Netflix’s Ballad, the 8-part detective thriller that premiered September 25, 2025, has rocketed to a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score and smashed viewing records with 28 million hours in its first week, plunging audiences into a shadowy saga of cold cases and concealed crimes that’s got fans gasping, “Bosch can’t compete!” Created by Bosch: Legacy‘s Henrik Bastin and directed by The Night Agent‘s Chad Stahelski, the series—filmed in Seattle’s rain-slicked streets from January to July 2025—stars Gabriel Basso as DI Jack Harlan, a haunted homicide cop whose probe into a singer’s “suicide” unearths a “hidden twist” that unravels a web of “record-smashing” revelations. “It’s Bosch’s grit with a sharper shank – addictive, inescapable,” Bastin tells Variety, his script a scalpel slicing through the “most binge-worthy” opacity of urban underbelly.
The saga’s sinister surge? Spellbinding: Episode 1’s “Ballad’s Burial” catapults Harlan into the fray, a lounge singer’s “overdose” with a locket etched “Sing for Me,” pulling him into a conspiracy where colleagues conceal crimes and lyrics lie. Basso’s Harlan? A “masterclass in menace,” his wry wit warping to weary watchfulness, unraveling a ripple of regrets where a bandmate’s “accident” surfaces as sabotage. Co-stars carve the chaos: Siobhan Finneran as the “suspicious superior” with a sting, Tom Burke as the “haunted handler” with a grudge, and Indira Varma as the “calculating” confidant with secrets. Bastin’s script quivers with quips – “Ballads bury what blues betray” – but the “brutal” brutality bites: A botched backstage burial buries a body, a VVIP viper’s venom turns ally to assassin.
The “sharper than Bosch”? Seismic: Bastin’s adaptation amps the “pacy” probe with “spooky” soundscapes and “authentic” accents, Stahelski’s direction a “gripping” gasp of “grim themes” in Seattle’s “eerie charm.” The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan raves “very well-made, pacy drama” with Basso’s “reliably likeable” levity; The Independent‘s Ed Power hails Finneran’s “Icily Glamorous” iciness and the “understated and spooky” score. Evening Standard‘s Vicky Jessop praises the “overall confidence, style and authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in melancholy,” but the 1-in-2 clue-to-cliff ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t whodunit wallpaper; it’s a web-weaving whirlwind, Ballad‘s ballad a ballad of the broken where notes note the nefarious. Harlan’s hunt? Harrowing. The lyrics’ lies? Lethal. September 25? Not a drop – a dirge. Binge it; the ballads bewilder, the burials blister. Basso’s bite? Breathless. The obsession? Overnight, inescapable.
