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.
The 1981 Laurel Canyon quadruple homicides were not quite as personal to
Michael Connelly as the Black Dahlia murder was to James Ellroy, but the crimes
stuck in his head ever since he covered it as a crime beat reporter. It was
just one of those cases that took on a life of its own, because of its
scandalous connections to Liberace and adult film “actor” John Holmes. Connelly
takes yet another deep dive into the cold case, adapting his podcast for television
as the host-narrator and executive producer of The Wonderland Massacre &
the Secret History of Hollywood, which premieres Sunday on MGM+.
A
few days before the 4th of July, four people were found brutally bludgeoned
to death in a Laurel Canyon home, with a fifth left for dead. Somehow, she
survived, but she could never identify her attackers. Given the volume of blood
and the number of victims, the police deduced there was more than one killer.
The
question of who struck the blows would be contentiously argued in court, but
every investigation pointed towards the drug lord, whom some of the residents
living at the Wonderland Avenue home had just robbed in a violent home invasion.
Eddie Nash (Adel Nasrallah) was a Palestinian immigrant who came to Hollywood
to be an actor but only landed a small part on a Cisco Kid episode.
Instead, he became arguably the biggest coke dealer in LA, who also owned a
series of nightclubs, to facilitate his illicit trade.
In
a twist of fate, Liberace wanted to invest in nightclubs, so somehow, he became
Nash’s silent partner. His “boy toy” Scott Thorson (played by Matt Damon in the
HBO movie) was their go-between. Thorson was also an addict, so he quickly
became a customer as well. So was Holmes, but the man considered the
inspiration for Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights also bought from the Wonderland
Avenue gang.
The
multiple investigations and criminal trials that followed were epic in scope,
but tragically ultimate justice was almost completely denied. Connelly and the
various investigating officers all agree Thorson and Holmes were both probably
compulsive liars, but the recently deceased (as of only last month) Thorson
clearly emerges as the more credible witness and the better person. At least he
expresses remorse for involvement in the illegal drug trade and he clearly
wanted Nash to pay for the Wonderland murders.
Throughout
all four episodes, Connelly shows his ease talking and relating to the cops and
assistant district attorneys who worked the Wonderland case. It is clear how he
developed law enforcement sources while working as a reporter and probably continued
to benefit from their expert opinions once he started writing full-time.
