The Michael Connelly character Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch first premiered in a series of books begun in 1992. As this is written, the character has led to 24 distinct books and two distinct television shows. We focus here on the fifth season of the series Bosch (2014-2021), starring Titus Welliver in the title role. This season is based on Michael Connelly‘s book Two Kinds of Truth.
Season five of Bosch picks up fifteen months after season four, with the dust having settled from the Elias case led by Harry Bosch, the exemplary accomplishment of having solved a case with ingenuity for Detectives Moore and Johnson, Eleanor Wish’s murder and its aftermath, and finally some firm knowledge underpinning precisely why Harry Bosch‘s mother in fact died. The season quickly moves past this into a pharmacy murder by men in masks pitted next to the review of an old case from early in Bosch‘s career. The case, investigated by Chief Irvin Irving and Harry Bosch, could raise uncomfortable questions about several closed should things go badly. The late Lance Reddick portrayed Irving.
The old case up for a review leads Bosch to hire attorney Honey Chandler, the attorney opposing Bosch‘s professional interests in the season 4 Elias case, to defend him against charges of planting evidence. Hector Bonner does much of the investigation on Bosh’s behalf. Meanwhile, Maddie Bosch is working in the Los Angeles Police Department through the summer, with an interesting balance for her between loyalty to her father, personality traits of her mother, and potential romantic feelings budding through the season. Mimi Rogers portrayed Chandler as Ryan Hurst portrayed Bonner.
An interesting side story, as Bosch investigates the pharmacy murder turned pill mill undercover case with Jerry Edgar, becomes the ongoing story of the age of partner detectives Crate Moore and Barrel Johnson, as portrayed by Gregory Scott Cummins and Troy Evans. The response the two had to a crime in progress made a situation worse, led to a punishment for the detectives, and in the process created a headache for Lieutenant Grace Billets. Billets, as portrayed by Amy Aquino, work to defend Johnson and Moore while the two uncover an unethical yet real world practice of reporting borderline felony crimes as misdemeanors to improve the departmental records.
This headache for Billets happens in parallel to the pill mill case that sees Harry Bosch lose contact with Jerry Edgar. This off the books methodology functions well outside the chain-of-command, with Billets sticking her neck out in not escalating this up the chain when she first catches wind of the judgment calls that would be sure to ruffle the feathers of Chief Irving, who has been managing his involvement with the Christina Henry investigation of Bosch, oversite of impropriety by police in their manner of contact with the public, and a further recommendation that he, Irving, consider a run for mayor. Bianca Kajlich portrayed Henry.
The ninth and tenth episodes of this ten-episode season were the best of this season, which originally released in 2019. The truth underpinning the individual characters continued to be spot on to the truths that had come before, while giving us new developments and character paths that help me wish to keep on coming back. I give season five of Bosch 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, September 16, 2023
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