Titus Welliver flips the script with an anti-Bosch crime thriller dropping this weekend

It’s hard to think of Titus Welliver and not immediately picture Harry Bosch – grizzled, principled, slightly irritable detective, and serial coffee drinker, stomping around LA and chewing out anyone with a clipboard. Welliver’s spent over a decade as Bosch – across three series, if you’re counting: Bosch, Bosch: Legacy, and recently Ballard. So you’d think the bloke would be done playing cops, right?

Well, not quite. Now he’s swapping Los Angeles for the much grottier back alleys of 1980s Hell’s Kitchen, New York, letting go of Bosch’s battered moral compass and trying on a uniform that’s... well, a lot less straight-laced.

The Westies – New York, Irish Mobsters, and a Bleak Moral Compass

On 12th July, MGM+ launches The Westies, an eight-episode crime series co-created by Chris Brancato (who you might know from Narcos and Godfather of Harlem) and Michael Panes. Welliver shares top billing with J.K. Simmons – yes, that J.K. Simmons, who looks like he could snap you in half with a single glare.

The show’s set slap-bang in the middle of Reagan-era New York, where the Irish mafia’s trying to claim a bit of territory by using the construction of the Javits Center as a front for their, let’s say, less-than-legal activities. The Westies – that’s their actual name, not just a catchy title – are a tiny crew compared to the Italian mob, outnumbered something ridiculous like a hundred to one. Didn’t stop them. Extortion, contract hits, racketeering – basically, if you can get arrested for it, they’ve probably ticked it off the list.

‘The Anti-Bosch’ – Welliver’s Latest Role Has Zero Halo

At the heart of the story is the messy relationship between Eamon Sweeney (Simmons), the ruthless boss of the Westies, and NYPD cop Glenn Keenan (Welliver). Thing is, Keenan grew up with these lads—his so-called mates are now entrenched in the Irish mob. Cue all sorts of divided loyalties. If you’re expecting a Harry Bosch-style crusader: forget it. According to the producers, and a few critics, Keenan is basically the total opposite of Bosch, or, as ScreenRant put it, "the Anti-Bosch."

Welliver himself has been clear he wanted something a bit different:

'To have the privilege to play Harry Bosch for 10 years, who was the quintessential antihero, it’s kind of a marvellous tightrope to walk as an actor. With Glenn Keenan, there is the job as being a police officer, but he doesn’t really serve that master longer, and his morality has been completely wiped away.'

You can practically hear the relief, can’t you? About time Welliver played a copper who doesn’t even bother pretending he’s on the side of angels.

Bosch vs Keenan – Shades of Grey, and Then Some

Now, both Bosch and Keenan are built from the same stock – decorated soldiers before they turned up at police headquarters, with the sort of baggage that’d crush one of those little hire cars. In the source novels, Bosch is a Vietnam vet; in the telly adaptations, he’s Special Forces from the Gulf War, and serves again after 9/11. Over in The Westies, Keenan’s backstory: he’s a Force Recon Marine, did two full tours in Vietnam, and returned home more than a bit morally shredded. So both characters are fighting their own corners of post-traumatic righteousness but, honestly, that’s where the similarities end.

• Bosch: Bends the rules but ultimately wants justice served, even if it means ruffling bureaucratic feathers.
• Keenan: Has ripped up the rulebook entirely, dodgy ethics and all, sticking by old mates like Sweeney whatever the fallout. Cover-ups and criminality aren’t bugs, they’re features.

If Bosch is the sort of copper who would lose sleep over a dodgy arrest, Keenan’s barely clocking in for the job – his loyalty to Sweeney and the gang comes before any badge or courtroom oath. For Welliver, after a decade of Bosch’s painfully high standards, that’s a serious 180.

Asked what seals the deal for him when he reads a script, Welliver didn’t mince words:

'Good writing. It all starts with good writing. You know, the character on the page was one thing. I’ve been friends with the writers on the page for three decades and finally getting to work together, and it was a real collaboration. We really kind of fleshed the character out. Once I knew everybody who was involved, it just made me even more excited. It was truly a perfect storm.'