Television series

Bosch

Name: Bosch
Genre: Drama, Crime, Mystery
Released: 2015
Cast: Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Lance Reddick, Madison Lintz

A quietly ferocious LA procedural built from Michael Connelly's novels, where Harry Bosch chases cold cases with the patience of a man who's stopped expecting easy answers. It's slow-burn, dialogue-heavy, obsessed with process and place — more clenched jaw than car chase. For viewers who want their detectives world-weary, their plots methodical, and their Los Angeles sun-bleached and morally grimy.

TVMaze rating

8.5

If you liked this

Justified2010

Elmore Leonard's prose turned into television — a lawman with a code he keeps bending, dry wit under every showdown, and dialogue so good you'll rewind lines. Same stubborn-hero engine, different American landscape.

But More outright shootouts and swagger than Bosch's grind; Kentucky hollers aren't LA's freeways.

Longmire2012

Another book-derived sheriff working cases with a battered moral compass and a haunted past he won't discuss. If you liked Bosch's quiet stubbornness, Walt Longmire is his Wyoming cousin.

But Slower still, and the landscape does a lot of the heavy lifting instead of plot twists.

Mare of Easttown2021

A detective drowning in her own town's grief while chasing a case that keeps implicating people she loves. Same commitment to procedure and character over spectacle, tighter and sadder.

But Only seven episodes — no long game, no multi-season slow burn to sink into.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chinatown1974

Same city, same rot beneath the sunshine, same detective walking into a conspiracy bigger than any single case — Bosch's LA is Chinatown's grandchild.

The LA noir that invented the genre Bosch quietly inherits — water rights, buried corruption, a detective who thinks he's untangling one thing and is actually drowning in another entirely.

But Deliberately paced 1970s filmmaking; if you need momentum, this unfolds like a slow reveal, not a chase.

Luther2010

A brilliant, exhausted detective who breaks rules because the system keeps failing victims — Idris Elba at his most coiled. Same tension between justice and legality Bosch lives in.

But Pulpier and more theatrical; London's serial-killer game is showier than LA's cold cases.

Broadchurch2013

A murder investigation that takes its time with grief, small-town rot, and the detectives who carry both home with them. Same patience, same refusal to let a case be tidy.

But British seaside melancholy instead of LA sprawl — a very different, quieter kind of ache.

Line of Duty2012

Internal corruption, procedural rigor, interrogation scenes that feel like chess matches. If you loved watching Bosch navigate LAPD politics, this is that dial turned to eleven.

But Denser plotting and jargon-heavy; it rewards close attention more than casual viewing.

The Night Of2016

A single case stretched into eight hours of legal and moral unraveling — courtroom stakes and doubt handled with real weight, echoing Bosch's own trial arc.

But Bleaker and more claustrophobic; it's a one-story miniseries, not an ongoing world.

True Detective2014

Season one only — two haunted detectives, a decades-spanning case, and a mood so thick with dread it practically has weather. Same obsessive, unglamorous digging into darkness.

But More philosophical monologuing and visual flourish than Bosch's plainspoken procedure.

The Wire2002

The gold standard for showing police work as slow, bureaucratic, and morally exhausting — institutions failing everyone inside them. Bosch's cynicism about the system has roots here.

But Far more sprawling and political; it's a city portrait first, a detective show second.

Cowboy Bebop1998

Same structural trick as Bosch: standalone cases masking one detective's unresolved past, chasing closure he may never actually get.

A bounty hunter crew solving case-of-the-week mysteries while a bigger, sadder backstory simmers underneath — jazz-scored, melancholy, and surprisingly procedural for a spaceship anime.

But It's anime, it's episodic sci-fi, and the tonal whiplash between goofy and devastating won't suit everyone.

Soupçons2004

Bosch stands trial for a shooting; this is what that trial actually looks like when the cameras are real and nobody's guilt is certain.

A real trial, filmed over years, following a man accused of killing his wife — courtroom strategy, reasonable doubt, and the terrifying gap between guilt and what gets proven in court.

But No resolution to cling to, no hero to root for — it's ambiguous, slow, and genuinely unresolved by design.