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Nostalgic
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I’m going to warn you: if you follow me on social media, you are gonna hear a lot about my dog. (I’m the first person to think of putting their pet on Instagram.) But, quantity-wise, a close second to pictures of Rosie at magic hour is, at least for a month or so a year, Bosch. And every time I post about the show – and it’s always complimentary – I get a few variations of the same two questions in my comments. “What the fuck is Bosch?” And, “Is Bosch actually good?”
This article is for those people. I’m going to answer those frequently A’d Q’s. (I’m well aware lots of people are already familiar with Bosch. It’s wildly popular! But in my experience, it’s popular in like, a Grace & Frankie way: not at all on the radar of people who read recaps of Fargo and listen to podcast interviews with HBO showrunners, but very much on the radar of your mom. You probably don’t know that your mom has set a reminder on her phone for when the new season premieres. And your mom’s right.)
What the fuck is 'Bosch'?
Yes, Bosch is a confusing name for a show. It sounds like a new social media app middle schoolers use to post videos of themselves falling down stairs. (“So it turns out my niece is like famous on Bosch?”) But “Bosch” refers to LAPD Homicide Detective Harry Bosch, the main character of an Amazon Prime original series. The eponymous hero is played by Titus Welliver (Lost‘s Man in Black) and for three seasons now Bosch has worked murder cases, flaunted procedure, and listened to jazz. He also attempts to be a dad to his teenage daughter Maddie, and he sometimes go on dates. But his open cases come first.
Bosch’s priorities are: 1. Solving crimes. 2. Raising his daughter and having opinions on old jazz (tied) 4. Finding out the truth behind his mother’s murder. 5. Driving around LA. Then way down, in like 81st place: Playing by the rules.
Before we go further: yes, Bosch is named after Hieronymus Bosch, the 15th century Dutch painter. Who knew that Harry was short for Hieronymus?! I always assumed it came from “Harold” but now I know that in every case, Harry is short for Hieronymus. Bosch the painter was famous for vidid paintings depicting Hell on earth, filled with grotesque creatures demons partaking in sin and then reaping the consequences. Strangely, neither the show nor its hero wrestle with those themes at all. (Just kidding. There’s a lot of that.)
Bosch the Detective’s mother was a prostitute, and she was murdered in a motel room when he was a boy. He spent much of his youth bouncing around orphanages before signing up with the Marines. He’s seen some shit, and he’s sort of hung up on his mother never getting justice, and how there’s evil everywhere. He’s not wrong! Bosch, like many literary lawmen before him, is driven to right wrongs and make people pay for their crimes, with little regard for his career or physical well-being.
That familiar feeling is one reason I think Bosch gets underestimated. (The show, not the cop; everybody in the show agrees that Harry Bosch has an extremely impressive solve rate.) At first glance, the show’s elements call to mind a Simpsons parody of a hard-boiled cop show. “You’re off the case, McGarnagle!” Yes, more than once, Bosch has been forced to turn in his gun and his badge. Internal Affairs is, of course, always up his ass, because of how Bosch does not go by the book and in fact seems very disrespectful of said book. But writer Michael Connelly, on whose works the show is based, has spent 25 years and nearly as many novels fleshing out Bosch.
Like many great mystery & crime writers, Connelly’s novels sometimes get lumped in together with the sort of airport paperback fare that tends to have more than one author name on the cover and include serial killers with delusions of grandeur, mysteries involving the Knights Templar, or both. But because he’s popular and prolific doesn’t mean Bosch is thinly sketched.
(Speaking of The Simpsons‘ McGarnagle, who was modeled off of Clint Eastwood, Bosch novelist Michael Connelly also wrote Blood Work, which was turned into a Clint Eastwood movie. In another novel, Bosch and Clint Eastwood’s character Terry McCaleb team up to solve a case! But the Connected Connelly-verse doesn’t stop there. Bosch is also The Lincoln Lawyer’s half-brother. If you remember, the underrated The Lincoln Lawyer technically kicked off the McConaissance two years after Ghost of Girlfriends Past, so we have Connelly to thank for that too. It’s basically the Marvel movies for people who prefer corpses to capes.)
Do you actually like 'Bosch'?
Obviously, yes. Big time. For a bunch of reasons.
One, it’s the best “LA” show on TV. Period. Amazon, like Netflix, is putting out its new shows in 4K UltraHD, and watching Bosch sometimes feels like taking a helicopter tour of the city. I’m not comparing it to Heat, because while it’s great it’s not Heat, but it has a similar groundedness, where the way the characters move and drive through the city plays as authentic. (I haven’t read the novels, but I’ve heard whole sections are basically turn-by-turn directions.) The show also takes serious time highlighting LA restaurants: Bosch as a young boy at the counter of Musso & Frank’s, he and his daughter waiting in line skeptically at the new Shake Shack, an entire episode titled, “El Compadre.” The prettiest views of the city on the show are from Bosch’s house, a modernist glass house perched on stilts in the Hollywood Hills. Bosch spends a lot of time listening to jazz and looking out the window thinking about mistakes and justice or whatever. If you’re curious how a city employee affords a place that nice, Detective Bosch got the money to buy the house from a TV show based off his life. Yes, it’s a little confusing.
Then, there’s the cast. Titus Welliver is tremendous; his face has a permanent tough and bothered scowl that looks like it was molded out of clay to explain to Hellen Keller what the word “relentless” means. But it’s the supporting cast that gets me really going, every single face lighting you up with, “Hey, that guy!” The Wire’s Lance Reddick and Jamie Hector, Sarah Clarke (Nina from 24), Brent Sexton from The Killing, Jeri Ryan, Murder One’s James Gedrick. The show is kind of like the Last Waltz of TV cop show character actors. (I’m not sure which one is Neil Young’s coke booger. Probably James Ransone, because Low Winter Sun sounds like hepcat slang for a cocaine binge.) It makes sense: the showrunner and writers spent their careers on shows like The Wire, Law & Order, and Homicide.
But mostly why I’m heartily recommending it is the way the story moves. I don’t think there’s anything better for binging on TV right now, and no show feels more comfortable with the length of its seasons. You know how sometimes you watch a season of a Netflix show and walk away thinking, “That story should have been 6 episodes long, but they fought for 10, and Netflix made them do 13.” Bosch seasons are 10 episodes long and there’s zero filler. It’s really just tremendous writing. Often, the dialog cause eye-rolls, but the plotting is undeniable. It may be that they stuff 2 or 3 novels into each season, so there’s no shortage of mystery and turns. I watched the most recent season in just under 24 hours. And I’ve got a job and responsibilities! It was thrilling.
My point is: watch Bosch. What is stopping you? Though, I’ve literally had people say to me, “Oh, I have an Apple TV, and it’s hard to watch Amazon on that.” What an unlikable yuppie complaint, but also no it’s not. Play it on the iPhone you definitely own and then hit the little AirPlay button to put on your Apple TV. Then clear your weekend.
We have time for one more question.
Why is your dog Rosie so cute?
I don’t know! I think it’s because she has a small head, thick neck and sad eyes.
Max Silvestri is a comedian and writer based out of LA. He hosted the Bravo series Recipe for Deception, and he’s also appeared on Brooklyn 99, Broad City, and The Good Place. He’s currently writing on an upcoming Netflix series that he promises has exactly the right number of episodes.
