Review by C.J. Bunce
Good choices and surprises. Bosch: Legacy, the second season of the series spinning out of seven seasons of Amazon Studios’ Bosch, was nothing like what anyone could have predicted. Airing on Amazon’s Freevee streaming service, the first season of the sequel series presented what felt in many ways like a completely different show, targeting three characters of the original. Of course that included Titus Welliver’s hero LAPD cop-turned-Private Eye, but it gave Mimi Rogers’ defense attorney Honey Chandler second billing, and Bosch daughter Maddie, played by Madison Lintz, the third spot. But those opening credits and the curious but catchy new theme song also added a new headliner with Stephen A. Chang holding his own as uber-hacker Mo Bassi. Now that all ten episodes of the second season have arrived, viewers know the first season was no fluke. From the first episode to the tenth, this season gave all four leads layered and twisty plots, and a finale that couldn’t have been more satisfying, making it one of the year’s top series.
The best character arc of the first seven seasons of Bosch was by far Bosch’s daughter, Maddie, played by Madison Lintz, who went from age 15 to 22. First living with her mother, ex-FBI agent turned high stakes blackjack pro Eleanor Wish (played by Sarah Clarke), Maddie soon proved to be her father’s daughter, learning and emulating his style and interests more with each new season. So it wasn’t too much of a surprise that she joined the police force for the sequel series, just as her dad quit to become this century’s version of P.I. Jim Rockford. For seven seasons Lintz’s character was becoming the series heroine in her own right. Then the sequel series started and her arc went sideways as the writers seemed to lose track of why this character worked. At the end of the first season of Bosch: Legacy, Maddie was a naive, green rookie who no longer seemed to have any control of her life, becoming a victim of a kidnapping. The previews for the second season looked like she’d be stuck as a victim all season. But it was all a great feint. And we all were suckers for it.
That’s because Bosch: Legacy was playing a long game. This story was going to let us watch Maddie grow just like we watched her dad. Harry settled into his new life as best as a guy like him could. At the same time Mo became more of a focus as a new girlfriend tried to get him thrown in jail. But for all that nonchalance, for all that cocky swagger, there was plenty of savvy to back it up. But the real superstar? That role was left for Mimi Roger’s Honey Chandler. Who knew her character had it in her?
First off, we all should have known. From the very beginning that “Money” moniker was never in question–was never any kind of joke. But in the finale this season, she delivered some legal magic that rivaled anything we saw from Jack McCoy in his whopping 400 episodes of Law & Order. Maybe we just can’t get enough of the goings-on in that famous, recognizable LAPD building we’ve been watching on TV screens since 1951. The Closer and Major Crimes showed how it’s done for 14 seasons. It didn’t seem like 14 seasons would be in the cards for Bosch. Until now. Bosch: Legacy has reset the course and the future could be exciting. The final episode has it all, plus an impossible surprise appearance that makes it one of the year’s finest hours of TV.
Returning actors for Bosch: Legacy are Jamie Hector (Det. Jerry Edgar), Denise Sanchez (Officer Vasquez), David Moses (Martin Rose), Cynthia Kaye McWilliams (Det. Bennett), Scott Klace (Sgt. Mankiewicz), Gregory Scott Cummins (Det. “Crate” Moore), Troy Evans (Det. “Barrel” Johnson), Jacqueline Pinol (Det. Espinosa), Jacqueline Obradors (Christine Vega), DaJuan Johnson (Rondell Pierce), and David Marciano (Det. Conniff). Anthony Michael Hall (Halloween Kills, Community, The Dead Zone) co-stars as Special Agent Will Barron, with Patrick Brennan (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2), Rafael Cabrera (Too Old to Die Young), Bruce Davison (X–Men), Jessica Camacho (All Rise), David Denman (Mare of Easttown), and Guy Wilson (Angelyne), and The Order’s Max Martini all joining the cast for Season 2.
Dragnet, Adam-12, The Rockford Files, The Closer, Major Crimes… Bosch was only the latest in a long string of L.A. cop shows, an adaptation of Michael Connelly’s character LAPD detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. The Amazon Studios series ran seven seasons from 2014 to 2021, before getting a much cheaper, slimmed down version of the story with a smaller cast of characters and a slightly narrowed set of police procedural stories. But the season proved a big budget wasn’t necessary.
Bosch: Legacy has renewed for a third season. If this season is any indication, the third won’t be its last. If you haven’t been keeping up, catch up with Harry, Honey, Mo, and Maddie on both seasons of Bosch: Legacy, now streaming on Amazon’s Freevee platform.
