Bosch

This will be a follow-up to my review of the pilot, which was shown on Amazon in 2014. It was voted in by Amazon Prime members, and a ten-episode series was made, and shown starting in early 2015.

We are big fans of the Michael Connelly books about Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, though I like Harry a lot better. This series is quite faithful, combining three novels into one long story arc: City of Bones, The Concrete Blonde, and Echo Park. The series has been renewed for a second season, when the books will be Trunk Music, The Drop, and The Last Coyote.

It’s not only the plot that they got right. Only minor changes have been made in the settings. For instance, in the books Harry lives in an A-frame on Woodrow Wilson Drive, up in the hills overlooking the 101 freeway and the Valley. In the series, the house is a little fancier and looks out over West Hollywood. The book Harry was a tunnel rat in ‘Nam; here he’s an Iraq War veteran. But Harry is still a jazz fan, and listens to his huge vinyl collection on an antique (by now) Marantz Model 6300 turntable and a McIntosh model MC-240 tube amplifier. Idle thought: If a tube burns out, where do you go these days to replace it? Ditto the cartridge. And how much would it cost you? (Oops! Just looked at eBay. There is a ton of stuff like that for sale.)

And I must say, though we would love the series even we had never been to Los Angeles and Hollywood, we lived there for several years, and it is great fun seeing the places we used to frequent. In particular, the restaurants. Pretty much every place Harry had a bite to eat here is a place we have also dined. In particular, Norm’s on La Cienega. I’ll bet we ate there two or three times a month for years. I thought they had the best fish and chips in town, but the whole menu is good, solid diner food and generous portions. When in L.A., eat at Norm’s! And see this series.