IIRC, he got around 250k for movie rights. I can’t remember which book it was.
This (youtube link) is the actual house on Woodrow Wilson Drive. That’s pretty much how it’s described in the books, on stilts and with a sliding door that leads onto the deck. That floor to ceiling glass palace in the show is something else entirely.
The house should be a little crappy in the show because Bosch doesn’t care about stuff like that. He basically exists solely to solve murders.
I love the books and have totally no interest in seeing a show about them. I don’t really understand the desire to see things that you have read. I have seen it in my mind thanks. (I know, I’m crazy.)
I completely agree. I was hoping that Bosch would have original content. Even though they changed some of the details, the plots follow the books closely. I can’t watch the Harry Potter films for the same reason; I hate knowing everything that’s going to happen.
I started season 2 on Thursday and finished it last night: I liked it just as much as I liked season 1. Entertainment-wise I’d been a little out of sorts, but this was juuuust right. If there’s a third season, I’ll watch it.
I’m slow - still have one episode to go in season 1.
Does season 2 borrow from a book plot? Or is it original?
I have no idea. 
It’s original to you, then?
According to Michael Connelly’s website: “Season 2 focuses mainly on Trunk Music with elements from The Drop and The Last Coyote.”
Yes! 
And, frankly, from some of the other posts in this thread that’s probably at least part of why I liked the season as much as I did.
(Though I’m having no problem with SyFy’s The Magicians, even though I read all of those books and I notice right away whenever the show deviates from them. It doesn’t bother me. Yet, anyway.)
We just finished the 2nd season and have enjoyed both seasons quite a bit. (Mrs. FtG had read the books.)
However, both seasons started off slow. It wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th episode that things really start to get interesting. This is sometimes a problem for this extended plot format.
Speaking of which, this sort of ~10 episode format is nice for crime dramas. One extended case that sort of wraps up at the end. But not really as other stuff drags out, linking the seasons together. Much better than standard procedurals where things get wrapped up in one episode all too often.
I generally only knew Titus Welliver as a bad guy (e.g., in The Good Wife), so it took a bit to get used to him as the (highly flawed) hero.
There’s also a little bit of The Wire reunion going on.
The show seems able to extract better performances from most of the “guest” actors than you would expect. In the second season Jeri Ryan performed better than I expected (a very low bar for her) and Brent Sexton did an unqualified great job.
Looking at Welliver’s IMDb page, I can’t help but exclaim “Ooh, Navy SEALs!”
I feel I must defend the under appreciated Ms Ryan. She’s a much better actress than you’d think only seeing 7 of 9.
Check out her work in her short run in Leverage.
She’s no Elizabeth Rohm!
I’m a little late to the party. My mother recommended this series to me.
Took me several tries to get through the first half of the first episode. For some reason, it just wasn’t clicking for me. Then, at some point, it did. I watched 10 episodes in a single sitting. I am now on episode 3 of season 2. I like it a lot, although it does seem to get off track here and there. Love the jazz music!
I completely agree. The books, especially the early ones, are excellent.
I’ve watched a few minutes here and there of the television show - thinking I’d record it later. But it just didn’t work for me.
And I hadn’t imagined an actor for Harry Bosch while reading but if I had to, then maybe a slightly slimmer Dennis Franz (Detective Andy Sipowicz of NYPD Blue).
Season 3 is now available on Amazon. There is a nearly seamless transition from the previous seasons, and none of the actors seem to have gone “cute” with their characters as sometimes happens. Good, gritty police drama.
Thanks for the heads-ups, both on the availability and the continuity.
Especially in these days of short, highly popular seasons, it’s all too easy for the actors to fall into self-parody or narcissism or having to act out their great big raise (or lack of it). But Welliver’s one of those hardworking pros I can’t imagine turning in a second-rate performance.
I’m on episode 3 and I’ve got to ask. Does it pick up? I love the Bosch books and have enjoyed (but not loved) seasons 1 & 2 of the series. This season, though, seems unusually dull.
I don’t recall seasons 1 and 2 being slam-bang exciting. It’s a lot like The Wire, where the first two or three episodes of each season were almost incomprehensibly disconnected, and then suddenly around ep 4, the threads started to tangle and pull together. The opening of ep 5 alone has made the season worthwhile to me.
Yeah, it gets fairly tense, although they could have edited out some of the father-daughter exposition. This series comes about as close as it can to actual days as a LEO without putting its audience to sleep: 99% type up reports, make phone calls, knock on doors, and then 1% of HOLY SHIT! Welliver, Aquino and Hector are just excellent, as are many others. I wasn’t a fan of Lance Reddick (Deputy Chief Irving) in The Wire, and am still not. He seems to be fairly one dimensional.
He makes me think of an Easter Island head (in size if nothing else). But yes, he seems to have a Hepburn-like range. But then, all of his characters have been that same personally-troubled, straight-arrow senior cop who can’t be pushed around and is permanently frustrated by the machinations around him.
I haven’t started the new season yet. Which book(s) is it based on?
