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Ballard… Renée Ballard…
This is a spinoff from Bosch, a series I haven’t seen before, but it opens with the titular cop, played by Maggie Q (Allegiant: The Divergent Series), chasing baddie Windel with a shotgun. Would a cop really be that reckless? And why doesn’t she have protective headgear?
Anyhoo, Renée is not the type to walk away, Renée, she’s a typical world-weary cop who gets on the tits of those above her. She deals in cold cases, but now finally has a closed case with this chap. However for the other outstanding cases, she’s short-staffed, mostly using volunteers. Can she find the killer of Sarah Pearlman in 2001, the sister of Councillor Jake Pearlman (Noah Bean)?
Either way, this is not one of those dramas where each case is solved in one episode, allowing everyone to then go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over… as they stretch out into more episodes to beef out the story.
Working with the cocky Ted Rawls (Michael Mosley – no, not the late, British medical chap), and hiring former cop Zamira Parker (Courtney Taylor), with typical office cop banter, and same for those olde worlde cop clichés, such as a scene where Ballard procures potential evidence without exactly doing it the legal way, this series doesn’t break any new ground, but the lovely Maggie Q makes this worth more of my time than the average cop show.
And you know that the original Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver – Transformers: Age of Extinction IMAX 3D) is going to pop up at some point, not least because his name’s in the IMDB credits!
Finally, when one of her colleagues observes about one character, “He kinda seems like a jerk. I bet he’s an Aries”…
Hey, *I’M* an Aries!
Ballard is on Prime Video from today.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but if it is in future, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Cert: 
Running time: 45-50 minutes per episode (10 episodes)
Release date: July 9th 2025
Studio: Prime Video
Format: 2.39:1
Series Directors: Sarah Boyd, Patrick Cady, Jet Wilkinson, Tori Garrett, Jon Huertas, Logan Kibens, Nefertite Nguvu
Producer: Phillip Rosheim
Developed for TV: Michael Alaimo, Kendall Sherwood
Screenwriters: Michael Alaimo, Julissa Castillo, Brandi Nicole, Kendall Sherwood, Thania St John, Liz Hsiao Lan Alper, John Coveny, Ralph Gifford, Galeesa Murph
Novel: Michael Connelly
Music: Jeff Russo
Cast:
Renée Ballard: Maggie Q
Ted Rawls: Michael Mosley
Colleen Hatteras: Rebecca Field
Martina Castro: Victoria Moroles
Tutu: Amy Hill
Thomas Laffont: John Carroll Lynch
Zamira Parker: Courtney Taylor
Aaron: Michael Cassidy
Jake Pearlman: Noah Bean
Robert Olivas: Ricardo Chavira
Captain Berchem: Hector Hugo
Nelson Hastings: Alain Uy
Manny Santos: Colin McCalla
Damani: Sharif Atkins
Gary Pearlman: Kevin Dunn
Harry Bosch: Titus Welliver
Anthony Driscoll: Brendan Sexton III
Leo: Jim Rash
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.