Plot: Ballard continues to bring Michael Connelly’s bestselling novels to life, following Detective Renée Ballard 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, Detective Ballard navigates personal trauma, professional challenges, and life-threatening dangers to expose the truth.
Review: Bosch has been a mainstay on Prime Video since 2014 when the Titus Welliver-led procedural series began adapting the long-running novel series by Michael Connelly. After seven seasons and a three-season sequel, Bosch: Legacy, the original show came to an end back in April with an episode that introduced viewers to Renee Ballard. Played by Maggie Q, Ballard is similar enough to Harry Bosch while forging her own unique tone and approach to solving crimes. Essentially, Ballard is Bosch without being Bosch, but still includes Titus Welliver’s character in a key capacity. Ballard works as a summer series full of mystery and twists yet does not deviate much from the tried-and-true legacy the previous shows developed to perfection.
Ballard opens abruptly in the middle of a chase sequence. At first, I was confused about what was happening and assumed I had missed an episode. I went back to the series finale of Bosch: Legacy and rewatched it to see if maybe there was a plot threat I had forgotten. Realizing I had not missed anything, I went back to Ballard and had to trust that the series had a rationale for starting in the middle of the story. Within the first fifteen minutes of the premiere episode, we learn that Renee Ballard (Maggie Q) is in charge of a newly formed cold case unit comprised of volunteers with minimal professional police experience. While Ballard has enlisted her partner, Thomas Laffont (John Carroll Lynch) and police reserve officer Ted Rawls (Michael Mosley), the rest of her team is essentially intern Martina Castro (Victoria Moroles) and volunteer Colleen Hatteras (Rebecca Field). The newly formed unit comes from City Councilman Jake Pearlman (Noah Bean) with the express goal of solving the murder of his sister years earlier.
Ballard runs the unit begrudgingly after being blacklisted from the LAPD after accusations against a fellow officer, something that follows her throughout the first season. Renee lives a solitary life with her grandmother, Tutu (Amy Hill), and a casual relationship with lifeguard Aaron (Michael Cassidy). While Ballard feels the pressure from Pearlman to focus on his sister’s case, she gets drawn into another investigation that may share a connection. Finding that former LAPD officer Samira Parker (Courtney Taylor) looked into the cold case, Ballard uncovers deeper connections than she expected, implicating far more than anyone anticipated. The first season of Ballard focuses on this case, drawing inspiration from the Michael Connelly novel Dark Sacred Night but, like Bosch, the series uses original story elements combined with plots from multiple books.
Having seen the full ten-episode first season of Ballard, I found myself intrigued by the mystery and the formation of the cold case unit led by the titular detective. Maggie Q has played cops and other law enforcement officers before. Still, Ballard is a character suited to her skills as an actor and a fascinating protagonist in a male-dominated profession. Harry Bosch plays something of a mentor to Ballard through the series, but the real strength comes from the supporting players who play against the expected types. Michael Mosley and John Carroll Lynch are the most traditional police characters in the series, but Courtney Taylor is the best part of this ensemble. Maggie Q and Taylor make a solid pair as they investigate with the rest of the cast peppered in as needed. As strong as the core team is, the series feels like it undermines their prominence by repeatedly bringing Harry Bosch back into the fray, forcing the story to connect and feel like Bosch: Ballard rather than stand on its own.
Ballard hails from author Michael Connelly, who co-created the series with Kendall Sherwood, best known for producing and writing Major Crimes, The Code, Hawaii Five-0, and Your Honor. Thanks to Connelly’s oversight on the series, there is a consistency between Bosch and Ballard that extends to the directors on staff including Bosch: Legacy veterans Jet Wilkinson and Logan Kibens as well as helmers Sarah Boyd, Tori Garrett, and Jon Huertas. All directors bring a workmanlike approach, focusing on the investigators and hitting the right beats for the more intense moments. The subject matter of Ballard is dark and violent, but the on-screen bloodshed is relatively limited. Nevertheless, this is pretty weighty material handled in a manner not too different from what we usually see on shows like Law & Order or CSI. The series starts abruptly and ends with a massive tease about where it will head if it earns a renewal, with a direction that will surprise fans of the novels.
Ballard is much like Bosch before it and tells a conventional mystery in a traditional manner, full of misdirection, red herrings, and cliffhanger endings. The benefit of this series is the stalwart charisma of Maggie Q in the lead role as she navigates Renee Ballard’s personal demons and professional aspirations. Fans of the flagship series will find a lot to enjoy in this spin-off, especially given the inclusion of Titus Welliver as he reprises his role as Harry Bosch. Seeing as the source novels frequently pair Ballard and Bosch, I would anticipate Welliver and Q to continue to share the screen. Still, it feels like Renee Ballard deserves her own showcase rather than being indebted to connecting to the series that spawned it. Ballard is a decent summer series to watch, and like the books it is based on, it is a light and easy watch reminiscent of the novels quickly absorbed during days at the beach. While it may not stick with you in the long run, Ballard is a fun ride while you are on it.
Ballard premieres on July 9th on Prime Video.