Hello friends!
Summertime continues, and we continue watching yet another TV series. We return to the era of action series, police investigations, and caring about those forgotten cases. A series like no other, with a personal touch, empathy for others, for victims of the past and their families, in an almost altruistic way, with genuine concern and interest, while still maintaining suspense and a good plot.
And what TV show am I talking about? This TV show is called Ballard, and it has been quite popular recently on Amazon Prime Video's top 10 since July. And I would like to share my review with you after watching it completely.
Let's tell something about this TV show. Here my review:
It's about a new department is created within the Los Angeles police force to focus on unsolved homicide cases. It was actually created by a politician who wanted to solve his sister's murder, since the culprit was never found. He entrusts Renée Ballard with the primary responsibility of solving this case, creating a small department in the basement of the police station. She wants to return to being the detective she once was, but she had a personal problem with one of her colleagues that ultimately caused her to be relegated. Now she has a new opportunity to prove who she is.
But they don't have much money, so her few colleagues are actually volunteers: a woman with a lot of free time but very good intuition, a retired police officer, another reserve officer with a successful private security company, and a law student intern who didn't want to do an internship serving coffee in an office. They are all motivated and want to help.
Finally, another police officer joins the force after leaving the force due to a personal matter that deeply affected her, but also, curiously, Ballard. Furthermore, both policewomen simultaneously try to unravel a network of corrupt police officers and thus seek revenge on the one who wronged them. In fact, Ballard was the victim who was left out for speaking out, and throughout the entire time, she feels a certain helplessness and, at the same time, a desire for them to trust her and return to the Homicide Department, but not always... [SPOILER?]
And so, they all form a great team, committed to investigating and getting to the bottom of some cases that seemed completely forgotten, but that can still be solved. The future mayor pushes for the resolution of his sister's case, before his campaign, and also so that his father wouldn't feel so bad after so much time, but surprises arise... while they also investigate other cases, some even move them, and a human side is seen that drives them even more to get to the truth of what happened.
The actors aren't really well-known, or at least not to me. But they have a charming quality, especially the woman who helps out from the office and the retired police officer who helps Ballard so much. And it's worth noting that they all actually work as volunteers for the boss.
Yes, a few small things. On the one hand, I should mention that this series is a spin-off of another similar series called "Bosch" (with the same creator Michael Connelly), and this is about an agent or detective and lots of action, although I hadn't seen it before. But [SPOILER!] the main character appears briefly a couple of times, advising and helping Ballard in the shadows when he needs it. That's when I realized why it keeps the same name. On the other hand, I like the relationship between the characters, between the volunteers. I think that's what makes this action-investigation series different from so many others.
It also has a Hawaiian touch, not only because of the protagonist's house near the ocean, where she lives with her grandmother, but also because she goes surfing in the mornings as a way to relax and remember her father. There, we enjoy that Hawaiian atmosphere, somehow...
But there are surprises. Suddenly, everything ends abruptly, leaving us with a complex situation hanging over us when it seemed all over. What will happen to him? A total cliffhanger.
And finally, regarding surprises and the episodes themselves, they're not entirely independent; they follow a plot, and the case of the politician's sister could be one of the most important threads, as well as the corrupt police plot. But the resolution of that case is what surprised me the most. Do they discover who the culprit was? Yeah... but... I didn't expect that!
I have been telling so much, it's better to enjoy the TV show by yourselves. There is just one season of ten episodes for now! And who knows (probably yes) if there will be another one! Take a look!
More information about the TV show and all the shared images here: Original title: Ballard (2025-Now) - IMDB: Ballard
