Bosch: Will the way the police are portrayed on screen have to change?

Most cop shows feature tortured souls bending and breaking the rules. Has that pop-culture message led to the marked reluctance to bring bad cops to book in real life? James Moore investigates

Will plots and characters be revised in the wake of real-life events such as the murder of George Floyd? (Amazon Studios)

As Bosch embarks on its seventh, and final, Amazon Prime season, its lead actor, Titus Welliver, is perhaps entitled to indulge in one of those looks the character he plays has become famous for. A raise of the eyebrows that says: “See, I told you so.” Seven seasons is pretty good going for what the Rotten Tomatoes consensus for season one described as “an uneven boilerplate police drama”. Paste Magazine, meanwhile, said Bosch was “your dad’s secret favourite show”. Given that it ranked it fifth out of 20 Amazon originals, you wonder why the secret? But it does rather sum up how the show is perceived.

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel has filled a truck with its awards while other critically lauded Prime shows such as The Boys, and The Man in the High Castle have (justifiably) received plenty of looks. Bosch isn’t in the same league on that score, but for a scripted streaming show to live for so long it must have something about it.

Perhaps its appeal lies in the fact that, while it mightn’t be particularly original, Bosch does what it does extraordinarily well. The contributing parts are all good; the writing, the direction, the sandblasted look of the show, the noir-ish feel, the way it makes the sleazy side of LA a key character in a way that few of its peers set in that city have. And of course, there’s Welliver.