TV Review: 'Ballard'

Despite solid performances from Maggie Q and John Carroll Lynch, Prime Video's 'Ballard' lacks the style and substance of its predecessor 'Bosch: Legacy'.

Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Greg Gayne/Prime Video.

‘Ballard’ receives 5.5 out of 10 Stars.

Premiering on Prime Video July 9th is the new cop show ‘Ballard’, which is based on a character created by author Michael Connolly and is set in the same universe as ‘Bosch’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’.

Maggie Q ('The Protégé’) stars as LA detective Renée Ballard, along with John Carroll Lynch (‘The Founder’), Courtney Taylor (‘Abbott Elementary’), Michael Mosley (‘Ozark’), Rebecca Field (‘A Star Is Born’), and Victoria Moroles (‘Teen Wolf’).

Initial Thoughts

(L to R) Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Courtney Taylor (Zamira Parker) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Greg Gayne/Prime Video.

Based on a character created by author Michael Connolly and technically a spinoff of ‘Bosch: Legacy’, ‘Ballard’ is an adequate cop series but lacks the style and magic of its predecessor. While the title character was introduced in the final episode of ‘Bosch: Legacy’, the new series has almost nothing in common with the former other than a few mentions of past characters and an occasional appearance from Titus Welliver and other ‘Bosch’ actors.

It's more akin to ‘The Closer’, ‘Cold Case’ or ABC’s ‘Highly Potential’ with Kaitlin Olson. Maggie Q does the best she can with the role but lacks the charisma or gravitas to truly lead the series. John Carroll Lynch and the supporting cast also do their best to fill in the gaps, but it’s not enough to pick up the pace and tone, which otherwise falls flat. The series does get better as it goes on, gaining momentum as the audience gets to know the cast of characters and their backstories, but it never exceeds the level of just your generic cop series.

Story and Direction

Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Greg Gayne/Prime Video.

The series begins by reintroducing us to Los Angeles detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q), who has recently gone through an internal affairs investigation after reporting misconduct by one of her colleagues and has now been assigned to lead her own cold case department, which she sees as a demotion. Ballard’s first case is to solve the murder of councilman Jake Pearlman’s (Noah Bean) sister, which leads to discovering other victims.

Ballard puts together a new team of her own including her former partner, retired detective Thomas Laffont (John Carroll Lynch), volunteer and possible psychic Colleen Hatteras (Rebecca Field), intern Martina Castro (Victoria Moroles), reserve policeman and Pearlman’s friend Ted Rawls (Michael Mosley), and former detective Samira Parker (Courtney Taylor), who was also forced out of the department because of accusing her co-workers of misconduct.

In addition to investigating the councilman’s sister’s murder, Ballard and her team take on several other high-profile cold cases, eventually leading to an investigation into a team of crooked cops, that is directly connected to both Ballard and Parker’s pasts. While carefully investigating the dirty police officers, Ballard confides in her old friend Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) for advice, as he is a former LA detective turned private investigator who has had his own troubles in the past navigating the politics of the Los Angeles police department.

(L to R) Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Michael Mosley (Ted Rawls) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Patrick Wymore/Prime Video.

I know that ‘Ballard’ is technically a spinoff of ‘Bosch: Legacy’, but the series tries to have it cake and eat it too by completely stripping the tone and style of its predecessor and yet still shoehorning in ‘Bosch’ characters as if to say, “Hey, remember this is still ‘Bosch’!” And it’s not just the great Titus Welliver who returns with almost nothing to do, but more on that in a moment.

The series jumps right in as if we are supposed to already care about these characters, with no backstory explaining how they got here. To be fair, the backstories unfold as the series progresses, and that’s when you begin to care about these characters and the team they have created, but its several episodes in before that happens, and I’m afraid the casual watcher won’t give the series that long to get going.

‘Ballard’ is also missing the style and substance of ‘Bosch’ and ‘Bosch: Legacy’, which is what made the show so compelling. Those series had a noir feeling that ‘Ballard’ just can’t replicate. Ballard lives on the west side of LA, by the beach, which is in stark contrast to the Downtown LA/Hollywood vibe of the original series and fails to create an intriguing atmosphere. While the series builds some momentum as the episodes progress, it’s not enough to transcend the standard cop show syndrome the series is stuck in.

With the character of Renée Ballard only introduced in the final episode of season 3 of ‘Bosch: Legacy’, it’s not like even ‘Bosch’ fans have a long history with her and the series does nothing in the first few episodes to show us why we should care about her or the show. Ballard’s catch phrase is “The past is always present”, which holds a different meaning through the prism of solving cold cases, but rings hollow in the context of the series and just seems like a substitute for Bosch’s famous motto, “Everybody counts, or nobody counts.”

Cast and Performances

(L to R) John Carroll Lynch (Thomas Laffont) and Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Tyler Golden/Prime Video.

Maggie Q is a capable actress and has been quite good in action driven movies like ‘Mission: Impossible III,’ ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ and ‘The Protégé’ but lacks the charismas or gravitas to lead a series like this in the same way Titus Welliver did with the ‘Bosch’ franchise. Welliver became synonymous with the character, and it was hard to know the difference between Bosch and the actor playing him. Welliver also had a magnetic quality on screen, you couldn’t take your eyes off him, and Q does not possess the same characteristics as Ballard.

