Bosch (Season 1)
CREATED BY: Michael Connelly, Eric Overmyer, GENRE: Crime, Mystery, Drama, STARRING: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Lance Reddick, RUN TIME: 50 Mins (approx.), RELEASE: 2015
Based on Michael Connelly's best-selling novels, Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), an LAPD homicide detective, stands trial for the fatal shooting of a serial murder suspect. A cold case involving the remains of a missing boy forces Bosch to confront his past. As daring recruit Julia Brasher (Annie Wersching) catches his eye, and departmental politics heat up, Bosch will pursue justice at all costs. ~ Amazon.
Bosch is based on three of Michael Connelly's novels: Echo Park, City of Bones and The Concrete Blonde. Having never read or even heard of these novels, my interest in this series was based purely on it's premise, the trailer and the fact that it stars the always fantastic Titus Welliver as the titular character.
The first thing worth mentioning is that Bosch is a very subdued, slow burning character-driven show. So if you are looking for a high-octane procedural drama then you should be aware that this is not what you are going to be getting. This first season comprises ten episodes, and although it is a good series it took me a good three episodes to really get into it. The overall story arc is pretty good, but it's slightly flawed by the fact that parts of it lack any great appeal of originality, whist others aspects failed to hold my full and unwavering interest. I won't ruin it for anyone by dropping in any spoilers, but there are certainly particular similarities with The Following (2013-Present) and David Fincher's 1995 thriller Seven (you'll probably get the references when you watch it), but it was still scripted pretty nicely and worked well nevertheless.
I was really disappointed that the writers felt the need to throw in a love interest for Bosch so quickly in the guise of Julia Brasher (played by Annie Wersching), a rookie cop who is (flirtatiously) about as far from backwards in coming forwards as you could possibly be. Although Annie did a fine job in portraying her, the character herself was thoroughly unlikeable right from the get-go. There was just no substance to her whatsoever or the slightest hint of inspiring character development. The scenes between the two achieved nothing more than to irritate me to the point that I skipped forward past nearly every scene that they were in together. I just think that would have worked so much better if they had built it up slowly and not made it so in-your-face and dull. This kind of sexual back and forth annoys me at the best of times, but even more so when the writers don't even seem to make the effort to make it the slightest bit interesting.
The idea of it being set in Hollywood seemed like such a fresh and exciting premise, but it really didn't feel that different to any other moody crime show that I have seen. The single factor that gave it a slightly dreamy feel was Bosch's love of early jazz, that (if I closed my eyes) kind of set my mind-frame to that of a classic Micky Spillane detective novel, which to be honest is what I was hoping for with a modern-day twist. Sadly though, this was not the case.
That being said, despite its flaws I really did end up really enjoying Bosch, and I genuinely think this is going to be one of those series that goes from strength to strength. It has strong performances from all the cast and I couldn't pick a bad one between them. The relationship between Bosch and his partner Jerry is really well written and portrayed brilliantly by both Welliver (who never fails) and Hector. I thought that Amy Aquino is a great casting decision as the tough and outspoken Lieutenant Billets, whilst Mark Derwin was stellar as Harvey Pounds, the hateful Captain that longs to see the back of Bosch. He really is a loathsome character and Derwin gives a fine performance.
Although there is most certainly room for improvement, Bosch is a great addition to the serial crime genre. I just think it needs to find its feet and discover its own identity that will separate it from all the others that are out there, but I'm just going to put this down to initial teething problems that I hope will start to be worked out in the following season.