Bosch Season 6 Review: Satisfying Police Procedural Comfort Food

There are few shows around right now that are as pleasingly entertaining as Amazon’s Bosch. As the series enters its sixth and penultimate season, it continues to be one of the most reliable cop shows on TV, while ensuring its surprisingly expansive ensemble cast makes the most of their individual storylines. The effect, then, is a new season that goes in some unexpected directions, raising the stakes for the show by fully committing to an almost outlandish plotline. But regardless of where Bosch’s procedural ambitions take it, the series manages to stay grounded thanks to its more conventionally satisfying subplots. It all results in a bingeable season of television that couldn’t have come at a better time. 

The first few seasons of Bosch were more or less sustained by the gritty performance of Titus Welliver and his dogged pursuit of the truth regarding his mother’s death. It was inevitable that the series would one day push past its primary directive and the series was forced to grow as a result. Surprisingly, the show got better as it progressed, building and reinforcing a new emotional through-line between Harry and his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz), particularly in the wake of her mother (and his ex-wife’s) untimely death not long ago. The series not only demonstrated it was not only willing and capable of exploring new territory but could thrive there as well, thanks in large part to its writers’ uncommon ability to write teens like real people rather than obnoxious agents of inadvertent chaos. 

But, like most good cop shows, Bosch ultimately functions as an ensemble. This one makes great use of a variety of supporting characters, many of whom have engaging subplots revolving around work and their tumultuous personal lives that helps fill the gaps between the season’s big case, while also justifying the series’ 10-episode seasons. For a series that follows the all-at-once format, it’s refreshing to find that it proves to be so consistently watchable, especially as it enters what, during this age of Peak TV, would be considered extreme old age. 

With its strong ensemble that includes Jamie Hector, Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, and the entertaining Troy Evans and Gregory Scott Cummins as Detectives Crate and Barrel, Bosch has the freedom to tell a variety of stories each season, and in season 6 the show cuts a wide swath, covering everything from stolen radioactive materials to separatist movements to sexual harassment in the workplace to the political ambitions of one Irvin Irving (Reddick). To the show’s credit, it manages to set up all of those storylines (and more) in the season 6 premiere. That’s not just economical storytelling, it’s cost-effectiveness on an almost unheard-of scale. And it helps make season 6 one of the most propulsive and compulsively watchable seasons of the show to date. 

Much of what makes season 6 entertaining is the way it balances the outlandish with the mundane, making hay of a murdered scientist who was blackmailed into stealing a radioactive isotope that may or may not be in the hands of a separatist group hellbent on using it to nefarious means. The case brings in the FBI as well as Lynn Collins (John Carter) as the wife of the murdered doctor, who may have a larger role to play as the particulars of the case are uncovered. It’s a big swing for a show like Bosch — which is essentially a by-the-book police procedural — to enter into the territory of, say, a Tom Clancy novel or John Woo film, but the show manages to make it work, largely by playing it straight and regarding the scenario as soberly as possible. 

As a result, the show finds itself well-equipped to handle a potentially catastrophic terrorist attack, without grinding its more domestic and human storylines to a halt. Throughout the search for the missing radioactive materials and the probing of separatist groups, Bosch finds time to engage with Irving’s plans to move into the political arena, while learning he and his wife are expecting a child. Similarly, Maddie and her boyfriend navigate the waters of a new relationship, while also hoping to find their way in an increasingly chaotic world. And that’s not half of what’s going on, as there’s also J. Edgar’s investigation into corrupt cops and a potential  harassment lawsuit against Lt. Billets. 

Most other shows would collapse under the weight of so many concurrent plotlines, but Bosch continues to demonstrate that it can be done and done well. As far as penultimate seasons are concerned, Bosch season 6 has its plate full, but in doing so it delivers a welcome 10-hour respite from the world outside. 

Bosch season 6 premieres Friday, April 17 on Amazon Prime Video.

About The Author

Kevin Yeoman
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Kevin is Screen Rant’s TV Editor. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming and the University of Washington. Kevin is a member of the TCA.

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