Bosch Season 7 Review: Well-Oiled Detective Drama Slips At the Finish Line In Its Final Season

The Illuminerdi reviews the final season of Bosch.

The age of streaming television is a double-edged sword. While streaming platforms have allowed more creative freedom for showrunners than traditional cable networks, many of these shows aren’t lucky enough to make it past one or two seasons. And then there’s Bosch.

Amazon’s beloved crime series strutting into its seventh season this year with most of the same creative team and cast. It’s well-acted, slickly made, and enjoyably written, but the ending left me seriously underwhelmed. At least the ride getting there was fun.

Bosch Season 7 Trailer

It’s New Year’s Eve 2019, Det. Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) and his partner Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector) are called to investigate a building fire that claimed the life of a 10-year-old girl. With Jerry’s past indiscretions coming back to bite him, Bosch must become more self-reliant as he discovers this case goes deeper than any he’s faced before.

Elsewhere, Commissioner Irving (Lance Reddick) is facing political pressure to solve the case quick, Lt. Grace Billets (Amy Aquino) is dealing with departmental harassment, and Harry’s daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) is still here too.

Bosch season 7 is highly addictive. The 8-episode season moves swiftly and balances its multitude of plotlines without feeling overly busy, but Jerry’s subplot feels curiously undercooked given its prominence early on. While previous seasons have sometimes struggled to involve Maddie in the main story, this one does a noticeably better job of it and thankfully keeps her milquetoast relationship in the background.

Welliver remains committed as ever in the lead role, though the character’s moral compass points so straight it occasionally borders on parody. This is most apparent in the finale, which sees an uncharacteristically hokey exchange between Bosch and Irving before setting up for a presumed season 8. The ending isn’t bad, but it’s a let-down for what was otherwise an involving season of television.

Bosch season 7 ends weakly, but the journey there has enough intrigue and drama to make it worth watching.

3.5 out of 5 stars (Above average)