Back in 2011, Michael Connelly’s favorite TV show wasn’t one of his own. The author behind Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, whose The Lincoln Lawyer keeps getting adapted for the screen, and who has more than 42 novels and 74 million copies sold worldwide to his name, instead pointed to a neo-Western.
That show was Justified, one of seven recommendations he offered in a 2011 interview with TV Guide. What stands out is that all seven have aged well. Connelly’s preferences fall into three lanes: series about the act of writing itself, series that inhabit the mind of crime and deduction, and series driven by elite actors doing precise character work. Over a decade on, the list still doubles as a viewing order.
Justified, the show he wished he could write for
Airing from 2010 to 2015, Justified stars Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a loose cannon whose methods for enforcing the law in the Appalachian Mountains are anything but conventional. Nick Searcy, Erica Tazel and Walton Goggins round out the cast.
The series draws on the work of Elmore Leonard, a storyteller Connelly holds in especially high regard. He described Justified as a “perfect realization” of Leonard’s writing and said he would “love to work on it.” It never came to pass. Still, the show maintained its near-perfect critical standing across all six seasons, so it’s a safe assumption Connelly followed it through to the finale.
Castle (official site) is his job with the hard parts removed
Connelly labeled Castle a “fantasy version of what I do!” and he speaks from experience: he appeared as a guest star on the mystery police procedural four times over its eight-season run.
The setup all but wrote his invitation. Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, a bored mystery novelist stuck with writer’s block who begins tagging along with homicide detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) after a copycat killer in New York City starts recreating the murders from his books. She becomes his muse. The copycat angle is a hook in itself, but the chemistry that grows between Castle and Beckett is what really sustains the show, and it’s why this one is an undisputed winner.
Californication, where writer’s block turns ugly
If Castle is the daydream, Californication is the morning after. Connelly summed up the Showtime comedy-drama as the “dark side of the Castle fantasy,” and the parallel is precise. David Duchovny’s Hank Moody is another troubled novelist who can’t get words on the page, except he copes with sex and drugs instead of police ride-alongs. Running from 2007 to 2014, the show occupies that uneasy territory between fame, luxury and excess.
It’s a bonus for anyone into rock music and the culture surrounding it. Connelly never landed a guest spot here (as far as we know), but RZA, Rick Springfield, Steve Jones, Tim Minchin, Tommy Lee and Zakk Wylde all showed up before the final episode aired in 2014.
Kojak, the show that turned him into a crime writer
This pick comes with a personal history. Connelly watched Kojak alongside his father during its original run, and he remembered those evenings as “great bonding time.” His dad, he explained, “loved shows where the stakes were high. Life and death, justice prevailing, things like that. I think that helped set me on the path to what I do now.”
In other words, Harry Bosch owes a debt to Telly Savalas. Kojak ran for five seasons and 118 episodes between 1973 and 1978, following Lieutenant Theophilus “Theo” Kojak, an incorruptible cop with a taste for dum-dums, a stockpile of catchphrases and a tendency to say precisely what’s on his mind. Quirky, witty and willing to bend a rule, he is effectively the blueprint for half the TV detectives on air today. The series established tropes the genre still relies on, so its reach extends far beyond Connelly’s bookshelf.
Veronica Mars, which he discovered late, like everyone else
Connelly didn’t catch Veronica Mars during its original broadcast. Neither did most people. The neo-noir mystery drama debuted in 2004 and was canceled after three seasons in 2006. By 2011, he and his daughter had found it in reruns and were hooked.
Kristen Bell stars as the title character, a student (first in high school, later in college) working on the side as a private investigator under the mentorship of her detective father. The fans refused to let the show die. A film sequel followed in 2014, and a fourth season arrived on Hulu in 2019, both largely bankrolled by that same fan base. Whether Connelly contributed is anyone’s guess.
Dexter, for the performance that stayed with him
Discussing Justified led Connelly to the actors he admires most. Olyphant is one. Jennifer Carpenter is another, for her portrayal of Debra Morgan, sister to Michael C. Hall’s Dexter in the psychological crime thriller Dexter. Connelly praised the show’s entire cast of characters as well as the “uniqueness of the show.”
That uniqueness is the whole pitch. Dexter, which ran from 2006 to 2013, revolves around a psychopathic vigilante serial killer, exactly the kind of figure who’d be seated across the interrogation table from a Connelly protagonist. And much like Veronica Mars, the show wouldn’t stay finished. Dexter: New Blood, Dexter: Original Sin and Dexter Resurrection have all appeared in recent years.
NCIS, and the two words Connelly wants applied to himself
Mark Harmon completes Connelly’s roster of favorite performers. The author singled out Harmon’s Jethro Gibbs on the CBS procedural NCIS as “relentless and reliable,” two qualities Connelly said he hopes describe him as well.
NCIS launched in 2003 and has never stopped being a hit. Gibbs is rarely at the heart of the action these days, but the franchise keeps humming along on the deliberate nuance built into each of its characters. The mothership is still running, and orbiting it are JAG, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawai’i, NCIS: Sydney, NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Tony & Ziva and NCIS: New York. Actors like Harmon depart and drift back. Nobody, it seems, ever leaves this franchise for good.