Bosch

On Friday night I finished watching the last couple of episodes of the original Amazon TV program Bosch. It is a police drama about a maverick cop, Harry Bosch, who pretty much stays sideways with the police department bureaucracy and the press. Not exactly a new premise. This particular procedural concentrates its attention on a couple of cases that are threaded through all ten episodes. None of that instant gratification in 52 minutes like from most network shows where even the toughest cases are solved by the end of the hour. The series and characters are based on three novels by Michael Connelly. There are no big name stars in the series although I'm sure you will recognize some of the actors. Titus Welliver plays Bosch. 

One case is a 25 year old child abuse and murder. The other is a serial killer who takes a personal interest in Bosch. Several side stories are also in play. There are the usual severe character flaws, fractured relationships, illicit romances, political wheeling and dealing, corruption, personal grudges and a few more. I won't give away the ending.

In other words there is nothing extraordinary about the premise or plot. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I liked the characters, I liked the actors, I was interested in the twists and turns of the various story lines. 

One warning is that I found the first couple of episodes a little slow. I almost gave up but thanks to our crappy winter weather I hung in there. Also there is no feel good ending. Stick it out and I think you will be rewarded.

This first season ended with resolution of one of the major plot lines and with Harry being suspended. There were plenty of issues left unresolved, more than enough for a second season. So far I haven't seen any word on that, hopefully it will be renewed. I would give this series a solid B+.

Like Netflix, Amazon releases all episodes of their original series at once. It makes it easy to watch on your schedule, not that of some network programming executive. The down side is that if you get involved it is way too easy to binge watch four or five episodes in one sitting. The next episode even starts automatically unless you change the default settings. 

If you are an Amazon Prime member, Bosch is included for free in their streaming service. 

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