody” and “sod off.” (And God’s name is abused several times, as well.)
Then there’s the carnage. Compared to modern operating rooms, the tools and methods used on patients in Jack’s day are practically barbaric. Legs are amputated, blood spills off the table onto the floor, and at one point, we see a cat eating a dismembered finger.
What’s worse is that the doctors are often too busy competing with each other to deliver the needed care. Operating rooms become a spectacle. A patient dies when Jack’s drunken superior takes over a surgery and cuts the wrong artery in his addled state. (He then has the gall to blame Jack for distracting him.) And when the doctors are presented with better methods of surgery and diagnosis, most are too scared of failure to consider the treatments.
Add on to that some sensuality. We don’t see anything too scandalous onscreen. But Jack asks a woman to remove her dress so he can examine her properly, and the scene is paired with music that suggests the pair are attracted to one another. (She wears a thin undergarment that covers her entirely. And though Jack is completely professional, he must reach under the garment to effectively use a stethoscope.) In another scene, a married woman asks Jack to examine her, using her hands to move his own up her thigh.
And of course, we can’t forget all the larceny. Theft is rewarded with a noose if you’re caught. But really, it wouldn’t be a story about the Artful Dodger without picking a pocket or two.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Just before Jack is sent to the gallows for a crime he didn’t commit, Fagin breaks him out of prison. Unfortunately, Jack’s escape is just as much a hangable offense as the crime of which he was wrongly accused.
A man is forced to the gallows and hung. (Onlookers remove their hats in respect after he passes). We see a man’s mangled leg after he’s attack by a shark. (More shots show the bloody wound as Jack and Belle treat him.) Jack gets roughed up and punched by some guards. We learn a man killed and cooked four other men. Someone says that a woman shot a man. Jack threatens Fagin at knifepoint. A man who has committed murder volunteers to die in another man’s place because he believes he’ll have a worse fate once the justice system catches him.
Men fight in a street. People get pushed aside and knocked over during a chase. Jack is purposely tripped by a man with a cane. We hear some threats exchanged. Belle slaps Jack across the face. Jack donates his own blood for a transfusion and nearly passes out when tries to give extra blood to save a patient’s life (though it does work).
Jack is warned that as part of his parole, he’ll no longer be allowed to have contact with Belle, with whom he’s fallen in love. Jack is willing to take the risk and see her anyway, but Belle isn’t. She doesn’t want him to die because of her. The couple kisses a few times throughout the episode before saying goodbye. They also hold hands.
A grittier part of town is dubbed “Devil’s Elbow.” We hear a man is pretending to work for a church so he can steal from it. A nurse wearing a cross necklace holds the pendant and seems to say a prayer for a patient. Seeing this gives Jack the idea to meet Belle in secret in the local church’s confessional booth.
Two surgeons discuss their former superior: Their former boss, an alcoholic man, is sober now, but he still can’t be trusted to perform surgeries. He also ran the hospital’s finances into the ground. Characters drink at pubs and dinners. We see Jack take a few swigs from a flask.
People lie. Elitist attitudes are at play throughout the episode. Doctors argue about the best ways to treat dying patients. Belle’s mother runs the penal colony as if she, instead of her husband, was governor. She bullies him, Belle and others in order to get what she wants. Many people have been fooled into thinking that Fagin is a law-abiding citizen, and he uses their ignorance to rob them blind. Fagin saves Jack from the noose, but he also finds a way to use the opportunity for a heist. The thief also cheats his subordinates out of their wages.
We hear a single use of the s-word mixed in with uses of “b–tard,” “bloody,” “p-ss” and “sodding.” A man says he has “sweat in the fundament,” which is a nice way of saying rear end. God’s name is misused a handful of times.
Dr. Sneed, Jack’s rival at the hospital, convinces authorities to let Jack out on parole. We learn that Sneed also sent fresh beef and vegetables to Jack in prison. Sneed claims these actions are self-serving, since he needs Jack’s help at the hospital, but Jack isn’t convinced.
The new lead inspector for the colony is an honorable man who follows the law to the letter.
Jack Dawkins, now a respected surgeon, finds his life turned upside down when his old mentor, Fagin, turns up hoping to entice Jack back to a life of crime.
The people living in the penal colony have a macabre sense of entertainment. Crowds gather to watch an escaped convict hang (and children rush to take his boots once he’s dead). Folks swarm to watch bloody surgeries. Audiences aren’t spared either, since we see limbs chopped off, shattered bones, blood spurting and every other fleshy bit of gore that comes with archaic forms of operation. (And at one point, we see a cat eating a dismembered finger.)
The violence doesn’t stop there. Jack is punched in the face several times by a thug. (Though the thug does apologize since he’s only fulfilling his duties.) And harsh punishments are doled out for even the mildest of crimes. One woman is sentenced to death for stealing a chicken, but she’s saved from the noose by the governor’s kind wife, who intercepts the death order. Another is rescued by Jack, who sends the woman to work at the local school after she was arrested for stealing baby clothes in London. (The baby tragically died on the passage from England to Australia.) In a flashback, Jack is smacked and kicked by a prison guard for stealing the man’s flask.
An anatomical drawing of a woman’s womb includes her exposed breasts. A woman wears a low-cut gown. Another woman (who is married) uses her hands to move Jack’s hands up her thigh during an examination. Belle removes her dress and we see her in an underdress, which covers her fully but is rather thin. (And during an examination Jack reaches under the garment with a stethoscope.) Because society demands that older siblings marry before younger ones, Belle’s sister begs her to wed soon since she desires “sexual union.” Jack says Fagin looks like a “syphilitic scarecrow.”
Fagin steals small items throughout the show. Jack finally agrees to help him steal a ruby necklace. And when they’re nearly caught, Belle helps them avoid detection before blackmailing Jack into making her a surgeon. (Jack is also blackmailed by Fagin into giving him a better penal assignment.)
People lie, gamble, smoke pipes and drink. Nurses try in vain to prevent a drunken doctor from operating, but he takes over the surgery anyway and kills the patient. (Jack is later blamed for this.) Belle is rude to a suitor. A man is chastised by his wife for critiquing marriage.
A woman blasphemes by saying Christ’s words are precious and then trying to seduce Jack (she wears a cross necklace and we see several crosses in her home). Fagin, attempting to win Jack back, says he felt so badly about Jack’s imprisonment that he prayed to God for death. Jack says that the biggest risk to surgeons is the addiction to feeling like God.
When Jack tells a woman that Fagin was kicked in the head by a mule, she encourages Jack to beat Fagin since it can be “quite nourishing” to the mentally addled. Jack tricks Fagin into sniffing and licking a patient’s sputum. A woman says that fox hunting is barbaric and cruel. We learn a doctor hasn’t properly examined a sick woman because he’s scared of getting the diagnosis wrong.
There are a few uses each of the s-word, “h—,” and the British expletives “bloody” and “sod off.” God’s name is abused about six times, and someone exclaims “Jehovah!”
Jack has great bedside manner. Though he performs for the crowds that gather in the operating room, he speaks to his patients in softer tones, reassuring them that he will save their lives.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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