The most embarrassing thing I'm watching on tv rn is Bosch: Legacy
One of my pet peeves is people who talk about tv “guilty pleasures” that they enjoy watching but that they do not, in fact, feel guilty about. The overwhelming popularity of reality programming, Real Housewives content, and the entirety of the Bravo lineup suggests that many, many people like this stuff, and honestly — what reason is there to feel guilty for watching it? The fact that I personally do not care for Real Housewives, and that yes — I am judging you somewhat if you’re really into it — that doesn’t make the show your “guilty pleasure.” That just means we disagree about the merits of Real Housewives, and you think I’m maybe partly right, but also mostly wrong. Which, is fine, honestly. I’m wrong about lots of stuff. It’s a space I’m fine inhabiting.
All that said, I do have a true, honest-to-god guilty pleasure, and it’s the Amazon Prime series Bosch, together with its new spin-off, Bosch: Legacy. I don’t know anyone else who watches it, and I’m loathe to bring it up in conversation or god forbid recommend it to anyone. I am mortified that I watch this show. I cannot defend it. For those of you who have not seen Bosch, I will describe it for you, and I will tell you why it’s so bad. I will explain all the reasons why I should know better than to watch it. And I will fully own that there’s no like, so-bad-it’s-good, just-think-of-it-as-camp justification for this show. It is straight up a bad thing to watch.
What Bosch is
Bosch is based on a series of page-turner, beach read detective novels by Michael Connelly. The novels all star LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, who solves grizzly, sensationalized murders while navigating the ins and outs of LAPD politics and city corruption. As books, these stories are totally fine. I’ve read a few of them. They exist in that category of Dean Koontz / Stephen King / Michael Crichton novels that can be fun to read on a plane or wherever, but you’d never call them “literature.”
As a tv show, Bosch works because it is pure cliché. It’s Dirty Harry, but for the 21st century. Bosch is a hard-as-nails cop who takes orders from no one, and he gets results. In other words, it’s McGarnagle.
Although it’s never been nominated for a “real” TV award, Bosch has been arguably the most successful series Amazon Prime has ever had.1 It began in 2014 and ran for seven seasons. In last year’s series finale, Harry Bosch retired from the police force and became a private detective. His adventures outside the police force are now the subject of this year’s new series, Bosch: Legacy. Throughout all this, Bosch has been played by Titus Welliver, who also played the Man in Black on Lost. To be honest, Welliver is genuinely great in the role of Bosch. He’s why the series works. The show also stars several alums from The Wire, which helps.
Why Bosch is so bad
The thing is, Bosch is so cliché, it’s impossible not to cringe at the (extremely not subtle) message behind it. All cops (unless they are lazy/dirty cops) are the virtuous guardians of society in the Bosch world. The show treats police detectives as almost Marvel-esque super heroes. These cops are rough and grizzled and the only thing they hate more than criminals are the spineless, weak-willed judges and defense attorneys who turn the bad guys back out onto the street where they can commit more crimes.2 Crime is bad — but civil liberties for criminals are even worse.
Bosch is basically Blue Lives Matter TV, but for Democrats. By that I mean — the plots are smart. The show doesn’t make a point of trafficking in ugly prejudices, but instead it presents an idealized police force that always does justice in the end, despite a vague aura of prejudice. It’s a police show, but one where everyone is exceedingly sensitive to issues like racism, xenophobia, and chronic underinvestment in poor communities. Bad guys get what they deserve in Bosch’s Los Angeles, but it is never for one second ambiguous who the bad guys actually are. Cops are never shown as misreading a situation or somehow making an improper rush to judgment. Cops are sour and bitter about how evil all the criminals are, but the cops never let that animosity get in the way of doing their job fairly. In other words, I come back to what I said earlier — they are super heroes. Larger than life, always virtuous, even when they aren’t. My favorite throwaway line in the script this season happens where there’s been a brutal murder of a (selfless, angelic) doctor who volunteered with the homeless, and one of the characters just naturally refers to the homeless camp where the murderer lives as “the unhoused community.” It’s as though the cops are going to nail the criminal bastards who did this, and then later that afternoon they’ll lead a DEI antiracism seminar.
Why I watch it anyway
God, I don’t know. I’ve already trashed the show so badly here, what’s left to say?? I watch it because, for all its absurdity, the show has a profound moral clarity, I guess. It’s nice to see bad guys really lose and good guys really win (again, like with Marvel movies). Also the cinematography is pretty cool, and it does a great job of making Los Angeles look like a really sexy, attractive place to live. The plots are really well done and they keep things moving with unexpected twists and insane over-the-top dramatic turning points.3 But more than all that, I hate/love the saintly, devoted work ethic exhibited by every character in the show. These cops (and judges, and attorneys) have no personal lives whatsoever. They live for their work, and they can’t involve themselves in anything other than the all-consuming, soul-destroying demands of their noble calling. Cops in the Bosch world may loathe prosecutors or defense counsel, but game respects game. As long as a character is fully, 100% passionate about what he or she does, the other characters recognize that devotion as a sign of integrity. And that counts for something.
Anyway. I’ve written a lot here about how cringe and ridiculous this show is. But you should watch it! I said I would never recommend it to anyone, but I clearly lied. I enjoy how ridiculous the plots in this show are, and how offensive the show is to my generally left-leaning worldview, while also being extremely careful to not actually be offensive in a way that would, well.. offend. Maybe Bosch isn’t so different from reality television after all. Reality tv thrives on people behaving in ways that are indefensible in the real world, and yet, some sense of order is still maintained. So too with Bosch. I like knowing that a cop show can be smart and entertaining without being remotely realistic. The absurdity is the point.
In 2015 the show was nominated for (but did not win) an Emmy for outstanding design of its title sequence. So there you go.
(its title sequence slaps, btw).
Also, of course, the feds. Feds are evil, too, because they wear really nice suits and they just want to fight petty, miserable turf wars with the real unsung heroes, the local police force.
Seriously, the number of times a main character is suddenly shot / murdered / kidnapped is just ridiculous. No police force on earth could possibly operate this way. The lawsuits alone would bankrupt the city in a matter of months. In a world where the police department operates like Bosch, the corresponding hospitals would operate like Grey’s Anatomy. But I digress.
Yeah... I don't think I'm going to watch this. I'm also surprised you never recommended this to me. You tried to sell me on Ozark.