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Titus Welliver: 'Bosch' portrays cops as complex, not cliches

"Bosch: Legacy," starring Madison Lintz (L) and Titus Welliver, debuts Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon Freevee
1 of 5 | "Bosch: Legacy," starring Madison Lintz (L) and Titus Welliver, debuts Friday. Photo courtesy of Amazon Freevee

NEW YORK, May 5 (UPI) -- The stars of Bosch: Legacy say the new Amazon Freevee drama will continue to accurately reflect the realities of crime and investigation like its previous incarnation, Bosch, did for seven seasons on Prime Video.

Both series are based on Michael Connelly's best-selling novels.

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"I interact with law-enforcement a lot because of the show and what they consistently say is its depiction of police work, its depiction of people that populate law-enforcement and the world is accurate - good, bad, ugly and indifferent," Titus Welliver, who plays the titular lawman-turned-private eye, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"Police officers and regular citizens watch the show because the characters are not cliches. They are real people. They are flawed, and that's the world we live in. It doesn't pander and doesn't create some sort of elevated, false heroism."

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Madison Lintz, who plays Bosch's rookie cop daughter Maddie added, "I am honored to portray law enforcement and the servants who protect and serve, and I am also honored to bring awareness to the bad."

"The overwhelming majority of the police force is trying to do their jobs," said castmate Mimi Rogers, who plays defense attorney Honey Chandler.

"They are dedicated, they are hardworking, they are putting their lives at risk," she said of real-life police.

"But, like any human endeavor, there will be little pockets of corruption or bad guys or things gone wrong and you can show that without in any way undermining the idea that this is a force for good."

Legacy debuts Friday on the channel formerly known as IMDb TV.

Picking up a year and one-half after the events of the Season 7 finale, Legacy follows Bosch as he forges a career as a private detective after wrapping up decades of service with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Meanwhile, Maddie has joined the LAPD, and Honey still is reeling from the attempt Carl Rogers (Michael Rose) made on her and Maddie's lives.

Welliver said Bosch is lonely and "kind of at sea" because he's not a cop anymore.

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"It was not an easy decision, but he finally left. It was too much. He just couldn't reconcile the corruption and manipulation of the system," Welliver explained.

"He tried for years to operate within the system, but it was so flawed and so broken he just ultimately had to walk away from something that he's given his life to and loves doing.

"Now he is idle, and the logical thing for him to do is become a private investigator because at least he will be out there doing the work."

Bosch bides his time with boring cases like divorces and background checks until dying octogenarian billionaire Whitney Vance (William Devane) hires him to find the girlfriend and child he abandoned when he was a young man.

"As that unfolds, it becomes abundantly clear to Harry that there are very very big obstacles with which he is dealing because of the amount of money that is there, and what comes with greed are some very nefarious characters," Welliver said.

The actor likened the way Bosch attempts to balance the different aspects of his life to the skills of a juggling or plate-twirling performer.

"He's got a lot going on, and he's trying to help Chandler and himself and Maddie obtain some level of justice and put Carl Rogers behind bars," Welliver said.

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"His daughter is a police officer. He's very very proud, but he is also trepidatious. He's trying to figure out how to navigate and be helpful to her without imposing himself on her."

Recent police academy graduate Maddie also is adjusting to new challenges.

"She is coming through a traumatizing time -- almost losing Honey and almost getting killed herself," Lintz said.

"These were definitely formative years for her and we definitely wanted to portray that maturity this season. She's past all that and taking her first steps into a new frontier and career."

Being the child of an ex-cop has its own trials and tribulations, of course.

"Coming from her background with her dad, she thinks she knows everything and, obviously, that's not the case," Lintz said. "So she is getting her ass handed to her here and there -- definitely things along the lines of thinking you're grown, which I face, as well. So I could definitely relate to her in that way."

Mimi Rogers said Legacy shows Honey dealing with the physical, emotional and psychic damage that comes with a near-death experience.

"Really, with Honey, it's seeing the struggle to come back and resume life and resume work and still being in the process of all that trauma," Rogers said.

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"You're seeing a Honey Chandler who is a broken person and who is putting an intense amount of effort into keeping it together, but the cauldron of emotion and rage does pop out from time to time. You see that she is not quite stable."

As a crime victim herself, she is re-evaluating the type of law she wants to practice.

"The career path has moved in a more civil rights-oriented direction, which would make sense completely because her obsession right now is justice -- justice for herself, justice for others. The old life and the old career just wouldn't be tenable at this point," Rodgers said.

The Bosch fan base is large and loud, and the franchise's stars credit it with helping to keep it on the screen for all of these years.

When Prime Video announced there wouldn't be a Season 8 of Bosch, the diehards mobilized a renewal campaign online.

"Our fanbase has been incredibly supportive and very, very dedicated," Welliver said.

"Stepping back and looking at things, it was the right decision to continue. Creatively, it is just reformatted for lack of a different word -- and pared down with the focus being on three central characters," he added.

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"We worked very hard on it and we are all very proud of it. We have our own expectations and we want to fulfill those expectations.

"You can't please everybody, but I can say with great confidence, this show is more of a continuation, not a spinoff, and it will satiate the appetite of the fans."

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