Published May 25, 2026, 2:29 PM EDT
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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While many detective shows have lasted for years, very few have had both a spinoff and a prequel on the air at the same time, save for Prime Video’s iconic procedural. While Prime Video’s action thriller Reacher is popular enough to have earned itself a two-season renewal after its third outing, the Lee Child adaptation could hardly be called a conventional detective show. Alan Ritchson’s hulking soldier of fortune, Reacher, isn’t a detective or even a member of law enforcement, but rather a military veteran and drifter.
This is important to note, since Reacher’s source novel series has over 30 books and the show could go on for decades if they are all adapted into seasons of the Prime Video series. As such, Reacher could potentially outlast one of the most acclaimed long-running detective procedurals ever, an earlier Prime Video show that set out the blueprint for the later hit. Even if it does, however, this earlier franchise will still have an ace up its sleeve.
Lasting seven seasons and 68 episodes between February 2014 and June 2021, Bosch was adapted from the Micheal Connelly novel series of the same name. The series followed Titus Welliver’s titular troubled LAPD homicide detective, the irascible Harry Bosch, as he investigated both brutal killings and corruption within his own department. After the series finale, Bosch spawned an entire franchise that began with the three-season spinoff Bosch: Legacy, which aired from 2022 until 2025 on FreeVee.
The Bosch Franchise Will Return With Ballard Season 2 and Bosch: Start of Watch
In 2025, the franchise expanded further with Bosch’s first spinoff, Ballard, which focused on Maggie Q’s eponymous Detective Renée Ballard. Ballard was renewed for a second season in October 2025, and, the same month, the prequel Bosch: Start of Watch was announced. Cameron Monaghan, best known for Gotham and Shameless, will take on the role of the young Bosch in the series. Thus, between Ballard season 2 and the premiere of Bosch: Start of Watch, Connelly’s successful series of adaptations is guaranteed to last another two seasons, five years after the original show’s ending.
It is not unusual for spinoffs to last a long time after their predecessors end, but Bosch’s trajectory remains unique. Even though every season of Reacher has been a critical hit and broken streaming records on Prime Video, the show has still only spawned one spinoff and no prequels. In contrast, Bosch has seven seasons, a three-season spinoff, a two-season second spinoff, and now a prequel series.
Bosch: Start of Watch Means The Franchise Is Achieving A Rare Feat
It is vanishingly rare for a show to air both a spinoff and a prequel at the same time, with the Dexter franchise just about achieving this feat for a month in July 2025 before Dexter: Original Sin’s swift cancellation meant that the reboot Dexter: Resurrection became its only current series. However, since Bosch: Start of Watch fills in a completely different part of the show’s lore than Ballard, there is no reason to think that both shows won’t continue past their respective first and second seasons.
Ballard expands the world of Bosch where, in contrast, Bosch: Start of Watch goes back in time to focus further on the original title character of the series. Since the two shows are offering something fundamentally different, neither is left feeling redundant. That said, both shows also cleverly fit the procedural format of the original series.
This means that both Bosch: Start of Watch and Ballard can recapture the appeal of the original show, while the period setting of the former and the new main character of the latter mean that they never feel too similar to Bosch. An ingenious approach, this allows Prime Video’s Bosch franchise to expand in two directions at once without stepping on its own toes.
Release Date 2015 - 2021-00-00
Network Prime Video
Showrunner Eric Ellis Overmyer
Directors Alex Zakrzewski, Ernest R. Dickerson, Patrick Cady, Aaron Lipstadt, Adam Davidson, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Kevin Dowling, Neema Barnette, Tim Hunter, Zetna Fuentes, Christine Moore, Jim McKay, Laura Belsey, Matt Earl Beesley, Phil Abraham, Roxann Dawson, Sarah Pia Anderson, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Tara Nicole Weyr, Thomas Carter, Hagar Ben-Asher
Writers Jeffrey Alan Fiskin, Tom Bernardo, Elle Johnson, John Mankiewicz, Shaz Bennett, Alex Meenehan, Katie Pyne, Osokwe Vasquez, Lolis Eric Elie, Jessica Kivnik, Mitzi Roberts
English (US) ·