Investigating cold cases should help prevent future crimes, in a “broken windows” kind
of way, because if someone got away with murder once, they will presumably be
more likely to kill again. Nevertheless, Det. Renee Ballard’s assignment to the
Cold Case division was unambiguously intended as a punishment. Yet, several of
her cold cases turn out to be very hot in creators Michael Connelly &
Michael Alaimo’s 10-episode first season of Ballard, which premiers
tomorrow on Prime Video.
Ballard
had a conflict with her ex-partner Det. Robert Olivas that he won. Banished to
the Cold Case squad, she and fellow squad member, formerly retired Reserve Officer
Thomas Laffont, close their first case during the prologue, but the messiness
leaves them even more in the doghouse. Frankly, Captain Bercham only wants them
investigating one case, the unsolved murder of the younger sister of the city
councilman Jake Pearlman, who allocated the funds for their department. He
clearly thinks Ballard works for him and wants results yesterday. However, Pearlman
learns to respect her dedication and instincts when Ballard discovers his
sister was murdered by an unknown serial killer.
Naturally,
Bercham wants to transfer the case back to Homicide, but Ballard’s team has
Pearlman’s confidence and has been running conspicuous circles around her old
colleagues. As a further complication, Ballard has another season-long case
that she must keep close to her vest: a cold case murder that leads to a cabal
of crooked gun-running cops in league with a nasty drug cartel. Besides her
team, Ballard only trusts retired Det. Harry Bosch, a sporadic guest-star, who
anchors the series to the Bosch-verse.
Titus
Welliver’s infrequent but significant appearances are a fun bonus, but Maggie Q
more than carries the series as the title character. Frankly, her intensity
level might even eclipse Welliver’s and she is almost aa cool. She also comes
into the series with massive action cred, which serves her well. Connelly,
Alaimo, and the rest of their writers’ room really put Ballard through wringer,
but she handles all the angst quite convincingly.
Maggie
Q also develops nice chemistry with her team, notably including the
recognizable John Carroll Lynch playing it largely straight as Laffont, and
Michael Mosley, as reserve officer Ted Rawls, whose stock rises considerably as
he earns Ballard’s confidence. Similarly, Noah Bean delivers another memorable supporting
turn, navigating the councilman’s surprisingly dramatic arc. Amy Hill probably comes
the closest to comic relief as “Tutu,” but the grandmother-granddaughter relationship
is appealingly affectionate.
Harry Bosch is one cool cop, because he has great taste in jazz. He is also a
veteran and owns a dog (named Coltrane). Altogether, that must make him the
most sympathetic and easiest-to-identify-with cop ever—except he is no longer a
cop. Frustrated with LAPD bureaucracy, Bosch is now a private investigator, but
catching bad guys is still his thing. His latest cases are positioned as a
fresh start (now on Prime’s sister streamer), but it is really just Bosch “season
8,” but that should suit fans just fine when Bosch: Legacy premieres
today on Freevee (formerly branded as IMDb).
Bosch
and hard-charging criminal defense attorney Honey Chandler used to be mortal
enemies, but they formed an alliance when crooked tycoon Carl Rogers tried to
have them killed, along with Bosch’s daughter Maddie. That formed a bond
between all three, but Bosch and Chandler still have very different ideas
regarding criminal justice. Nevertheless, he and the counselor agree to work
together when Rogers flips a witness to beat the rap. Unfortunately for the
newly freed sleaze, his partners in the Russian mob now want all the revenue
they lost while he was in prison, plus interest.
In
the private sector, Bosch is free to work whatever case appeals to his sense of
justice. In addition, to Rogers, he also works with (not for) Chandler to clear
a homeless man charged with murder. Meanwhile, a dying billionaire Whitney
Vance (a lot like Gen. Sternwood in The Big Sleep) retains Bosch to find
the illegitimate son he abandoned decades ago. A whole lot of money is at
stake, so the board of his aerospace company would prefer Bosch did not find
any heirs.
Of
course, Bosch also worries about his daughter, especially since her experience
with Rogers motivated her to join the police force. Finally patrolling the
streets with tough but reasonably fair training officer, she struggles to
maintain her objective detachment, especially when they respond to calls
involving a serial rapist stalking their beat.
Legacy
cannot
quite wrap-up all four strands in ten episodes. In fact, writer-creators Eric
Ellis Overmyer, Tom Bernardo, and original novelist Michael Connelly do not
even try, ending “season one” on a cliffhanger. At least they do a nice job
bringing new viewers up to speed with their initial recap.
Regardless,
Bosch is maybe the best American TV/streaming detective going these days. It is
not just his taste in music, but the way he plugs artists like Art Pepper, Ron
Carter, and Frank Morgan is definitely cool. (He even has a poster on his wall
for the Morgan documentary, Sound of Redemption, on which Connelly
served as an executive producer). Titus Welliver is just terrific in the role.
He is all kinds of steely and grizzled, but he also plays the worried dad quite
compellingly.