With popular series like ‘Nikita’ and 'Designated Survivor’ under her belt, Q is more than qualified to lead her own series, but perhaps this was not the best marriage of actor and character, as she has difficulty being believable in the role. What should be a showcase for another complex and likable Michael Connolly character instead seems like a run-of-the-mill cop you would find on any network police procedural.

The supporting cast does their best including acclaimed actor John Carroll Lynch (‘Zodiac’ and ‘The Founder’), who plays Ballard’s former partner Thomas Laffont, who has come out of retirement to back up Renée. As their past together and the reasons why Laffont retired come to the surface, there is more for Lynch to work with, but his character is a standout from the very beginning of the season.

(L to R) Courtney Taylor (Zamira Parker) and Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Greg Gayne/Prime Video.

Courtney Taylor’s Samira Parker has a big redemption arc in the first season and the actress is solid in the role. Having her past connect with Ballard’s was smart, if not also predictable, but works for the conspiracy plot and bringing Parker and Ballard closer together as friends.

Rounding out the cast are Michael Mosley, whose Ted Rawls is annoying at first but grows on you as time goes on, Victoria Moroles’ Martina, who’s not given much to do until the final episodes, and Rebecca Field’s possibly psychic Colleen, who is bubbly and funny, and is a standout the entire season.

Connections to 'Bosch'

(L to R) Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Titus Welliver (Bosch) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Tyler Golden/Prime Video.

While the series seems completely devoid of any connections or even a similar tone to ‘Bosch’ in the opening episodes, several characters, both big and small, make their return in ‘Ballard’. The most obvious is Titus Welliver as Harry Bosch. While Welliver’s appearance is always welcome, Harry seems out of place in ‘Ballard’, regulated to basically an advisory character.

Keep in mind, when ‘Ballard’ was first announced, it was assumed that ‘Bosch: Legacy’ would get a fourth season after she was introduced in season three, but after ‘Ballard’ got picked up, the decision was made to cancel the show. Unfortunately, Ballard was not introduced early in ‘Bosch: Legacy’s final season and given time to build, instead she was injected into the final episode, which always felt more like a backdoor pilot.

Let’s get this out of the way: ‘Bosch: Legacy’ never should have been canceled! Sadly, it was and while I want nothing more than to see Titus Welliver on screen as Harry Bosch once again, this was not the right way to do it. Major kudos to Welliver for being a class act and donating his time to appear on the new series, but why the showrunners would waste his appearance like this is beyond me. If you are going to bring Bosch back, make him part of the story. Give him some actions scenes and something to recite other than exposition, please!

Jamie Hector on Prime Video's 'Bosch.' Credit: Hopper Stone. Copyright: Amazon Studios.

Hardcore ‘Bosch’ fans will be over-the-moon to know that Jamie Hector returns as Detective Jerry Edgar, but again, don’t get too excited. His appearances are nothing more than cameos, and a way of bridging the gap between the two series and making ‘Ballard’ feel more like it is part of the ‘Bosch’ world. But again, these attempts feel hollow and not only don’t work to connect it to the overall ‘Bosch’ universe but keeps it from standing apart as its own distinct series.

It's also particularly disappointing as ‘Bosch’ fans were really hoping for J. Edgar to reunite with Harry on screen before the end of ‘Legacy’, which didn’t happen. So, seeing him here seems like another wasted moment. Speaking of wasted moments, Stephen Chang who was a series regular on ‘Legacy’ for three seasons as Mo Bassi returns for one scene where he has no dialogue and only walks out of a house. I appreciate the continuity, but why make Chang return for that?

Several other recognizable faces from the two previous series return, including Troy Evans as Barrel and Mimi Rogers as Honey “Money” Chandler. Just like Welliver and Hector’s returns, they don’t amount to much other than connecting ‘Ballard’ to the greater ‘Bosch’ universe. But since the show goes so far out of its way to establish that this show is not ‘Bosch’, it confuses me as to why they even bothered with the cameos. In all other ways, style, substance, tone, music, there are no connections to the previous shows, so these cameo appearances feel a bit off. But if you are going to bring back these excellent actors in the future, please give them more to do.

Final Thoughts

(L to R) Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Courtney Taylor (Zamira Parker) in 'Ballard'. Photo: Adam Rose/Prime Video.

While ‘Ballard’ is a fine cop show, it just can’t hold a candle to the previous two ‘Bosch’ series, which is probably an unfair comparison. But since ‘Ballard’ tries so hard to both be part of the ‘Bosch’ universe and something completely new, it fails on both counts. Maggie Q lacks the gravitas required for the role and the series fails to create any real urgency to watch. In the end, ‘Ballard’ is just another cop show and does not live up to the legacy of ‘Bosch’.

What is the plot of ‘Ballard’?

Ballard continues to bring Michael Connelly's bestselling novels to life, following Detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q) as she leads the LAPD's new and underfunded cold case division, tackling the city’s most challenging long-forgotten crimes with empathy and relentless determination. As she peels back layers of crimes spanning decades, including a serial killer's string of murders and a murdered John Doe, she soon uncovers a dangerous conspiracy within the LAPD. With the help of her volunteer team and retired detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), Detective Ballard navigates personal trauma, professional challenges, and life-threatening dangers to expose the truth.