Amazon Originals Bosch Pilot

When I found out there is currently a pilot titled Bosch available at Amazon Studios, based on Micheal Connelly's Harry Bosch, I was already excited. When I also learned that Titus Welliver had been hand picked by Connelly to play Bosch, I was even more excited. I already knew and loved Titus from Lost and his many other roles. I then learned that I could  make it happen. Anyone that watches the pilot and rates and reviews it can help to make it happen, because it is viewer feedback that will determine whether Amazon decides to give the go-ahead for a full season. My excitement scale was teetering precariously up there to giddy. How often does a person get to have any control over programming and what gets produced?  The pilot is still available to watch for free viewing at Amazon.com where it can also be rated and reviewed.   It can be viewed and rated at IMBD as well.

I watched the first time and was instantly hooked. I watched it again (something like the fifth time) to attempt to understand what it is that has me so taken with it.  I came away understanding that it isn't just one thing. I can't pin it down to acting, though it is superb.  It isn't just the setting, the music, or the story alone. It is a perfect blend of all of that and then some.  Harry Bosch is a familiar character to anyone who has read Michael Connelly's books, since Harry was introduced in the Black Echo in 1992. Die-hard fans are not easy to impress when a movie or television actor tries to bring a beloved character to life from the pages of a book.

In the pilot, Bosch is standing trial in federal court for the shooting death of a suspected serial killer, while investigating the murder of a child. While he seems to feel no remorse for the killing of the first, he refuses to let go of the murder of the child, whose bones were discovered in the hills.  As it becomes clear just how horrific this child's life and death was, Harry must deal with the memories that surface from his own childhood as well.

Titus Welliver flat out nails it. He is Harry. He delivers the lines and owns him, and yet, he doesn't have to say a word. A clenched jaw while sitting in the courtroom,  the look on his face while gazing down into the ground where small bones had lain for many years, a shaking hand brushed across his face,  or when looking down on the city of  Los Angeles while at his home, in the dark, listening to the haunting and beautiful Lullaby, by jazz musician Frank Morgan.

To me, Bosch has a definite noir feel to it, and I am reminded of characters such as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe created by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. From the dark, rain drenched shooting scene, to Harry leaving the bones of a child on a coroner's table and trying desperately to hold it together, hands shaking with the effort.

I hope that Amazon sees how good Bosch is and makes this happen. If you watch the pilot, you will, too. If you have already seen it, tell me what you think.