Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector and Amy Aquino in Season Four of ‘Bosch’

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 fourth season of the series Bosch (2014-2021), starring Titus Welliver in the title role for the series.

(Titus Welliver as Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch in season four of Bosch).

Season four of Bosch picks up three months after season three with subject matter from the Connelly books Angels Flight of 1999 and Nine Dragons of 2009. Irvin Irving, as portrayed by Lance Reddick, has been named police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. As with Irving’s ascension to police chief, threads from previous seasons visit upon the police department, the larger community of Los Angeles, California and the personal lives of the police, members of their families, and the stakes for the cases under investigation with this season.

(From left, Jamie McShane as Francis Sheehan, Tamberla Perry as Gabriella Lincoln and Winter Ave Zoli as Amy Snyder in season four of Bosch).

Important threads for this season tug on racial strife, with the murder of civil rights attorney Howard Elias, as portrayed by Clark Johnson, serving as a central catalyst. Elias was in the process of representing a black man accusing LAPD of police brutality. Irving appoints Bosch to lead a task force, which includes Jerry Edgar, Santiago ‘Jimmy’ Robertson, and sergeant Amy Snyder and Gabriella Lincoln. Jamie Hector, Paul Calderon, Winter Ave Zoli and Tamberla Perry portray Edgar, Robertson, Snyder and Lincoln, respectively. A significant storyline involving Francis Sheehan, as portrayed by Jamie McShane, emerges that captures the attention of this this task force.

(From left, Amy Aquino as Grace Billets and Jamie Hector as Jerome (Jerry) Edgar in season four of Bosch).

Grace Billets, as portrayed by Amy Aquino, continues to serve as lieutenant for the Hollywood division of the LAPD, where the Elias investigation is based. While trying to manage the personalities of the multiple threads of police officers already mentioned, Billets is juggling an assignment as captain without the job title, which presents difficulties that are felt in their own ways by threads of the past for Bosch with Edgar, Robertson and Snyder. Calderon’s own past plays a part in this investigation, while Jerry Edgar has familial struggles with his wife, Latonya Edgar. Ingrid Rogers portrayed Latonya Edgar.

(John Getz as Bradley Walker in season four of Bosch).

Bradley Walker, as portrayed by John Getz, played a relevant role in the fourth season. While having the ear of Irvin Irving as the president of the police commission for the LAPD, in addition to being a former officer, Walker had requested ongoing updates into the investigation into Elias. Harry Bosch had suspected Walker of complicity in the death of Marjorie Phillips Lowe, Bosch’s mother. Things worsened when Bosch‘s ex-wife and the mother of Madeline Bosch, Eleanor Wish, was murdered. The background between Wish and Reggie Woo became more transparent after the murder, with the relationship between Harry and Madeline becoming more visible. Madison Lintz, Sarah Clarke and Hoon Lee portrayed Madeline, Eleanor and Reggie, respectively.

(Sarah Clarke as Eleanor Wish in season four of Bosch).

The fourth season of Bosch offered a good deal of clarity for the larger story being told across the lives of the central characters of the Amazon original series Bosch. With that longer range storytelling, in combination with groundwork laid for additional seasons of the show, I recommend this series. I grant season four of Bosch 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, November 12, 2022

Brad Pitt and the film ‘Ad Astra’

The science fiction movie Ad Astra (2019) hit theaters in the United States three weekends ago with minimal fanfare. The cinematic look in paying homage to space movies past does it credit for visually resembling some of the better cinema in the space film genre. While I appreciate the touch of space tourism of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the multi-dimensional imagery that accompanied Interstellar (2014), this film lands somewhere closer to First Man (2018) as far as storytelling success.

(Ruth Negga as Helen Lantos, left, and Brad Pitt as Roy McBride in the film Ad Astra).

Brad Pitt stars as astronaut Roy McBride, who takes a space quest across the solar system in search of his father. H. Clifford McBride, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is the father who seeks intelligent life towards the limits of the navigable solar system in a hypothetical near term reality. Ruth Negga plays Helen Lantos, a character whose life story in inextricably intertwined with both McBrides.

(Tommy Lee Jones as H. Clifford McBride in the film Ad Astra).

Donald Sutherland plays Thomas Pruitt, a former astronaut. H. Clifford McBride reportedly had some harsh history with H. Clifford, and it was in part his task to escort Roy from the Earth to the moon to Mars for a crucial mission to save the fate of the world. Pruitt’s character is important for informing the emotional relevance of the back story of the McBrides.

(Donald Sutherland as Thomas Pruitt in the film Ad Astra).

James Gray co-wrote and directed the film Ad Astra. The physical takes of offering insight into the colonization of the moon and Mars as a means for getting to the outer solar system makes for some solar system engineering. The resource combat and the science experiments that were parts of the film, combined with the notion of space tourism, really interested my inner nerd.

(James Gray directed and co-wrote the film Ad Astra).

Parts of the larger story, and the means of getting sense out of this story, were not the best I’ve seen in the genre of spaceflight related science fiction. The panache of a father son story did not bear the intrigue of a book by Ray Bradbury or a movie by Christopher Nolan. Most movies with spaceflight in the concept are possible points of interest for me. Unless you simply need a Brad Pitt fix, my recommendation is to wait for the DVD or streaming service to see this film. My grade for the film Ad Astra is 3.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, October 12, 2019