engelst

The original Bosch show had a huge impact on me. I watch any crime show I can. I've seen a lot. Bosch ticked some unique boxes. Bosch is all about being and very little about showing. Even Columbo is more 'cool'. Bosch is all about getting out there and catching the worst of the worst. He has a holy fire burning inside. He doesn't care what his gun looks like, as long as it helps his cause. He doesn't care about his car, as long as it takes him where he needs to go. With the exception of his home. As it's his private life, he's granted that. Even here, he doesn't make a big show of his love for jazz music.

This to me is genius. The makers of Bosch have taken such great care to avoid all the traps that 99% of popular TV shows are falling into. To create a popular figure you need an overdose of coolness. The result is usually a loss of coolness. Bosch is cool because he doesn't care about any of that. He's almost like a real cop, doing the rounds in a grimy, dangerous and unforgiving environment. There is no place for shiny items here. Everything is about survival. And luckily, Bosch's whole environment shares in that very basic approach.

Sadly, Bosch had an ending. For me it left a huge void. It was partially filled by the follow-up show.

Legacy is not as good as its predecessor. The cases are a little less well written, the characters are less fresh and they lack that real-life hardness. I'll just mention Honey Chandler constantly falling back on Bosch, like he was a handyman. And Bosch routinely being allowed to actually interfere with police cases. It's just not realistic.

But Legacy inherits most of the excellent cast of Bosch, and that saves the show. The cast is so good that they more than make up for the drop in writing quality.

I love to watch BBC crime series. Most of them are excellent. The lesser ones are still of a good standard.

Murder Is Easy is well below standard. So much so I was hesitant at first, feeling I was missing some hidden point.

I endured the dreadful acting. David Jonsson looks like he's been eating lemons. Then there's the dreadful timing, robbing the already sluggish story of all suspense.

To top it off, the camera work is wooden and awkward. Everything looks like it has been filmed on a theatre stage.

Finally, the makers insist on emphasising the bigotry of the era in a haphazard way. It becomes irritating when Jonsson breaks protocol and is meekly insulted or discriminated. He never stops smirking.

The only mystery here is how on earth this series was allowed to see the light of day.

.. and branches do not ooze some petrol type burning fluid.

These are just two of the highly unrealistic details from Lost.

At first glance, Lost is a fast-paced sci-fi series with a bunch of interesting characters. There is a mystery to be unveiled and it draws a terrible shadow on the community stranded on the island where the action takes place.

Sadly, all this exciting stuff soon is replaced by boredom. The story is drawn out way too thin. Shocking events lack the necessary follow-up to get some real idea of what happened. Key elements like introducing firearms in the community are left unattended. You have to keep asking yourself who is assigned to take care of them and why nobody asks for them in a lethal environment.

After a while I found it hard to be immersed in the story. What with all the giant plot holes, stupid goofs and shoddy character buildup. Add to that the senseless overuse of flashbacks and you're wondering how this show could ever become so successful.