Bosch

Amazon Prime is through its third “season” of Bosch, their series based on Michael Connelly’s wildly successful books about LAPD homicide detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. It’s a good show—sometimes an outstanding show—but it doesn’t quite push me over the edge of enthusiasm the way Amazon’s Goliath did earlier this year. There are definable reasons for this.

First the good stuff. The producers had the good sense to stick as much within the universe defined by Connelly’s books as possible, unlike what Netflix did with the Longmire series, which has shown wear the last couple of years. No one comes up with better stories than Michael Connelly, and his depictions of police procedure and cops’ lives are unsurpassed.

The casting and acting also express Connelly’s books well. I’ve been in the tank for Titus

Welliver even since he made his first appearance in Deadwood, no matter how badly he needed a haircut. He absorbs the role of Harry so much that when I read Connelly now I think of Welliver in my mind. It’s also nice to see Wire alumni Jamie Hector and Lance Reddick again, though Reddick plays essentially the same role as he did in The Wire, with a little more connivance. (It would be nice to see him walking around without that rebar up his ass, though.) The dynamic between Harry and his daughter (Madison Lintz) always works, and the relationship he has with his ex-wife (Sarah Clarke) is authentically awkward, as opposed to inexpertly done. The overall production values are excellent.

My lack of total enthusiasm comes, in part, from the strengths of the show: how close it relies on Connelly’s books. No one tells better stories than Michael Connelly, but he doesn’t tell them with much flair. Sometimes the books read as if he’s still too closely wedded to the ethos of his journalistic roots. The dialog rarely sings. It’s a talented corps of actors; give them things to say that take advantage of their gifts.

The other problem is Harry himself: he’s an asshole. If not for his obvious affection and concern for his daughter, he’d be an unlikeable asshole. He’s sullen, rude, and always Right, and fuck you if you disagree. That’s okay once in a while as a way to show a character with backbone, but Harry’s like that all the time. As someone pointed out to me (I wish I remember who, but I forget. Sorry.) Harry’s an asshole in the books, too, but the internal monologs help us to understand his thought processes better, so we can at least rationalize some of his more holey conduct. A visual medium loses that, so it might be of value to back off it a little.

Is Bosch a good show? Absolutely. Will I watch Season 4? No doubt. Does it reach the elite level of The Wire, The Sopranos, or Deadwood? Nope. I’d place it about even with Ray Donovan, though better in some ways and not as good in others. A good show well worth one’s time, but not to be included in the conversation when the classics are under discussion.

Bosch

(This review is rated PMS for Possible Minor Spoilers.)

The Beloved Spouse and I watched the Amazon series Bosch over the past week, with mixed emotions and responses. Not mixed between us. We agree on pretty much everything. We have mixed feelings about the show.

First, full disclosure: I am not a huge fan of Michael Connelly’s writing. I like his books, and I like him personally. (Never met him, but everything I’ve seen and heard of him implies he’s a mensch.) No one tells better stories, or weaves two unrelated stories together better than he. His characters are solid, and Harry Bosch has become damn near an archetype, and deservedly so. It’s the writing itself that doesn’t move me, and that’s on me. My tastes run toward dialog in the style of Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins, and narration that’s terse yet stylish. (Think Ed McBain or James Ellroy, for two disparate examples.) Connelly strikes me as too down the middle, too rarely writing something I want to turn to The Beloved Spouse and say, “Listen to this.”

We both wanted to like Bosch. We’ve loved Titus Welliver since his mother fucked that monkey on Deadwood. The other casting is, by and large, excellent. The production values are first rate. The problem is, the TV show seems to overplay Connelly’s weaknesses and underplay his strengths. There are too many subplots that don’t go anywhere. Why bother telling us Harry’s boss is having a lesbian affair with another detective who works for her? There’s a workable subplot there, but they didn’t do anything with it.

The political aspects also seemed more like decals than infrastructure. Connelly’s books do not shyThe Wire did politics very well in a cop context. We ought to do that, too.” There are multiple problems with this, not the least of which are 1.) The Wire wasn’t really a cop show, and b.) The Wire invested the time and effort to do it very well. (Comparisons to The Wire may not be fair, but they can’t be helped when the most political cop is not only the Deputy Chief for Operations, but he’s played by Lance Reddick, whose character who was both made and unmade by politics in The Wire.)

away from the political aspects of police work, but the whole Deputy Ops vs. the DA running for mayor thing came off too much like, “

The plots weren’t up to Connelly’s usual standards, either. The serial killer thread served to hit all the usual serial killer angles, including—but not limited to—the young woman in distress and lots of seemingly disjointed plot development that could be rationalized as, “Well, he’s a serial killer. He’s nuts.” (Jason Gedrick was superb as said serial killer, which made this element much more watchable.)

The other main story, about solving a twenty-year-old murder, was better, but still had weaknesses. Everyone knew the reformed child molester was going to be innocent, and that he would kill himself. Bosch also had a bad case of House syndrome, where Harry had to be sure, yet wrong, half a dozen times before they actually got the right guy.

It may seem unfair to crush Bosch for some plotting issues when I just gave Justified a pass,  but Justified made up for its plotting weaknesses in so many other ways. It was a fun show to watch, engrossing on many levels. Bosch lacked that, so it had nothing to fall back on when the plot came up short.

The Bosch character is a prime example. In the books he’s driven and always in trouble, but he’s presented as someone who’s sincerely trying to the right thing as he sees it, confounded by bureaucracy or ineptitude. The bureaucracy and ineptitude are there in the TV show, too, but Harry is less the gallant warrior beset on all sides than an asshole. He’s a terrible father, and his motions toward concern don’t play when viewed against his actions. (Which are also too predictable. Everyone knows when he tells his daughter he’ll be back for Christmas, he won’t be, and that he’ll ditch her at some point when she comes to LA.) Even when other cops have the cold case killer under control, Harry has to be there for the finale. Yes, the medium demands that one, but more effort should have been made to set it up.

There are a lot of things to like about Bosch. Harry comes off as an asshole because of how he’s written, but through any failure in Welliver’s performance. The show just needs to pick its spots better, and play more to Connelly’s strengths. Amazon has already committed to a second season, so there’s hope.