Ballard

☆☆☆☆Starring: Maggie Q, John Carroll Lynch, Rebecca Field, Victoria Moroles, Michael Mosley, Courtney Taylor,

Created by: Kendall Sherwood and Michael Alaimo

s Prime Video’s first drama, Bosch made a splash when it was released, treading onto old hard-boiled crime ground yet still maintaining an appeal through its character studies and cases. While the original show ended in 2021, Prime Video introduced a spin-off, Bosch: Legacy, which brought the titular character, played by Titus Welliver, back into the limelight. The show’s finale somewhat served as a backdoor pilot for another spin-off by introducing us to another prominent character within the universe of Michael Connelly’s novels, one that would eventually lead to her own spin-off, Ballard.

Renée Ballard (Maggie Q) shows us another side of the LAPD, where sexism and corruption are fraught. Though it would have been easy to get lost in the flagship series’ shadows, Ballard’s ten episodes surge forward with their own distinct style, defined by an irresistible combination of grace and grit. Following the titular character, Ballard takes us to the basement of the LAPD, where the detective leads their new cold case division. It is an under-funded and overworked unit, where Ballard has to rely on volunteers to function, including retired cop Thomas Laffont (John Carroll Lynch), sleuthing empty nester Colleen (Rebecca Field), intern Martina (Victoria Moroles), and security company owner Ted Rawls (Michael Mosley).

The division was originally built with the purpose of solving a councilman’s sister’s murder, a case that hangs over the entire season. However, as Ballard recruits another ex-cop onto the team, Samira Parker (Courtney Taylor), they also discover potential corruption among the group of police officers in the LAPD. Oscillating between the two cases, the team perseveres under high stakes and pressure to track down a series of perpetrators.

As a spin-off to Bosch, Ballard naturally has many similarities, particularly in terms of tone. The way the show approaches crime is stark, serious, and unflashy, retaining that sense of peering into the underbelly of the justice system. But while Bosch has more of a noir-ish feel to it, almost like it could be pulled off in black-and-white, Ballard has a lot more grace and delicacy. Perhaps this is due to the different leads of the shows, but it is a distinction that makes Ballard feel like its own. Also, like Connelly hinted at, Welliver’s Bosch does make appearances in Ballard, but he doesn’t overpower the show, jumping in at the exact right times to make his presence felt, but happily gives up the stage to Q’s Ballard.

“Renée Ballard (Maggie Q) shows us another side of the LAPD, where sexism and corruption are fraught. Though it would have been easy to get lost in the flagship series’ shadows, Ballard’s ten episodes surge forward with their own distinct style defined by an irresistible combination of grace and grit. It stands on its own merits.”

All that being said, having grace doesn’t mean the show shies away from difficult material; Ballard handles its major themes of sexism, sexual assault, and crimes against women with sensitivity and brutal honesty. Like Bosch, it hits all the familiar beats of a crime drama, bringing nothing really new to the table, but the show uses it as a framework to build that all-too-frustrating sense of female rage. With this angle, it could fall into the trap of just being an arbitrary female counterpart to the original show, but between the aforementioned atmosphere, earned writing (by Michael Alaimo and Kendall Sherwood), and dynamic character studies, it stands on its own merits.

While the major arcs in the season are split into two, like any cop drama, there are numerous moving parts that eventually wrap together in a grand finale. Some episodes face pacing issues as they get bogged down in the quotidian cogs of the overarching story, where some scenes overstay their welcome, but the show always gets back on track, returning to its usual gripping flow. Aside from this unevenness, the storytelling is as immersive as many of Connelly’s novels are. You get the suspense, the emotional drama, the suspects you wish were guilty, the suspects you wish weren’t, and the healthy dose of a well-timed witty remark to get you cackling.

When Q entered Bosch: Legacy as Detective Ballard, it boded well for the spin-off as she shared easy chemistry with Welliver and was instinctively likable in the role. As we hoped, Q does not disappoint in Ballard, playing the character with that signature combination of grit and grace that the series’ atmosphere revels in. Both Ballard and Bosch have that obligatory world-weariness and gruffness detectives need, as well as a personal trauma that drives their philosophy, with Bosch’s being “everybody counts” and Ballard’s being the desire to give hope and closure to those forgotten. Also, where Bosch indulges in jazz music, Ballard has an affinity with surfing, where the scenes of her on the water are scored soulfully, contributing to the grace and depth of Q’s performance.

However, Ballard is more of a stickler to the rules, which is somewhat refreshing in a cop drama. Whether this holds for the season is another matter, but it delivers the idea of exposing the limitations of the law through a more stringent, diligent take on cop work. Ballard’s fidelity to the rules is also interesting, as the reason she is working in cold cases is due to being essentially betrayed by the LAPD. As such, Q portrays this balance well, settling into a deadpan, exhausted detective face for the most part, but allowing the sting of the betrayal to mar her dialogue delivery and body language. Notable performances by Taylor and Lynch further drive the emotional undercurrents of the storytelling, where each of them has a grounded, complementary chemistry with Q.

For a show that could’ve very easily gotten lost among the waves Bosch made, Ballard rides them while carving up its own style and leaving anticipation in its wake. The foundations may be similar — they are both classic cop shows, after all — but Ballard steadily and coherently interrogates everything it aims to, exposing a different side to the underbelly of the justice system, one that women are generally impacted by. But it’s a show that any fan of the genre will enjoy, whether you’ve seen Bosch or not, as cold cases and conspiracies wrap around the all-too-relatable pits of grief, trauma and loss.

– Courtesy: Collider.com

Rating system: *Not on your life * ½ If you really must waste your time ** Hardly worth the bother ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only *** Good enough for a look see *** ½ Recommended viewing **** Don’t miss it **** ½ Almost perfect ***** Perfection