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Michael Connelly’s new book, Resurrection Walk, featuring Harry Bosch (with Mickey Haller and Renee Ballard) is out, and the retired LAPD cop-turned private investigator is battling cancer, but still busting crime. On Amazon Prime Video, Titus Welliver has starred as Bosch in seven seasons and one spin-off, Bosch: Legacy, the second season of which is now out. At some point his exasperated daughter, Maddie, asks him when he intends to retire. “When people stop killing each other,” replies her dad, bruised and battered from his latest adventure.
When he was with the Los Angeles Police Department, Bosch believed that everyone was entitled to justice, and skirted at the edge of vigilantism, in his pursuit of criminals. Of course, he has a troubled past and anger issues, but also an unerring eye that sees what others miss.
In Bosch: Legacy Season 2, his cohorts are scrappy defence attorney, Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers) and expert hacker, Mo Bassi (Stephen A. Chang). A few cases run through the ten episodes—Maddie (Madison Lintz) gets abducted by a psychopath; Chandler defends a man accused or murder, and two corrupt cops go on a rampage. An earlier case involving the Russian Mafia and a blown-up gas pipeline, from the previous season, returns to haunt Bosch, Chandler and Mo.
At the end of the last season, Maddie, who gave up law to become a cop, like her father, was following up a case of a serial rapist, when she was kidnapped by him. In this season, she is buried alive in the Mojave Desert, as the man called Kurt Dockweiler (David Denman) negotiates a deal to lessen his sentence. Meanwhile, Chandler agrees to defend David Foster (Patrick Brennan), framed for murdering his wife. Two corrupt vice cops, involved in an extortion racket go after Bosch and Chandler with a vengeance. Mo gets honey-trapped by a pretty podcaster (Jessica Camacho) and has his heart smashed to bits.
The first two episodes, about Maddie’s abduction are scary and heart-wrenching, as Bosch strains at the leash to be a part of the investigation, when he is not allowed, by law, to do so. His former partner Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector), station cop Mank (Scott Klace) and a few buddies from the past rally around a distraught Bosch as he desperately hunts for Maddie, breaking several rules along the way. These episodes are emotionally impactful with some terrific acting. Bosch sobbing with relief when he sees that the unidentified corpse in the morgue is not Maddie, is a lump-in-the-throat scene.
Meanwhile, Chandler’s client, David Foster is arrested for killing his cop wife, and it seems like a slam-dunk conviction, only she believes in his innocence, and Bosch works the case for her, unravelling the scam of the two crooked vice cops in the process.
The affectionate relationship between Bosch and Maddie gives the show its moments of warmth, though Maddie keeps trying to get out of her father’s shadow and making her own way in the police force.
There are formulaic elements in the show—some things are common to all cop dramas—but Bosch: Legacy, each episode written and directed by different people, remains watchable. The performances have something to do with it, and also the fact that all the characters have vulnerabilities that prevent them from becoming annoying superheroes. There’s also Honey Chandler’s enviable wardrobe, the fabulous jazz score—since Bosch and Mo and jazz aficionados—and Bosch’s dream home with a spectacular view of LA. Much more to like than to complain about!
Bosch: Legacy Season 2
Based on the novels by Michael Connelly
Cast: Titus Welliver, Miami Rogers, Madison Lintz, Stephen A. Chang and others
On Amazon Prime Video
