Watchlist is an irregularly scheduled series of posts featuring reviews and observations on streaming TV series I’m watching.
Well, Harry Bosch has finally wrapped it all up—in a not so neat little bow—with the third and final season of Bosch: Legacy on Prime. I was pretty much disappointed in this one; it was 10 pounds of story in a 5-pound bag and just felt really bloated. And while I know everyone seemed blindsided by the cancellation of the show when it was first announced—including Titus Welliver, who was on a podcast that aired a week after the cancellation was announced saying they were all just waiting for the word to go back to work—this season sure felt like somebody, somewhere knew this was the end. The return of a number of characters from previous seasons, including badguy Preston Borders and his girlfriend Rita Tedesco, disgraced cop Francis Sheehan, and my personal fave, Santiago “Jimmy” Robertson, alongside extended stories about Honey Chandler running for Los Angeles District Attorney, and Maddie Bosch and her cop partner, Reina Vasquez, chasing down a burglary ring, which has personal ties to Vasquez, and Bosch himself trying to track down the killer of a family and going full-tilt military mode to track him into Mexico, with an ambiguous moral outcome. Bosch’s sinking into a moral quagmire sure seemed to be setting something up for a future season, but alas it wasn’t to be.
For me, at least, the season’s highpoint was the introduction of Robbery and Homicide Detective Renee Ballard in the final episode. I have loved all of Michael Connelly’s Ballard books since they began in 2017, and Maggie Q is pitch perfect as this character, as righteous and unwavering as Bosch himself. I couldn’t wait for her own series to begin, and now, less than a week after it debuted, I’ve finished it and …
It’s no Bosch. Don’t get me wrong … it’s good, I really liked it. But it doesn’t YET have that extra thing that made Bosch so good, although there are similarities. I found the relationship between Ballard and her grandmother to be almost as touching as the one between Bosch and his daughter, Maddie. Maggie Q brings such a quiet intensity to Ballard—just like Titus Welliver did to Bosch—and she’s a joy to watch. And there’s another dog (although I miss Coltrane). Ballard’s rag-tag team of volunteers in the Cold Case division she has been demoted to after a run-in with a higher ranking LAPD cop is well-cast, especially John Carroll Lynch as Thomas Laffont, her former R&H partner. And there are a number of guest spots by Bosch alumni, and yes, Harry himself is in it, too, in multiple episodes.
But the whole show has a different feel to it. First, there’s no opening. Bosch and Bosch: Legacy had memorable openings, especially Bosch; Ballard has a black title card with reversed out type with video underneath that dissolves to just LA to start each show. There’s no theme song. Bosch’s “Can’t Let Go” was great, and it looked like Ballard had her own theme in the final episode of Bosch: Legacy (it’s called “Dig Down” by Muse). But I guess in this day of lean and mean cost-cutting, an opening with music rights issues is an expenditure that can be avoided. And Ballard, for the most part, takes place in a totally different area of Los Angeles, the west side, towards Santa Monica and beyond. Bosch and Ballard creator, author Michael Connelly, once referred to Bosch being east of La Brea Avenue and Ballard being west, and that geographical consideration gives the show a different feel, as do new producers and showrunners. Ballard’s home that she shares with her grandmother, Tutu, is in Paradise Cove, Malibu and Ballard herself is an avid surfer, so the Pacific Ocean is more of a costar than it ever was in either Bosch series.
One of the things I really like about Maggie Q’s portrayal is the air of melancholy around Ballard. She never seems defeated, but she’s seen a lot of crap, and while she hasn’t succumbed to the “darkness” she mentions in reference to Bosch in the final episode of Bosch: Legacy, she has this quiet sense of determination, tinged with a bit of sadness, that I find really compelling. Bosch had the same world weariness about him.
I felt Ballard picked up a bit around episode 6 and it ended strong—with a cliffhanger—so I’m very optimistic that we’ll see a second season. Recently, author Michael Connelly was on a book podcast talking about his latest novel, Nightshade—which, incidentally—features a camera-ready new LASD detective, Stilwell, assigned to also camera-ready Catalina Island—and he mentioned that Prime had commissioned a writers’ room for season two of Ballard and they were already at work. So here’s hoping.
