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The law enforcers, the
police and other related agencies, wield immense power to utilize it for the
protection and the betterment of the common people if they want to do so. But unfortunately,
such powers are more often misused and so, we keep on hearing stories about
police corruption from the petty level of taking bribes on any pretext to the
highest level of politician-criminal-underworld nexus. This is a global
phenomenon, not just limited to more prone countries like India. Such is the
impact of police corruption in society that thousands of fictions in terms of
thrillers written or movies or television series have been made all over the
world since decades. In most commercial films in India, we see police personnel
portrayed as horrendously brazen and sadistic characters. In the US and the West
through the franchises of James Bond, Mission Impossible and The Bourne Identity
among others we invariably confront a traitorous bad cop within the system. I cannot
possibly mention various outstanding movies in this regard so as to avoid
giving spoiler alerts to the readers. Therefore, whenever we hear or read
reports about a good honest cop and watch movies portraying honest cops, we get
elated with the conviction that good brave and honest cops do exist who have
the courage to fight the system from within apart from doing their duty in the
best possible interest of the victims and the larger public. Harry Bosch is one
such cop of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), no matter that he’s
fictional.
The Amazon web series ‘Bosch’
was premiered on Prime in February 2014 with a 10-episode Season-1 and in 2022
the seventh and final season was released. The Series have been rated very
highly, almost 100% for some seasons, by the premiere rating agencies and
critics, ‘Bosch’ has been termed as one of the best detective television series
ever. I had a sneak preview when ‘Bosch: Season 7’ started streaming on Prime
Video and got interested immediately, coming to know that the stories are based
on the novels of Michael Connelly, a bestselling author of 31 suspense-thriller
books and the creator of the character of Harry Bosch among many other memorable
ones, whose books I never read. Sensing an inevitable continuity in the storyline
even though every episode features at least one new case, I decided to start at
the beginning, that is Season-1. And I got so immensely immersed in the smart
plotting and storytelling that I made sort of a world record for myself by
completing a total 68 episodes of 7 seasons in less than a fortnight.

If you expect a young
dashing cop capable of incredible feats then you’re bound to be disappointed. Bosch
is an elderly cop, having fighting experience in the Gulf War and then serving
the LAPD, Hollywood Division, as a homicide detective for about twenty years;
as per the series backgrounder he is 47, and the actor Titus Welliver who has
brilliantly portrayed Bosch is about 60 years of age at the moment. However, he
has quick reflexes, sharp intellect or insight, is a sharp shooter and is
capable of intense physical action whenever required. His response to an escape
by a high-security serial killer who was erroneously allowed by the District
Attorney (DA) to take a police party to his crime factory; his intense mid-air
fight as part of his daredevil undercover antics to investigate an addictive
medicine racket; his gun-fights while tracking the killer of his mother and while
trying to save the life of his daughter Maddie Bosch (played by Madison Lintz);
and many other action scenes are fully at par with the likes of Sean Connery,
Tom Cruise, Piece Brosnan, Matt Damon, Daniel Craig and so on.
Most importantly, Bosch
is honest, uncompromising, brave and always ready to fight with the system or
with his bosses as the situation requires. He has deep compassion for child
victims, female victims and for that matter any kind of victims of brutal abuse
and crimes. His traumatic background always influences his emotions. Bosch was the
child of a prostitute and at a very young age his mother was brutally murdered
by a young client who later became a very influential personality of Los
Angeles. His relentless quest to bring his mother’s killer to justice is a
running thread through most of the Seasons till he succeeds in tracking down
the killer, to the utter dismay and discomfort of his police chief Irving (played
by Lance Reddick) who is very ambitious, not even deterred by personal
tragedies to carry on with his career progression.
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Like the Indian honest
cops or that of most other countries Harry Bosch and his partner Jerry Edgar (played
by Jamie Hector) believe strongly in dishing out full justice to the criminals,
often instant justice, which is not possible due to the lingering legal
process. In America homicide is a very serious offense and even police officers
involved in seemingly justifiable killings face trial and suspension. Every criminal
is interrogated without any use of the third degree and has to be allowed to
have his/her lawyer. And then the ‘deals’ which reportedly account for more
than 90% of the American criminal case settlements. Even offenders of heinous
crimes are allowed to make deals with the DA for a lenient sentence in exchange
for more information about the crime rackets. Bosch and Jerry detest such practices,
have their moments of instinctive actions and the painful mental conflicts that
follow. Unlike in India where police officers escape easily enough after dubious
encounter killings or extra judicial killings and custodial deaths.
The web Series Bosch
gives us a very convincing picture too of the rivalries between the cops and
top bosses within the department. The ever-present character of Lieutenant Billets
(played by Amy Aquino) whose lesbian inclination threatens to impact her career
progression adversely, but she always stands by Bosch for all his actions
including even throwing a superior crashing through the glass wall to be on the
side of the truth. At times, interferences in cases assigned to a particular
cop cum his/her partner cause intense rivalries between detectives too.
Then of
course, the bad, corrupt and criminally involved cops within the department
that call for most careful handling. Further, as is observed in India too, the
coming of the FBI or the CIA into the scenario causes a holy mess, the cops
complaining about their own investigations and leads neutralized as they’re
always the first to reach the crime scenes. On the positive side the comradery within
LAPD in times of crisis, personal or departmental, is heartwarming. Comic interludes
are also nicely provided by the lovable veteran duo of Crate (played by Gregory
Scott Cummins) and Barrel (played by Troy Evans).
All the characters are
fully developed and believable. This is being helped by the fact that the plots
and the storylines follow Connelly novels very closely with the latter being one
of the producers of the Series. As an inevitable result most of the episodes
are primarily dialogue based which seems to slow down the pace as regards the
usual suspense-detective storytelling. However, this does not hamper the viewing
experience, because the interesting dialogues bring out the detailed process of
investigation—discovering more and more leads and then tracking these, finally
leading to the conclusion. Of course, a bit of criticism can be valid at stages
in one or two episodes when the storytelling somewhat loses its steam and
personal tragedies have to happen to pace up the tension and the momentum again.

Titus Welliver brings
out all the mannerisms of the character of Bosch in lovable glory, his
expressions mostly convey what he is actually thinking about an issue or his
ideas about it—the wry smiles, the smirks, the tilts of his head sideways and
so on. Like many of his LAPD colleagues Bosch too has tremendous love for his
city, and for the visual enhancement of the viewers his hilltop residence commands
a beautiful panoramic overview of Los Angeles. We are treated to some sweet homely
scenes in this house involving his ex-wife Eleanor Wish (played by Sarah
Clarke) till the 4th season and his daughter Maddie from season-2
till the end.
The 7th Season is the end of the
Bosch story. It has to be the end because in the last episode his confrontation
with the Police Chief who is busy planning his second term becomes extremely
severe with the enraged Bosch quitting his job on the spot. In the last scene Bosch
is shown to apply for a license for a private detective and he smiles sardonically
when the counter lady tells him that the FBI has to give the approval after proper
verification. Titus Welliver would be missed sorely as the lovable Bosch. However,
the good news is that a spin-off titled ‘Bosch: Legacy’ is set to stream on
Amazon next month. The adaptations from the Connelly novels have been done
expertly by Eric Overmyer in all the Seasons.
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