Category: Television

Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau

Bosch debuted in 2014 as Amazon Prime’s first original dramatic program. Based on a series of novels by author Michael Connelly, the show features Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, a detective who works in downtown Los Angeles. The show is not episodic like Law and Order SVU or CSI, but there’s a lot, especially in the first season, that will be familiar to viewers of other crime shows.

Bosch is played by actor Titus Welliver, a tried and true television actor who, up until now, had never really had his time in the spotlight. Bosch is perfect for Welliver though. The actor, who has appeared on shows like Lost, Deadwood, and The Good Wife, find the perfect balance in the character. Short but never too gruff, just but not afraid to question authority, Welliver delivers a performance that is undoubtedly harder to pull off than it looks. He’s without a doubt one of the reasons the show is so easy to watch.

The show really spreads its wings in its later seasons. Shaking off the cable feel and turning into something cinematic, the second through sixth seasons of Bosch are something entirely its own. They are pulpy without being corny, thoughtful without being controversial. There’s much more nuance that one would expect from a show about a veteran cop working in Hollywood, and the show regularly tackles social issues in a patient manner. It’s one of those rare programs that gets better the more you watch it. The show balances its tense and high-action moments with ones of real tenderness and character growth. This, in addition to a masterful interweaving of subplots and B stories, allows Bosch to tell multiple, equally engaging multiple-episode stories through its seasons.

Bosch has flown relatively under the radar for its run, but that’s no reason not to check it out. It has consistently proven itself to be one of the best shows on television, and there’s no reason to think that the seventh and final season will be anything less than the previous. M

January 2021

Reviewed by Ramona Prioleau

Based on the novel and 1973 film by Jurassic Park director Michael Crichton, Westworld began airing on HBO in 2016. Intended to be the studios flagship show following Game of Thrones conclusion, the series is a high-concept, high-budget science-fiction story that takes place in the near future.

The first season takes place in an Old West theme park where high-payings guests are able interact with robots and artificial intelligences in worlds and scenarios that are developed and written by the park’s various departments. As the world of the park and the world its developers began to change and overlap, characters from both spaces, automaton and not, begin to uncover a series of sinister plots plaguing the land of Westworld. Later seasons explore other parks and other mysteries in the outside world.

The show honors and takes heavy inspiration from its science-fiction source material, but it is not beholden to it. This, for the most part, is a good thing, as it allows the series to change and grow in directions that no audience member sees coming. Occasionally the show can go completely off the rails (even for a series about a fully-automated, fantasy-fulfilling theme park populated by artificial intelligence), but it stays surprisingly grounded most of the time. Real moments of drama arise as characters ponder what it means to be human and what it means to have choice, and a series of mysteries should be more than enough to keep most viewers binging.

Westworld utilizes its top-tier cast to great effect while at the same time making stars out of its lesser known characters. Hollywood veterans like Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins are given unique, mysterious roles, but they are from cameos or billing intended to get audiences to the door. There’s a lot of meat on the bones for both actors to chew on, and both characters reveal themselves fully over the course of the whole first season. They have real arcs, as do the rest of the show’s characters. Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton give career defining performances, and character actor Jeffery Wright adds yet another perfect supporting performance to his growing list of them. Aaron Paul, Luke Hemsworth, and Tessa Thompson all make a lasting mark on the show in various seasons as well.

Westworld has lost some of its original audience as it continued into its later seasons, but that does not stop it from being one of the most original and unique shows on television today. M

June 2020