Review: Bosch Pilot On Amazon

I think everyone’s main question when watching the free Amazon pilot for the new TV series called Bosch was – how well do the Michael Connelly Harry Bosch novels translate to the TV screen? I was one of them and to be honest, my hopes were not very high, considering many TV series that have been made from books totally deviated from the written word.

Titus Welliver as Bosch (screen capture from the show)

Much to my surprise, however, the pilot that is available on Amazon from February 6 to be watched for free, nailed pretty much everything related to the Harry Bosch novels: the lonely cop, Bosch, played so well by Titus Welliver, the atmosphere of the place, even many of the words spoken by some of the characters were literally taken from the books. Having watched the free pilot just a few days ago, I felt it really uncanny how well it related to the Harry Bosch books that I’ve read over the years.

It is really no surprise though, if you consider that the author had a lot of involvement in creating “Bosch”. He was involved with the production all the time, having given quite a lot of input in how the show would translate from his books. From what I’ve seen the pilot didn’t focus on a particular novel  in the Harry Bosch series, instead combined elements from two books: The Concrete Blonde (published in 1994) and City of Bones (published in 2002).

So if the series goes forward (which I truly hope it does), it probably won’t be a book to series translation, but a mesh of various books to form a unique TV shows which is still eerily faithful to the Harry Bosch mystery series overall.

After having watched Bosch the day it aired, I can honestly say that it was pretty awesome. All the characters were well played by the respective actors, and Titus Welliver was particularly true to the character of Bosch in the books. The sad, often broody and dark (yet exceptionally honest) character was literally brought to life by Welliver.

From now on every time I will read a new Michael Connelly novel about Harry Bosch, I can’t but imagine Welliver being him (maybe just the same as every time I was read a new Dexter book, I had the image of Michael C. Hall in front of my eyes literally every moment of reading the book).

In the pilot Bosch is dealing with several cases at the same time – starting from his own trial over having shot dead a possible criminal, to taking (almost by force) the case of a dead body found by a dog in the mountains (body which turns out to be of a small child). Towards the end of the show we get a few glimpses of Bosch growing up in an abusive environment, and we can see just why he really hangs so tight onto the small dead kid’s case, with a lot more to come about this in next episodes.

The last few minutes I kept looking at the time hoping that the show will last just a bit more…to let us get an extra glimpse of Bosch and his sad and dark, yet utterly human side. Thus when the time was over, I was excited, yet disappointed at the time, knowing that I’ve watched a fantastic start of a new series, and fearing that it’s not even sure the series will go forward.

The pilot that aired on Amazon for free will only be turned into a full fledged series if lots of people will watch it and everyone who saw it will add a positive comment about it. Basically all of us who have watched it – or will be watching it – are part of a major focus group, with the series’ fate in our hands. Currently as we speak there are close to 3,000 5 star reviews for it. That does say something about its greatness, doesn’t it?

You can watch the pilot here (it’s free on Amazon) and decide for yourself whether it is worth becoming a real TV series. If you do, get involved and be part of making it happen!
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