Jamie Hector: "Bosch"

Several journeys occur in the final season of "Bosch." One of my favorites involves Grace Billets.

Grace, a smart, hard-working cop, becomes impatient during a meeting. She dresses down an underling. In the world of "Bosch," even one intemperate remark can be disastrous. And so the underling begins a bullying campaign; he writes "DYKE SLUT" on Grace's car, but he writes it with white shoe polish, so Grace can conclude that she is examining the work of a cop. The underling then harasses Grace's girlfriend with a B.S. traffic stop. (The writers point out that cops are only human; in another scene, a cop who clearly *is* guilty of DWI.....gets waved away....no problem....)

In "Bosch," the moment you know your boss wants your blood spilled is the moment he says: "We take your complaint very, very seriously." The boss stages a kind of theft--it's like when Joseph deliberately makes his brother, Benjamin, seem guilty of pocketing a "precious golden cup"--and, briefly, Grace seems in danger of losing her career.

Elsewhere, in other ways, appearance is at odds with reality. The beaming, young mayor doesn't smell so clean; under his robe, the intimidating police chief really isn't wearing any clothing. A bland female bureaucrat is in fact a disguised version of Lucifer. An apparently upstanding business-owner has made some secret Faustian bargains--and the business isn't what it seems to be.

I loved the fairy-tale world of "Bosch" for seven years; I loved the expensive shots, and the many details built into the sets. ("Hollywood Homicide: Our Day Begins when Your Day Ends." "Get Off Your Ass and Knock on Doors.") I cared deeply about five or six well-rounded characters, even after seasons had passed and I started to have an innate sense of where any given story might be going. I'm relieved that Bosch will be returning--in a slightly-altered form--sometime in the months ahead.

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