There’s only one Amazon Prime Video show that you need to watch in July, and the name of that series is Ballard.
The premise of this show is similar to Netflix’s recently premiered Dept. Q, but Ballard is distinctly American and based on a series of novels by Michael Connelly.
Ballard is also a spinoff from Bosch that features Maggie Q doing some of her best work in years as the lead character.
Amazon has already dropped all 10 episodes of Ballard season 1, and we can’t wait to see more.
Maggie Q Is Outstanding in the Leading Role
It’s been over a decade since Maggie Q starred in Nikita, but she found another worthy leading role when she was cast as Detective Renée Ballard. At the start of this series, Ballard is largely ostracized from the rest of the LAPD because she dared to accuse one of her fellow officers of sexual assault. As punishment, she’s transferred to a dead-end cold-case division that has no budget to speak of.
Q’s performance brings out Ballard’s vulnerability, and she really is feeling hurt and abandoned by her brothers in blue. But she’s also a great detective at heart and dedicated to seeing justice through, even if the cases she’s been given to solve were deemed to be impossible. Almost everything in the show revolves around Ballard in some way, and Q keeps her engaging and interesting in both her personal and professional life.
The Supporting Cast Is Impressive
Veteran character actor John Carroll Lynch costars in the series as Ballard’s former partner, Thomas Laffont, one of the first volunteers in her cold case department. Lynch is terrific as always, and so is his new costar, Courtney Taylor. Like Ballard and Laffont, Samira Parker (Taylor) used to be a homicide detective. But unlike her new companions, Samira isn’t all that eager to be in the thick of things again.
There’s a mini-Nikita reunion between Q and Noah Bean, who plays Councilman Jake Pearlman on this series. Pearlman has a vested interest in supporting Ballard’s new division because his sister was murdered years ago, and he wants to find her killer. That leads to Pearlman bringing in the team’s resident jerk, Ted Rawls (Michael Mosley).
Rawls is a veteran investigator as well, and he doesn’t defer easily to Ballard. Rounding out the solid ensemble on Ballard’s team are Colleen Hatteras (Rebecca Field) and Martina (Victoria Moroles), both of whom bring a touch of comedy to the show. It’s a fun group to watch, and they could be the core cast for seasons to come.
Bosch Is Back — for a While at Least
It just wouldn’t be a Bosch spinoff without the man himself. Titus Welliver is only a recurring guest star on Ballard, but his presence as Harry Bosch effectively passes the torch to Ballard without completely shuffling the former to the side.
The first season develops the friendship between Bosch and Ballard, as he gives her a sympathetic ear about her problems with the LAPD. During his two previous shows on Amazon, Bosch had more than a few run-ins with the brass himself. The show navigates Bosch’s appearances without ever losing the focus on Ballard herself. That works out well, because it reinforces the idea that this is Ballard’s world now.
The Episodes Are a Masterclass of Serialized and Procedural Stories
In some ways, Ballard is a traditional police procedural with cases-of-the-week to solve. But it elevates itself beyond the routine procedural dramas by juggling two season-long cases. The first involves finding the killer of Councilman Pearlman’s sister, while the other revolves around an enigmatic John Doe who remains unidentified and unaccounted for seven years after he was last seen.
As revealed in the trailer above, at least one of those cases will lead to an apparent serial killer. At the same time this is unfolding, Ballard has to handle her own personal drama and hold her newfound team together. It’s a fantastic start to a series that may have a long life on Amazon Prime Video. This is more than just the successor series to Bosch. It may be one of the best new shows of 2025.
Ballard is streaming on Prime Video.
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