A little bit of background first. Hieronymus (‘Harry’) Bosch
is a fictional detective created by Michael Connnelly and has featured in over
20 novels which feature him as the main character, apart from cameos in related
novels on Mickey Haller and Terry McCaleb. Harry Bosch works with the Detective
Division in the LAPD and enjoys a love/hate relationship with the department.
He loves his work but hates the politics within the department which makes
senior officers compromise with the Mayor’s office and the District Attorney.
Bosch is pretty much a lone wolf in
the books and holds his cards close to his chest, usually not even trusting
this partner. I had watched Bosch Season1 on TV last year and over the last few
days, binge watched the entire Season 2 on Amazon Prime video (recently
launched in India with a very attractive initial subscription). This review is
about Season 2 as well as contrasting it with the books.
In similar vein to the earlier seasons of Sherlock, the
episodes draw upon from the books for the primary plot line while expanding on
them and catering to the needs of TV in terms of drama. However there are a couple of significant deviations, in the
novels, Bosch is shown to be much more of a loner than he is shown in the
episodes and his relationship with his current partner, Jerry Edgar, is shown
to be closer to a true partnership. In the books, Harry considers Jerry as a
lightweight and thinks he likes to shirk work while moonlighting as a realtor.
Season 2 starts with Bosch being recalled to the department,
where his immediate supervisor is now Lt. Billets while Deputy Chief Irving
continues to be a driving force behind many initiatives. A little bit about the
cast, Titus Welliver plays Bosch, and for anyone who has not read the books,
everything is just great, however the edginess of the character of Harry seem a
little toned down for the episodes. IMHO, Titus Welliver does a great job,
though he took some time to grow on me. The other main characters are Jerry
Edgar (Jamie Hector), Lt. Grace Billets (Amy Aquino), Deputy Chief Irvin Irving
(Lance Reddick) and Eleanor Wish (Sarah Clarke), Bosch’s ex-wife, ex-FBI
profiler and now a professional poker player at Las Vegas. Season 2 also
features Maddy (Madison Lintz) as Bosch’s daughter and Officer George Irving
(Robbie Jones) as Deputy Chief Irving’s son and someone who is working undercover
in the Narcotics division and Carl Nash (Brent Sexton), ex-LAPD who runs
security at the gated community where the Allens live.
Season 2 starts with the disappearance of Tony Allen,
ostensibly a porn producer, but in reality who launders drug money for his
cousin. It turns out that Tony has been skimming money and storing it secretly
and has fallen in love with a dancer from Las Vegas who he is planning to
marry. Tony Allen’s widow, Veronica (a former porn actress herself), is
suspected to have a hand in it as also Joey Marks (Tony’s cousin) and Rykoff (a
kind of enforcer for Joey. At some point, Carl Nash also comes under suspicion.
A parallel plot also unfolds when George Irving is killed in
an apparent robbery gone bad. Deputy Chief Irving is not allowed by department
policy to be involved in the investigation, however has to know the truth for
himself and gets Bosch to support him. Both Irving and Bosch run their own
parallel investigation which seems to intersect with Joey Marks.
Given that this is live action, there a couple of thrilling
gun battles, especially one reminiscent of Pulp Fiction at the Bank where Allen
has his safe deposit box. I will not reveal much more about the plot since it
will be better for you to see it for yourself.
As a standalone series, I would rate Bosch very highly,
however if one contrasts with the books, then a few character changes do
continue to niggle at you till you make peace with them. Once you get beyond
that even a fan of the novels will be converted. One reason for a majority of
the novels to be reflected correctly in
the episodes is that Michael Connelly is associated with both Season 1 and 2 as
an Executive Producer and I am sure he had much to do with retaining the
integrity of the books while making some sacrifices to the demands of
television/streaming.
I watched it on a Google Nexus tablet and the size of the
screen was no barrier, though I would hesitate to do so on a mobile. I recommend
wearing headphones/earbuds to get the best possible sound experience. I watched
it in HD, using both my BSNL broadband and sometimes Airtel 4G Wifi and it
streamed well over both connections with no noticeable lag.
On the whole, you will enjoy it, regardless of whether you
are an old fan, or else someone who is getting introduced to Bosch for the first
time.
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