Summary
- Ballard spin-off underwhelms with Titus Welliver's brief cameos and generic crime series feel.
- Fans' frustration with Amazon's choices highlighted by petition with 36,000 signatures.
- Ballard's future signals potential end for quality and essence of Michael Connelly's Bosch-verse.
The full trailer for Bosch: Legacy's Ballard spin-off was released this week and the response from fans has been mixed. While it's exciting to see the Bosch-verse continue in some capacity, the abrupt end of Bosch: Legacy is still fresh in fans' minds. Titus Welliver makes a brief appearance in the trailer, and utters an instantly iconic line that eerily resonates with the direction of Michael Connelly's crime universe, and the state of Hollywood.
During their ongoing marketing campaign to promote Ballard, Amazon have been eager to remind fans that Harry Bosch would be in Ballard, but they conveniently failed to mention that Titus Welliver's role would only consist of three cameo appearances. The trailer for Ballard looks and feels like every other generic crime series, and only time will tell if it's worthy of its place in Michael Connelly's Bosch-verse.
Bosch: Legacy's Potential Season 4 Plans, Explained
The Bosch: Legacy creative team had mapped out exciting plans for another season, before Amazon canceled it.
The Ballard Trailer Features Harry Bosch Offering Some Insight That Resonates With The Future Of The Connelly Verse And The Hollywood Industry
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Ballard Season 1 |
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Starring |
Maggie Q, Courtney Taylor, John Carroll Lynch, Michael Mosley, Rebecca Field, Victoria Moroles, Amy Hill, Ricardo Chavira, Noah Bean, Alain Uy, Hector Hugo and Titus Welliver |
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Based on the books by |
Michael Connelly |
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Showrunners |
Michael Alaimo and Kendall Sherwood |
Hell hath no fury like a fanbase scorned. Over 36,000 fans have signed the petition to Save Bosch: Legacy, but the pig-headed executives over at Amazon still refuse to respond to their customers' requests. The fans want Bosch: Legacy to continue alongside the Ballard spin-off, but it's not to be as it stands. Harry Bosch actually summed up how the majority of fans feel when he featured briefly in the Ballard trailer. Titus Welliver's iconic ex-LAPD detective turned private investigator responded to Renee Ballard's wish to return to her previous life before joining the cold case unit:
The way things were might not exist anymore.
This instantly quotable Harry Bosch line could be interpreted to reflect the current state of the Connelly verse and the wider issues associated with the Hollywood industry. Fans are disillusioned with the direction Amazon is taking with Michael Connelly's source material, but this was always inevitable due to Silicon Valley's influence in Hollywood. Tech companies like Amazon view everything as a product, and they are clueless when it comes to understanding how the creative side of the industry works. The streaming bubble has burst, and they need more subscribers and a barrage of advertisements to keep the money flowing. For instance, the best creative choice would have been to fill Renee Ballard's cold case unit with retired detectives.
Michael Connelly's Ballard books are based on former LAPD detective, Mitzi Roberts' real-life cold case unit which was populated by this older demographic. However, despite Connelly and Roberts being executive producers on Ballard, it looks like Amazon ignored the source material, as there aren't any retired detectives on the cold case team. Fan favorites, Crate and Barrel, would have been perfect for Ballard's unit, but they have been relegated to one brief appearance in the upcoming spin-off. Sadly, this will probably be the last time fans get to see these characters and there's one very simple reason for that. Anyone who speaks out against Amazon lands a place on their blacklist, and Troy Evans did exactly that during an exclusive interview with The Best War Games in the lead up to Bosch: Legacy's final season.
Save Bosch: Legacy Key Points
- Sign the petition to Save Bosch: Legacy HERE
- Spread the word by visiting Bosch: Legacy's official Facebook and Instagram accounts, and tell other fans about the cancelation, and link to the petition.
Ballard Could Be The Beginning Of The End For Michael Connelly's Bosch-verse
Fans will have a better idea of where the Bosch-verse is heading on July 9, when all 10 episodes of Ballard are released. A two-minute trailer isn't enough to make a decision on what kind of show it'll be, but there are some significant indicators that it might not be quite what fans are hoping for. Aside from Titus Welliver's disappointing cameo appearances and the issues with the demographic of the cold case team, Ballard is also saddled with survivors' guilt after the cancelation of Bosch: Legacy.
Ballard also looks like a typical network show as opposed to the peak TV era that the original Bosch series resided in. Bosch had the legendary showrunner Eric Overmyer at the helm, whose credits include iconic shows like Homicide: Life On The Street and The Wire. In stark contrast, Ballard's showrunners, Michael Alaimo and Kendall Sherwood's producer credits, consist of more episodic shows, like Major Crimes and Hawaii Five-O. No disrespect to them, but it doesn't exactly spark confidence that Ballard is ready to elevate Michael Connelly's universe to the next level.
Sign The Petition To Save Bosch: Legacy HERE
Amazon Needs To Respond To This Bosch: Legacy Revelation
It has been confirmed that the Ballard spin-off wasn't supposed to replace Bosch: Legacy, and Amazon need to explain themselves.