Prime Video is extending the Bosch universe with Ballard. The new procedural gets started on July 9 and That Hashtag Show had the chance to catch up with the cast. Maggie Q, John Caroll Lynch, and Courtney Taylor sat with me under the lights to preview everything coming in Ballard.
For Maggie Q, this represents a big moment as her character appeared in the final leg of Bosch: Legacy last season. This reintroduction to Detective Renee Ballard is a nice moment for fans, and a signal that there are still big plans for the Bosch universe.
“It’s a huge honor to be a part of the Michael Connelly universe, obviously,” she began. “I was just telling these guys [her castmembers] about the warm reception I received from the Bosch family. Being a newcomer, coming in and taking the series in a different direction. The support is unbelievable from these people. It’s such a good group of people. Everyone wants us to have success. That is huge, and different, in Hollywood.”
“Carrying it forward, I do think that we’re making a very different show. It’s very L.A. But, we’re telling it like L.A. our way. Leading it with a different tone. Different writing, and all of it, we have some of the Bosch team, and we have a lot of people who aren’t the Bosch team that come in and bring new blood, and infuse it with a new energy,” the star teased. “It’s ten years later, so we have to take it forward in a different way. What we really want to do is find new audiences for this too. Those who love it, we hope they respect what we’ve done. But, we also hope to bring in new people into this amazing world that Michael’s created.”
Ballard Sees Maggie Q, John Caroll Lynch, and Courtney Taylor step into the future
John Carroll Lynch and Courtney Taylor have been around other corners of TV for a little while now. But, getting the call to enter the Bosch Universe was something they couldn’t pass up. Lynch especially found a sweet spot with the tone on Ballard. There’s a kind of warmth and humor in morose circumstances that audiences will appreciate.
Carroll Lynch said, “First of all humor is everywhere. And it has to be everywhere in terms of life and in terms of work…If you’re looking at these kinds of images all the time, you better find a sense of humor. I had the good fortune of going to dinner at the Decatur Firehouse in New Orleans. I heard the most gruesome stories from those firefighters and I haven’t laughed more in an evening, because they were all so hilarious, and they had to be!”
Courtney Taylor notes that’s an effective coping skill. Her character, Samira Parker has had to do a lot of that in her life. The actress told me about walking a line between a past with law enforcement and trusting Ballard’s team early on in the show’s run.
“I think you can see it in every single character in the ensemble, how much they care about this work. Even in Parker, you can see she’s battling this desire and need to come back,” Taylor recalls. “You know, she just had a bad experience. It’s hard to separate it to get back to what she loves doing. It takes a team of people who love it as much as she does to kind of convince her. It was nice to play that, both the challenging parts of being a Black woman as a police officer versus being passionate and good at my job.”
Ballard opens up a new case on Prime Video July 9.
For more on TV, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.
That Hashtag Show
