Michael Connelly’s streaming universe – already home to Bosch, Bosch: Legacy and The Lincoln Lawyer – has expanded further with the arrival of Ballard on Amazon Prime. We first met LAPD detective Renee Ballard on screen in the final episode of Bosch: Legacy season three, which aired earlier this year and teed up actress Maggie Q in the role. However, on the page we’ve been acquainted with her across six novels, beginning with The Late Show back in 2017.
Fans lamenting the departure of Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), will be happy to know that he makes a few appearances in Ballard, alongside some other familiar faces from the Bosch world. Unlike the Bosch/Ballard books, however, the on screen Harry is very much a bit player and not part of Ballard’s newly formed Open-Unsolved Unit, trying to solve cold cases in Los Angeles.
This series is based loosely on Michael Connelly’s novels The Dark Hours and Desert Star, and if you’ve read those books, take note of that word loosely, because there’s been a lot of tinkering about with the storylines to create the screen adaptation.
It’s a decision that makes things unpredictable and fresh – something that’s also evident in the low-key opening credits, which are such a departure from the kaleidoscopic imagery and striking theme songs for Bosch and Bosch: Legacy. However, the season opens with a bang – quite literally – as Ballard uses a shotgun to take on a baddie, but then it settles into a more sedate pace as characters get established. As expected from any adaptation of Connelly’s work, there are multiple storylines to keep the viewer bamboozled and entertained.
As the story comes from the fourth and fifth books in Ballard’s printed page timeline, it skips straight to Ballard’s work in the cold case unit. This means we do miss some of the character’s defining moments from the early novels such as fighting sexual harassment in the department, being demoted to the night shift and having to live out of her car.
Open-Unsolved is a new unit, created at the behest of a local councillor whose sister was murdered over a decade ago, with the killer never found. So the team’s top priority is looking again at that case – and soon making a breakthrough that could indicate a serial killer who has gone under the radar for years. There’s also a murdered John Doe that attracts their attention.
This series has a different vibe to what has gone before. Much of the action in Ballard leaves behind the mean streets of LA, so beautifully wrought in the Bosch adaptations. Instead, the setting takes us to the beach and onto the ocean, places where Ballard feels most at home, and where she goes to relieve her work stresses. There are loving long shots of her surfing, or just sitting on her board and contemplating life – but there’s also plenty of action too.
Instead of towering views of the Los Angeles as seen from Harry’s deck high above the city, Ballard lives beachside with her grandmother Tutu (Amy Hill). Her office is in a basement, but unlike Dept Q, for example, it doesn’t feel oppressive or claustrophobic, although the team has to be a little imaginative when it comes to creating an interview room down there.
Beyond the drama of the investigations, what keeps the episodes rolling is the growing trust and friendship between Ballard and her fledgling team of volunteers. Among their number, Colleen Hatteras (played by Rebecca Field) will be familiar from the novels, although her psychic side has been watered down somewhat. Others have been reworked and some team members are completely new for the series.
The season comprises 10 episodes of 45 minutes each, and as Prime has released them all at once it is eminently binge-able. The finale of episode 10 also leaves it wide open for a second season. Will there be one? And if so, will we see more of Harry Bosch? We will just have to wait and see…
