Liz Sarnoff Reveals Inside Secrets of Prime Video’s New Crime Thriller “Scarpetta”: Interview & Behind‑the‑Scenes Insights

Kay Scarpetta is a fictional character inspired by former Virginia Chief Medical Examiner Marcella Farinelli. She is also the protagonist in a series of 28 popular crime novels written by Patricia Cornwell. The original series consists of the first 15 titles published from 1990 ‑ 2009. Subsequent releases to 2025 include re‑issues, co‑authored works, and format‑specific editions.

Now, Scarpetta is a television series created by Nine-time Emmy-nominated writer Liz Sarnoff (NYPD Blue, Lost, Barry). Nicole Kidman plays the lead role. Set against the backdrop of modern forensic investigation, the series delves beyond the crime scene to explore the psychological complexities of both perpetrators and investigators, creating a rich, multi-layered thriller that examines the toll of pursuing justice and truth. Liz spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about adapting the novels for the small screen.

What aspects of the novels did you most want to see in the TV series.

The books were unique at the time because they came out at when a lot of things in the books did not exist before. We looked at it as an opportunity to really showcase women in careers that had to do with crime solving as far as reporters, assistants and medical examiners. This was uncommon at the time.

I liked watching Scarpetta in both time periods, 1998 and present, She navigates those worlds and sees how much has changed or not changed, or how much has gotten better and how much has gotten worse. It was permission to do a show like this, a crime solving show from a very female point of view.

Elizabeth Sarnoff (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/ Getty Images for Prime Video)

Who is Kay Scarpetta as a main character?

The prime thing that we talk about a lot on the show was that the abuse of power, the sin by which Kay cannot abide. She considers herself to be a voice for the powerless – the dead, the murdered, the tortured.

Within the characters, I felt it was really important to stay true to their core issues and beliefs and the way they navigated the world. That kept us on the straight and narrow. Patricia Cornwell participated in the development process, so it was very important that we stay with the characters. She had five things that were the bane of each of the lead characters.

We took that seriously and we really stuck with it. I also like it because it gives you a really great window for the characters to operate. Once you go outside that, you’re telling the wrong story.

How did you build Scarpetta as a TV procedural?

Professional life on one track and personal life on the other track.

Kay has this strange family. And we show that her father, when she was about 13, was murdered in front of her. That left her with her mom and her sister Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis). We’re going to get into the mom a lot more in Season 2 which has already been greenlit. These women are three very distinct individuals.

I think for Scarpetta, the birth of Lucy (Ariana DeBose), which is her sister’s daughter, was a life changer for her because she had sort of eschewed, motherhood, marriage in the pursuit of her career. And then she was presented with Lucy, that she felt was not really being properly cared for by her sister, who was irresponsible, slightly crazy and very out there. It added this domesticity to Kay’s life.

When we see her in her first year being the Chief Medical Examiner, she actually has the kid staying with her. And it’s extremely inconvenient. But at the same time, she really loves this child.

It’s the closest thing she’s ever going to come to a child. But it has made her the sort of dad and Dorothy, the mom to Lucy. Sometimes I think they switch back and forth in their roles. So, it’s created a hotbed of controversy for the sisters who didn’t get along to begin with mostly because of the way I felt they had processed the death of their father.

Kay was present and literally over the body and Dorothy watched the event through a window. This was how they went forward in their lives. So it’s very complicated.

I wanted to have a timeline that was more adaptable to the family story, and one that stuck more with the procedural story in the past. And even though we see the personal aspects of her life in the past, it’s definitely more procedural storytelling than we do in the present.

Kay Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman), Dorothy Farinelli (Jamie Lee Curtis) Photo courtesy of Prime Video

How did you navigate the two timelines in the writers’ room?

There’s no actual connection of time, but there’s a spiritual connection of time, where there’s a realization where what happened 28 years ago and what’s happening now, actually explode into something wonderful. I think it was important that they connected.

We laid the track for that pretty early in the pilot. When we got in the room, it was really a question of the tonal balance of the show.

I had just come from doing Barry which really stretched tone and timeline as far as it would go. Our conversations were always how dark can this be and how stupid. I felt like it really prepped me for Scarpetta because I wasn’t sure at first whether it is going to be an even split. Are we going to be more in the present than the past? But once we started writing the show, it was instinctually clear that they were even.

As long as the main characters are always speaking to each other in some way, we figured out the structure. Sometimes when you go between two stories, you realize you either need more time to get momentum on whatever story you’re trying to tell in that time, or sometimes you need less.

If we can get the timelines to speak to each other, then it almost feels like we’re doing one time period. That became the goal more and more as we went on. We were able to tell stories in the present through the past and vice versa.

Lucy Farinelli-Watson (Ariana DeBose) Photo by Connie Chornuk / Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC

What additional themes do you explore in Scarpetta?

I think Kay’s struggle through life has been this wanting to have control over death because she watched it take from her the person she loved the most in the world.

When the person you most love in your family is taken from you, it creates a schism where you have to decide how to move on from there. Kay’s moving on was very young and involved inordinate amounts of education. She went to law school, she went to medical school before she could decide what she really wanted to do.

I think being a doctor was not really what she wanted. Her superhero gifts lie in the crime solving of all this. It isn’t until she meets Pete Marino (Bobby Cannavale) in 1998 that she finds her team.

I think law appealed to her because she was trying to protect the voiceless. Once she got into it, it didn’t work for her. It didn’t satisfy her drive or the things she wanted to do in the world. She really found her place as a medical examiner.

Kay loves to go to body farms where they study the decomposition of bodies. Although this doesn’t appeal to me, I understand finding your thing and using it for good. I think that’s mostly what she gets in the medical examiner position.

What nuance did the actors add to the characters?

There’s an intense sensitivity to Nicole Kidman who plays Kay, which you wouldn’t necessarily apply to Scarpetta at first. But from the moment I met her and sat down with her, her eyes are very open, sensitive and feeling.

And we really explored that, especially David Gordon Green who directed and executive produced on the show.

It’s an amazing quality for Scarpetta that she is not phoning anything in. She is really present. That was something  that really impressed me when I first met her. That made me want to explore it more within her character.

by Staff Writer

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