Bosch - Television Season 4 Review

Back when I did my review of season 1 of Bosch (which you can read here), I pondered how this show might be impacted by the mainstream media's increasing coverage of police shootings and police misconduct. I haven't gotten much closer to getting an answer on that, however this season makes it clear that it's not worried about criticism aimed at its subject material.

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Where You Can Find It: I watched this one on Amazon Video where it is available for free to those have Amazon Prime accounts.

General Information 
Season 4 was released on Amazon Video on 13 April 2018 with season 5 pre-approved two months earlier. Thus far in this series, this season is the first to be based off of only one of Michael Connelly's Bosch novels: Angel's Flight. Strangely enough, I didn't notice any marked difference between this season and the previous ones despite the fact that the story was seemingly slimmed down. Like season 3, this season has no Metascore, but Rotten Tomatoes holds a 100% on the Tomatometer with a 98% Audience Score, which is the highest I've seen so far. 

The Story

Detective Harry Bosch (still played by Titus Welliver) has begun to stalk Police Commission President Bradley Walker (John Getz), but Harry's hobby gets interrupted when famous civil rights lawyer, Howard Elias, is murdered right before a headline trial. Strangely enough, Harry is one of the few detectives to have never crossed paths with the attorney, so he's assigned as the lead of a small task force of other detectives assigned to bringing Elias' killer to justice. Like the other previous investigations, Harry's in for a rough time as most cops hated Elias and the main suspects of the case, Hollywood's Robbery-Homicide Division, don't seem all that interested in cooperating.

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All of Hollywood Homicide is going to have to band together this time

I was both surprised and impressed by this season's handling of what would be a clearly controversial case. There's a lot of references to the 1990s as Elias is likely inspired by the real-life Johnny Cochrane, while there are plenty of mentions of the Rodney King Riots. Presenting such hard-hitting topics during the Trump Era must have been hard, but I think the showrunners did a pretty good job as neither cops or activists get all the glory. Harry's dead-pan style was quite entertaining in this season too, as it's pretty apparent he has little interest in race relations in policing. If I had one gripe about this whole topic, I think I was a tad disappointed that we never got a good perspective from Edgar or other non-white cops on how they viewed this whole situation.

I wasn't as impressed with the "side investigations" of this season as I usually am. Whereas previous seasons found ways to weave the subplots into the main plot, this season keeps most of its plotlines on parallel tracks. Although some of the subplots hold a great deal of emotional investment, I found myself less engaged when ever the Elias Murder got sidelined. Strangely enough, the worst subplot was Irvin Irving's (Lance Reddick) portion of the show as I found myself completely uninterested in his political shenanigans as they seemed to carry little weight.

Special Effects/Atmosphere
There were some pretty impressive shooting locations in this season that I did not see coming (although, I don't think anyone expected an epic face-off on an uninhabited island in season 3). The use of the Angel's Flight tram was unique, but I was particularly taken with the location the "killer" used to pull off their crime (I'm being ambiguous to avoid spoilers). There's something ominous about being in the presence of a place that was last visited by a cold-blooded murderer.

The special effects were serviceable, but I think it was music that helped this season in multiple sections. I think my favorite set-piece of this season was a shootout at a particular East Asian establishment while The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" plays. Strangely enough, a separate scene in that same episode uses music to a similar effect, but in a more somber way as a certain character goes for a drive while listening to Mazzy Star's "Into Dust."

The Acting

Since the beginning of this series, we've been slowly seeing more and more of Madison Lintz as Bosch's daughter, Maddie Bosch. She's naturally developed from a fairly typical teenager to an outsider to Harry's world, which has given Lintz a chance to really put some solid performances in. I wouldn't necessarily say that her part in episode 8 was the best I've seen of this entire series, but I'd argue it's one of the best scenes in this season easily.

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Maddie finally gets a bit of an arc in this season

Titus Welliver turns in another solid performance as well, and I once again found myself really appreciating Paul Calderon as Detective Jimmy Robertson. By this point in the show, I think I Calderon makes Robertson just as interesting as Welliver makes Harry.

The Best of the Best: The Elias Murder kept me guessing all the way to the end.

The Worst of the Worst: Once again: the Korea Town Killer subplot. Why is this even a thing?

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

Season 4 might not be as good as season 3 was, but it still brings plenty to the table and is certainly worth a watch. This might just be the first time I've seen a cop show explore race relations in policing in a balanced way that doesn't come off as overly preachy, nor tone-deaf. The sub-plot investigations might be a little lacking in this one, but the main mystery makes up for it in spades.
-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I didn't expect Eleanor to bite the dust, but she was clearly playing fast-and-loose. I don't care how long you've been in the FBI, I think everyone and their grandmother could see that phone she was trying to subtly record from.
• Looks like Harry finished solving the murder of one family member just in time to start a new investigation for another one.
• I think this might be only the second show I've ever seen that features the Chinese Ministry of State Security in some capacity.
• Considering I'm writing this review in 2020, I sincerely doubt that even Chief Irving would be able to stop a city-wide riot if a detective accused of murdering a civil rights attorney had secretly been released from prison (whether it was justified or not). Social media doesn't have time to wait for evidence, and even if it did, we'd definitely see nation-wide riots when that video of Robbery-Homicide torturing a man hits the public.
• Bradley Walker being behind the murder seemed a little too neat for me. It was well set-up for sure, but it feels like this season was wrapped up in a neat little bow.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------
*Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Bosch season four cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/bosch/s04.

**Calderon, P. (2018, April 10). Hollywood Homicide image. Facebook. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/799096590235021/posts/1440567016087972/. 

***Maoxian. (2017, April 17). Maddie Bosch image. Retrieved from: www.maoxian.com/thoughts/bosch-season-four.