Let’s Face It, ‘Ballard’ Is Already Better Than ‘Bosch: Legacy’

Released on Prime Video on July 9, 2025, Ballard immediately erased the bad memory of Bosch: Legacy and restored faith in the Bosch franchise moving forward. While both spinoffs take the spotlight off LAPD Detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), Ballard wisely shifts the focus to a much more compelling and captivating character than the often complained about Maddie Bosch (Madison Lintz) in Legacy.

Thanks to a much-needed change of scenery and an alluring turn by Maggie Q in the title role, Ballard is precisely what fans have been hoping for. With all 10 episodes now available, Ballard has a familiar pace and structure, yet rises above the previous spinoff due to rich character development, a fresh environment, and a strong supporting cast. No more clingy characters and drawn-out crimes; Ballard does everything Legacy was unable to achieve.

Renée Ballard is a character introduced in Michael Connelly’s 2017 novel The Late Show. With elements taken from the subsequent novels The Dark Hours and Desert Star, Ballard picks up following a traumatic event that cost Ballard (Q) her job at the LAPD. Demoted for filing a sexual harassment suit against a superior, Renée was stripped of her position and relegated to leading a cold case unit in the Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD).

Tasked with leading an undermanned and badly underfunded unit of volunteers and reserve officers, Renée tries to escape her past trauma by diving into her work and solving as many cold cases as possible. The show instantly hooks viewers with Renée hotly pursuing an assailant through a dry cleaner’s business, leading to a cold case involving the murder of a local politician’s sister.

Once Renée links another murder to a cold case investigated by Harry Bosch, the two series naturally collide with riveting results. Bosch fans will relish knowing Titus Welliver appears in Ballard and often narrates his case files as Renée reads them in her mind.

Beyond the strong set-up and Maggie Q’s commanding performance, Ballard excels thanks to its coastal Los Angeles setting, a far cry from the seedy and sordid downtown and East L.A. areas Bosch was known for. The supporting characters are vivid and well-acted, especially John Carroll Lynch as the unit’s experienced detective, Thomas Laffont, and Amy Hill as Ballard’s laid-back hippie grandmother, Tutu.

Why ‘Ballard’ Elevates Above ‘Bosch: Legacy’

Following seven seasons of the acclaimed detective procedural Bosch, Amazon pulled the plug to make room for the spinoff Bosch: Legacy. Part of the show’s conceit was to move Harry Bosch to the background as he retires from the LAPD and becomes a private eye, and push his daughter, Maddie Bosch, to the forefront.

Many of the spinoff’s stories revolved around Maddie’s training as a rookie LAPD officer, her budding romance with a colleague, and, for far too long, a kidnapping plot that extended over multiple seasons. Despite a decent start, Bosch fans became frustrated with the time devoted to Maddie at Harry’s expense. Moreover, as the show advanced, several fans complained about Maddie’s clingy nature and inability to exist and excel independently of her father. Madison Lintz’s acting was also criticized as substandard for a TV show of Bosch‘s caliber.

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Fortunately, all of these complaints were listened to, taken to heart, and wisely rectified in Ballard. Maggie Q is a magnetic force to be reckoned with on the show, dominating nearly every frame in the way Bosch used to and should have in Legacy. The most compelling part of Ballard as a show is how it marries character development with the cold cases Renée is trying to solve.

By her brave admission, Renée believes that the more cases she can solve, the greater the distance she can put between her past and present, which will help her heal from an unspeakable tragedy. Without spoiling too much, the combination of plot and character in Ballard is much stronger than in Bosch: Legacy.

‘Ballard’ Deserves a Longer Tenure Than ‘Bosch: Legacy’

By returning the spotlight to one of Connelly’s main characters from his novels, Ballard is inherently more absorbing than Legacy’s three-season run. With plenty of source material to draw from and plot out more seasons ahead, it’s only right to keep Ballard going for as long as possible. The show has already shot to #2 on Prime Video’s most-watched TV shows in the U.S. and boasts a sterling 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 82 Metascore.

Not uncommon for the franchise, Ballard Season 1 also concluded with a suspenseful cliffhanger that warrants more episodes. Renée and her team were able to identify the serial killer linked to multiple cold cases, but the revelation only sets up more complex crimes to come. As her investigations uncover a larger web of corruption within the LAPD and her former colleagues in the RHD, the show is just starting to ramp up to the crux of Connelly’s expert plotting.

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As long as Connelly continues to meld plot and character as adeptly as Season 1, and as long as Maggie Q is willing to portray the part, the show deserves to last longer than Legacy‘s 30 episodes. Legacy took the miscalculated step of slowly reducing Harry’s role to the periphery to emphasize Maddie’s coming-of-age, losing the focus of what made the original Bosch so compelling. Renée’s past is as complicated as Harry’s, and with Q as irresistible as Welliver, the winning franchise formula has been restored.

Ballard is available to stream on Prime Video