Bosch Legacy

I'm so glad that we get to continue the story of Harry Bosch. Bosch is easily one of the most underrated shows ever. I don't know anyone who's seen it that has anything bad to say about it. All you have to do is read through the reviews and ratings to see how loved that show was so it was a no brainer to bring it back for more. They know how much people love this that they renewed it before even one episode aired. Being a huge Bosch fan I had huge expectations going into this and this show not only met those expectations but surpassed them in every way. If Bosch: Legacy ends up half as good as the original Bosch it will still be a great show and so far it's been great! I can't wait to see more!

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.

What's happened to the magnificent soundtrack, replaced with yet another piece of ghastly generic noise. Turn the sound down and play 'can't let go', this show deserves a good introduction.

I am a big Bosch fan, but the Legacy sequel series is a couple of notches below the original. First, J. Edgar the interesting supporting characters from the original only make cameo appearances in Legacy. The exception being two of the least interesting characters from the original, Honey and Maddie. Honey is a fabulously wealthy ambulance-chasing lawyer who seems to have developed a heart of gold through the television years. Maddie has become a bizarre component of every plot. Despite her slight physique she runs down bad guys and manhandles them. Though she also becomes a super-victim damsel in distress at times. Bosch himself is now a private investigator but strangers accord him the respect of a cop and always spill lots of information for him. An unfortunate addition to the series is one of these Mission Impossible tech gurus whose skills border on magic rather than what is technically possible. Sorry to bash away here but I enjoyed the original series and it did not jump the shark for me. I will keep watching if there is a season 3 of Legacy but my hopes and anticipation have been tempered.

(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.