Review: A Promising Start Suggests ‘Ballard’ Will Live Up to ‘Bosch’ Standards

*** Caution: Mild Spoilers ahead***

If you were a fan of the “Bosch” detective series (as I was) but didn’t stick around for “Bosch: Legacy” (like I didn’t), you’ll be glad to hear that the new spinoff “Ballard” exudes the same quality as the original series. The series is original material based on the series by Michael Connelly, who, between “Bosch” and “The Lincoln Lawyer,” has found serious streaming success with arguably his two most popular characters.

I’ve only watched the first two Season 1 episodes, but I can already tell it’s going to be good. It’s well cast, fits the right mood, has a compelling story, and is based in L.A. And being an Angeleno, I love anything set here in town.

Maggie Q (“Designated Survivor,” “Mission: Impossible III”) stars as Detective Renée Ballard. Episode one begins with Ballard in pursuit of a suspect who breaks into a dry cleaners hoping to hide. She catches up, and when threatened, shoots the guy. This doesn’t sit well with top brass, and after an internal review for her use of force, Ballard is bumped down to the police station basement and put in charge of the cold-case division (sound somewhat familiar, “Dept. Q” fans?).

It is here we meet Lt. Robert Olivas (played by “Desperate Housewives” Ricardo Chavira), who is above Ballard now, and somebody we definitely don’t trust. There’s history there with Ballard as well, as he has harassed her in the past. She knows he was one of the people responsible for demoting her and loves holding this power over her now.

She is joined there by an old ally, retired detective Thomas Laffont (played by familiar character actor John Carroll Lynch), reserve officer Ted Rawls (played by “Castle’s” 3XK, Michael Mosley), intern Martina Castro, and a volunteer named Colleen Hatteras who is very interested in the workings of law enforcement. Rawls was placed on the team by those currently down on Ballard, making him less trustworthy.

With the team assembled, she reopens two cases. The first involves a mysterious “John Doe” who was found with a baby (the baby remains undiscovered). The second is the murder of Sarah Pearlman, whose brother, Jake, is a powerful city council member pushing Ballard for answers. Naturally, the higher-ups, skeptical of Ballard, want her to focus on pleasing the councilman. But increasingly, she insists that the cases may be connected.

Ballard decides to track down Sarah Pearlman’s original investigator, Samira Parker, who was so turned off by guys like Olivas that she’s left the LAPD. But Ballard recruits her back and places her on the team as a civilian, which she insists on over Olivas’s objection.

What connects the cases? It turns out palm-print DNA from Sarah’s murder scene is found to belong to an unknown suspect, previously linked to the John Doe case. On top of that, a cleaning woman at the motel associated with both cases is later found murdered after trying to contact the department with valuable information. However, it is staged to look like she simply walked in on a robbery in progress and was killed.

But the DNA news almost seems to disappoint Olivas, who actively starts keeping tabs on the cold-case unit. There is clearly something he doesn’t want discovered.

In Episode two, we also consider the new case of the murdered cleaning woman. Clues suggest what we already suspect – this was no robbery gone wrong, it was an intentional hit to silence her.

Laffont digs into the cleaning lady’s background while Rawls and Parker check out some homeless shelters looking for the suspected perp. Meanwhile, thanks to the DNA pointing to a new, unknown suspect, Ballard can alert relatives of the previous suspect that he had an alibi back in 2008 when she was murdered.

We also find out that the bullet that killed the cleaning woman matches the missing baby case, but it has also been destroyed in evidence. The team suspects that somebody inside the department tampered with the bullet to prevent further study.

We catch a break when security cameras identify a mentally ill homeless man. When they catch up to him, he claims he was paid to kill the cleaning lady. But why pay some homeless kid to do it…unless you’re perhaps a dirty cop?

We then get the arrival of Harry Bosch (famously played by Titus Welliver), who at first gets a little hot with Ballard for her side investigation into Sarah’s murder. But the retired detective, now a P.I., relents and even offers some helpful guidance. According to IMDB, we’ll see Bosch appear in three of S1’s 10 episodes.

What I liked most about including Bosch early in the series is that it makes “Ballard” canon in the “Bosch” world. It says, “This spinoff has our blessing” in a way I found classy.

E2 also introduces us to Ballard’s love interest, Aaron (played by familiar actor Michael Cassidy). And I can’t forget to mention Ballard’s housemate and grandmother, Tutu. She and Aaron have quite an embarrassing run-in one morning after Ballard has already left for the office.

I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season, which one friend (who barreled through all 10 episodes already) says sets up a definite Season 2!

And that’s what Todd’s watching.