Some cop shows just know how to maintain a solid entertainment level, and one of them is Amazon Prime's Bosch.
Bosch, starring Titus Welliver (top) as Los Angeles Detective Harry Bosch, arrives for its sixth season Friday and has lost none of its compelling edge.
It probably helps to have Michael Connelly's Bosch novels as a blueprint, but credit Welliver and executive producer Eric Overmyer with keeping the character and the show on a nice even pace.
Harry Bosch has an adrenalin problem, along with a few other issues, but Bosch has never created situations so overblown that the show had to keep topping them.
As we begin Season 6, 11 months after the finale of Season 5, Harry is still obsessed with the murder of 14-year-old Daisy Goodwin. He, and we, suspect it may be linked to other things, but the pieces of evidence that could crack the case seem to be missing.
Other matters also begin demanding Harry's attention, notably the murder of Stanley Kent, a doctor whose work in cancer research and treatment gave him access to the highly potent radioactive chemical cesium.
Just before he was executed, Kent had taken 32 containers of cesium from the lab at the hospital where he worked, and now they're missing.
The LAPD is naturally concerned since, in the wrong hands, cesium could fuel a bioweapon of unimaginable consequence.
Harry talks to Dr. Kent's widow, Alicia (Lynn Collins), who doesn't have any idea what could have triggered this disturbing and fatal chain of events.
Soon thereafter, Harry's access to investigative avenues is restricted, since the potential severity of the case has brought in the FBI. Harry doesn't always play well with others, and he particularly doesn't play well with other law enforcement agencies he sees bigfooting his cases.
Harry remains more happily partnered with Detective Jerry Edgar (Jamie Hector, top), who has been working through some private issues of his own. Edgar doesn't have the most dangerous secrets on the force, though. That honor belongs to a couple of cops for whom an arrangement with the bad guys doesn't work out quite as they had hoped.
Meanwhile, LA Police Chief Irvin Irving (Lance Reddick) has pulled the trigger on running for mayor and immediately is reminded of how flexible one must be with one's principles in order to compete in the big leagues of politics.
Irving likes Bosch, for which he gets points, though his mayoral race has the potential to make him look at some issues from additional perspectives.
We've also seen and continue to see an impressive maturation of Bosch's daughter, Maddie (Madison Lintz), who is out on her own now and reassuringly comfortable with a father who has, at times, been a challenge.
Bosch also remains allied with his boss, Lt. Grace Billets (Amy Aquino), a friendship that has helped him survive some rough times on the job.
Not surprisingly, the Dr. Kent case leads to some dark and ominous places, and Bosch has ten episodes through which to race against the clock and sort them out.
It promises to be a good ride, solid cop drama, and it should set Harry Bosch up for Season 7, which has already been ordered and which will, alas, mark its finale.