Is Harry Bosch the last great American TV detective?

Mel Magazine

Bosch, which dropped its sixth and penultimate season on Amazon Prime on Friday, "is very much in the tradition of murder mystery stories that start with one strange crime and then open up into something much larger, until they cover the social and political complexities of an entire city (think Chinatown or L.A. Confidential)," says Noel Murray. "In one of the opening scenes of the new season — which is based on the (Michael) Connelly novels The Overlook and Dark Sacred Night — Bosch arrives on the scene of a murder, which quickly leads to the aftermath of a home invasion, and then ultimately leads to a possible terrorist plot being investigated by the FBI. Compared to past detective series set in L.A. and its environs, Bosch is more committed to the long-form storytelling of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. Whereas Mannix, Columbo, The Rockford Files, Barnaby Jones, Charlie’s Angels, Moonlighting, The Closer, The Shield, Southland and a lot of the other L.A.-based detective shows that have endured in popular culture have taken their cues more from short stories, movies and other television shows than from novels. The mystery genre has dominated the American TV ratings in recent years, though most of the biggest hit shows have formulaic 'case of the week' procedurals, where eclectic teams of experts crack cartoonishly sensationalistic cases: CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Law & Order and all their offshoots. There have been a few decent-to-dazzling shows in the more character-driven 'detective' mode, too, over the course of the past decade: Terriers, Veronica Mars, Justified, Elementary, Stumptown. (Oddly, none of these are set in L.A.)"