The actor who plays the Bosch character - Titus Welliver - really reminds me of Steve McQueen in Bullitt? His style of dress, mannerisms, and speech seem similar to me. Anyone else see any similarities or is it just me?
Never watched it, (but then, other than TCM, I rarely/never watch television), but having been hooked on the novels since Black Echo, the first Bosch book nearly 30 years ago, I'm afraid my reaction would be much the same. I just feel like Harry Bosch needs to stay on the printed page, where he is best served.
It's a tough thing. I suspect that any time a book or book series has lodged itself in your brain, you're likely going to have issues with a screen adaptation. On the other hand, if the TV series' success encourages more people to seek out the original novels, then that's a good thing.
Love the books and the show. As a crime fiction junkie I think it’s great that this series got made (with Connelly being an executive producer of course) during the peak tv show era when so many of the top series are crime series that were inspired by crime fiction. Same thing with John LeCarre getting a lot of his books made into series.
Very true. Anything that encourages more people to read is a great thing, & Michael Connelly's books are so sharply & cleanly written. I'm a voracious reader, (fiction & non fiction both), & he's one of the best writers I've ever encountered. Oddly enough, the last TV show I really watched was based on a character(s) from a book, & that's Justified. Raylan Givens had been in two Elmore Leonard novels & a short story of course, but wasn't as established as Bosch is. I gave the show a chance, & found that even as it expanded the characters beyond the short story the first episode was based on, that the casting of every single character over it's six seasons, down to the most minor was spot on perfect, & the scripts & dialogue always rang true to Leonard's writing style. Along with M*A*S*H & Sanford & Son, it's the only other show I have complete on DVD.
I was trying to think of who he reminded me of and I couldn’t think of anyone but now that you mentioned McQueen, that is him. He’s got all the facial expressions and style.
Big fan of the show, especially for all of the LA locations. I just finished re-watching Deadwood--it's kind of weird seeing Welliver with a full head of dark hair and a beard as Silas Adams.
Heh...I was 40-ish a couple of decades ago. What I meant was his look was really different in Deadwood vs Bosch.
The stories may be well adapted from the books, but the title character is not so much. I found that the TV screen Bosch and the book Bosch are night & day different. As I said in this thread: Bosch, Jazz Vinyl Loving Cop On Amazon "They are really changing this series up from the books, which doesn't bother me too much. For one thing, Harry is suddenly a Golf War vet instead of a Vietnam vet, which makes his tunnel rat background a bit weird in context. I tend to doubt there were many tunnels in the Gulf War. Also, they seem to be making him out to be some sort of respected leader in the detective room. That's not how he is portrayed most of the time in the books. In the books, Harry's the lone wolf - even Edgar doesn't work too closely with him."
I love the show. At first i wasn't sure I'd continue because I viewed Bosch as too much of an A-H. But i got used to it and all the other elements of the show make it into an interesting series. btw, if you like Bosch you would probably also like Goliath on Amazon Prime. Yes, Bosch is a detective and the star of Goliath is an attorney, I watched them back to back and found them to be almost equally good shows, and with the same sort of target audience.
Yeah man there’s been 6 novels with Mickey Haller (i.e. The Lincoln Lawyer). He’s Harry Bosch’s half brother. Lots of character crossover in both the Bosch and Haller book series. This is huge news. And yes McCoaughey played Haller in the movie.
Now that to me is a deal killer right there. In the books Bosch is fundamentally honest & true to his beliefs, even if it makes him a lone wolf & leads him the wrong direction sometimes. The fact that he's not perfect & has rough edges only adds to the character's complexity over the arc of the books, along with his aging naturally. I can understand retconning the character from being a Vietnam War vet to a Gulf War vet on the show for obvious reasons, but you're correct, likely not many tunnel rats in that war.
Does this show get exponentially better than the pilot? I just watched that, and thought it seemed like your basic TV cop drama.
As I noted, the first season, in my estimation, wasn't that great. Kind of a by the numbers serial killer guy who loves to bait the cop etc. It seemed kind of boiler plate. The second season, with Jeri Ryan, was marginally better, but not that spectacular either. I'll start up season three here in a bit and see if things improve.
I wouldn't say it's great but He reminds me of Steve McQueen a bit too. But actor Damian Lewis REALLY looks like Steve McQueen and I've thought that since Band Of Brothers