And—in a “plot development” no one saw coming, especially me—it was announced the week of July 7th that Madison Lintz—who literally grew up on Bosch as the character’s daugher, Maddie—has signed on to star in and executive produce a series based on Lee Goldberg’s “Eve Ronin” novels, which I love. Ronin is quite a bit like Ballard, and like Michael Connelly, author Goldberg has set up a whole “Ronin Universe,” with characters who play across his other LASD series featuring arson investigators Sharpe and Walker. Ronin has appeared in five books of her own to date, with a sixth coming out this fall, and in them she’s a fast-rising star in the sheriff’s department who has a penchant for being caught in action on social media, so much so that she gains her own fictional TV series in the books. To be honest, I had half-hoped that Ballard Season 1 would end with Maddie Bosch showing up at the Cold Case Unit run by Ballard and volunteering, as she did in The Waiting, the latest Ballard and Bosch novel (and one of the best featuring Ballard). Maybe she still will; Titus Welliver is doing other series and appearing on Ballard, so I guess the same can hold true for his “daughter,” Madison Lintz. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing an Eve Ronin series, although on which platform it’s going to end up remains to be seen.
OTHER SHOWS I’VE WATCHED LATELY …
The British influence has been strong for me the past few months. Here’s what else I’ve watched.
Dept. Q Season 1 (9 episodes, Netflix)
This quirky detective series also—like Ballard—deals with a Cold Case Unit, this one set up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Conflicted and curmudgeonly detective Carl Morok (Matthew Goode), coming off a debilitating work-related injury—is assigned to run the unit, which is manned by a couple of misfits, including an enigmatic volunteer named Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), a former police officer in Syria, and DC Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne), a cop assigned to desk duty after a vehicular accident. All there characters are excellent and the story involves the search for a prosecutor, Merrit Lingard (Chloe Pirrie), who’s been missing for four years. The show also includes Morok’s boss, Moira Jacobson (Kate Dickie), who looks at the Cold Case Unit’s funding as a way of improving her department’s furniture and computers. And Morok’s work-related injury has him visiting a psychologist, Rachel Irving, played my one of my all-time favorite actresses, Kelly Macdonald. The story is dark and at times unrelenting, but there are dashes of humor and Goode and Macdonald have great chemistry. I hope there’s a season two.
Patience Season 1 (6 episodes, PBS)
I loved this show which features a young, autistic woman who works in the Criminal Records Office in York, UK. Played by the very likeable Ella Maisy Purvis and based on the French series Astrid & Raphaelle, Patience Evans sees clues and links in the crime records that no one else connects to various cases. She meets DI Bea Metcalf and helps out on a number of cases in this first series. (DI Bea, as Patience calls her, is played by Laura Fraser, who was so great as the conniving Lydia in the final season of Breaking Bad.) The series treats Patience’s condition with … well, patience and understanding, and while DI Bea’s fellow officers are reluctant to accept Patience’s opinions and findings, she becomes an integral part of the team. They’re already filming a second season in my beloved York, but sadly Laura Fraser will not be returning.
Ludwig Season 1 (6 episodes, BritBox)
Ludwig is a quirky, almost-cozy crime story that concerns twin brothers, John and James Taylor, both played by British actor/comedian David Mitchell. One twin is a detective inspector with the Cambridge Police, the other a master puzzle creator who goes by the pen-name of “Ludwig.” James goes missing and his wife, Lucy, played by yet another of my absolute faves, the great Anna Maxwell-Martin (Line of Duty), contacts John to come and masquerade as James for a day at the police station to find James’s ever-present notebook, which may contain the secret to his disappearance. John, who is agoraphobic, reluctantly does this, but immediately excels in the role of fake detective, because aren’t all crimes just puzzles to be solved? The series is a bit too episodic for my taste, with the through-line of finding the missing James in all episodes—and frankly, there’s not enough Anna MM for me—but it’s enjoyable and the whole season really comes together in the final episode. I believe this was a big success in the UK and I think there will be a second season.
Countdown Season 1 (13 episodes, Prime)
I made it through the first 15 minutes of the first episode of this new cop-drama on Prime that stars Jensen Ackles (Supernatural), Jessica Camacho (Bosch: Legacy), and Eric Dane (The Last Ship). I found the writing to be dumb, the characters even dumber and utterly stereotypical. It felt like a network-TV series with just a few “fucks” and “shits” thrown in to make it seem like it belonged on a streaming platform. As you can probably tell, NOT recommended, at least by me.
Back soon* with more Watchlist reviews and recommendations!
(*Soon = within the next three months.)
@innocent-bystander.com 
I’m enjoying Ballard too it’s a good series with a Bosch vibe
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