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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Bosch Season 2: Dragnet with Uber

I just finished the second season of Bosch last night, streaming on Amazon Prime.   Like the first season, this gritty, fast-moving, wise-cracking LA cop series is the living incarnation of Dragnet - that iconic very early television series featuring Jack Webb as Joe Friday - which is to say, very good indeed.

There were some differences between this second season and the first.  Almost no romance - which I missed - but made up for by a stunner in the middle of the season, and one of the best shoot-outs ever on television a little after that.  Indeed, my main complaint about this second season is that it took a little too long to get there, after which the action was lightning on the screen.

The repartee, as it was in the first season, and in Dragnet, was nonstop and top-notch.  It's also pretty hip, with Bosch invoking Uber - not using the app but invoking the name - at one crucial juncture. As was clear in the first season, Titus Welliver inhabits this role with perfect intensity and laconic style, and there's no doubt that, although he's played cops on television often in this past, this will be the defining role of his career.

Jamie Hector is also excellent as Bosch's partner, and although this hasn't quite yet attained what Hector did as Marlon in The Wire, it's a strong contender.   Lance Reddick, whose career also began to catch fire on The Wire, is excellent as always in a top brass role, and in the second season he plays an especially pivotal role.

Back to the lack of romance in the second season, there are also fewer really memorable women on hand.   But this is just one season, and with Bosch already renewed for a third, there's every reason to look forward to stories with all sorts of people in bed in what has become the best cop show on television.

See also Bosch: First Half: Highly Recommended ... Bosch: Second Half as Fine as the First ... Bosch Season 3: Best Season So Far


                   another kind of police story 

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