Bosch Legacy

Bosch: Legacy is just as good as the original Bosch. Much like the original, it's one of the best, most underrated crime dramas on tv. The writing and acting is what makes this show so special It's hard to find anyone who's ever said anything bad to say about it. Bosch: Legacy continues to follow Harry Bosch, who has now quit his job as a homicide detective and become a personal investigator, as he moved on to the next chapter of his life. His daughter, Maddy, is now a rookie on the police force. Bosch now works with his ex-nemesis, Honey Chandler. Titus Welliver is absolutely perfect as Harry Bosch. If you liked the original Bosch and you haven't seen this yet then what are you waiting for? Go watch this as soon as possible!

The show is solid with strong familiar characters. It's not the same as the gritty cop drama that was the original Bosch, but it is developing nicel and I have high hopes that it will develop into an 8 or 9. But so far after 3 episodes it's a strong 7. Which is high praise as most of the stuff on TV is barely worthy of a 4 or 5. For me it loses a point because the intro music is horrendous. Like someone should be fired horrendous. They needed to replicate the dark jazzy intro from the original, not use some odd 1980's Miami Vice soundtrack reject. Bosch was one of the only show where I did not click "skip intro". I won't make that mistake with Bosch Legacy. Blech.

(Review updated after Season 2).

Having resigned from the LAPD Harry Bosch is now a private investigator. Business has been quite slow but some decent cases are starting to come his way. He soon finds himself working with Honey Chandler, once his nemesis then his career-saving attorney. Meanwhile his daughter Maddie is learning the ropes as a police officer.

I loved the original Bosch series so was initially a bit disappointed with this series. Things moved quite slowly and disjointedly and the engagement levels were fairly low. One of the best aspects to the original series was the police procedural stuff and that isn't present here, well not to the same degree. There is very little of the police stuff and the only link to that is Maddie, the rookie cop. That was initially the worst part of the new series as she seems not cut out to be a cop.

There's also less variety of characters than the original series. Another great thing about that series was that Harry wasn't the only character in the spotlight or worth supporting, there were people like Jerry, Lt. Billets, Chief Irving, Crate and Barrell, Maddie, Eleanor and the host of secondary characters who, through great character development in the show, we got to know well.

Here, it's just about Harry, Maddie and Honey Chandler, making for a narrow focus.

It also didn't help that I watched this straight after watching all seven seasons of Bosch, making comparison unavoidable. A decent gap would have made it easier to view this series in isolation.

However, after a few episodes things start to fall into place. A few good mysteries and plots develop, the intrigue and action ramps and things get much more engaging. Even Maddie's sub-plot gets more interesting as we see the stuff she has to deal with a cop, how this affects her and how this overlaps with Harry and Honey Chandler's work. It makes for an engaging character arc.

Season 2 picks up where S1 left off and provides heaps of intrigue and action. It also brings Maddie more to the fore, making it feel less of a one-man band sort of show. "Mo" Bassi also gets to feature more, further broadening the characters and the engagement. On the downside, there's a few more contrivances than normal - Episode 2 felt particularly rushed and implausible - but it's still fantastically entertaining.

Season 3 was promoted as the final season, making me worry that the writers would just phone it in. Thankfully I was very mistaken. Rather than coasting the writers crammed about three seasons worth of plots into one season making for an incredible pace and turnover of cases. This was great as there was never a dull moment though I would have preferred some slower periods just to increase the intrigue and tension rather than rushing to the conclusion.

Overall, this series isn't quite as good as the original - I still prefer the police procedural stuff and multi-character aspect of that - but being of the same level of quality as the original was always going to be difficult to achieve, that being one of the greatest TV drama series of all time.

Season ratings: S1&2: 9/10, S3 9.5.

Bosch is right on. Same character. Same skills. Gives us what we expect. The dialogue and acting of the basically all-female supporting roles is horrendous. Like someone else said Maddie has the skills of a seasoned veteran yet her opposition and disrespect to her father just screams spoiled 16 year old brat. Her character wrecks good scenes. And Vasquez. She must be the worst depiction of a female police officer I've ever witnessed. No one speaks like that! Very contrived and low level writing. If I have to hear her say "Boot" one more time I'm writing to the editor. The core crew of the original Bosch series make a cameo it seems to fill out the season but it really is a low-calorie version of the original over all.

This is good where Bosch was great. Titus Welliver is good, but like a lot of the reveiws posted, Ms Linz is not the best and even less convincing as an LA Police Officer. Not to point out as I am not sure the LA police would allow two uniformed female police officers out on patrol, with one in training. Watching her take down grown men is just laughable, taking into account her very slight frame.

It's a shame they couldn't use the Lincoln Lawyer (MIck Haller) character, there would've been a lot to explore there, regarding them being paternal siblings, and on opposite sides of the legal fence. Thus not having to rely on the Maddie cop and Honey Chandler timeline.

Aside from these quibles, I gave Bosch:Legacy a solid 6-7, not quite as good as the original, but better than avarage, primarily due to Titus Welliver.