THE ABSTRACT ART OF HARRY BOSCH

There are always things you notice for the first time when you re-watch; things your eye is drawn to around and outside the main drives of character and plot. This week I binge-watched the first season of Michael Connelly’s superb Bosch, in anticipation of its return tonight for Season 6. On my second time through, I found myself just as engrossed as I was when it was first shown, impressed by the way the plot strands interact in the overall structure, impressed as always by the acting. I was reminded that a couple of key characters had changed — I had forgotten Michelle Hurd played Connie Irving in the first series, and much as I like her and admire her work, Erika Alexander really made the part hers. There was also a character change, as in series one the crime reporter for the LA Times is Adam O’Byrne, playing Nate Tyler: he’s aggressive and somewhat old-school and winds up a major part of the story, as you’d expect in a series based on Connelly’s work — but in series 3 he’s replaced by Eric Ladin as Scott Anderson, who’s a bit more like what you might expect a modern reporter to be, interested in deal making, a more modern news man, more interested in ambition than news, perhaps. He’s perfect for the kind of play and get played business of Season 5.

But what I was taken with more in my second spin through Season 1 was the way the scenes are constructed, and specifically the transition and establishing shots. These are standard in any series drama, and frankly, are usually utilitarian: exterior of police HQ, cut to exterior (or interior) of someone’s office, depending on whether you want to show the character entering or already seated. Sometimes the camera zooms from the exterior to a window: if you grew up watching hour-long cop shows in the 60s or 70s you know what I mean.

Bosch, however, works with a double-layered approach, which reflects in some ways the greater freedom which the expanse of a self-contained ten episode series provides. Yes, you get the exterior location to interior set. But much of the time this is set up with transition shots which establish neighborhood, background and mood. LA cop shows were always shot in LA light: everything bright, few shadows. Nowadays, in HD, it seems most shows, regardless of setting, do the same thing, and it would be churlish of me to suggest a paucity of depth in the photography suggests…