James McAvoy’s New Detective Series Is the Next Perfect ‘Bosch’ Replacement

Published Sep 2, 2026, 7:29 PM EDT

Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with extensive experience. Collier, or “CJ” to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy, and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. With his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he’s tackled a wide variety of articles.

***Bosch **proves that the procedural remains not only one of television’s most popular genres but also one of its most versatile. The series hooked viewers by depicting season-long cases and moments where Titus Welliver’s titular detective was forced to dabble in shades of grey, launching a long-running franchise in the process. The latest installment, Bosch: Start of Watch, turns back the clock and features a new actor stepping into Bosch’s shoes with Cameron Monaghan. If *fans want a series that hews closer to the original Bosch, they should check out Sky’s upcoming detective thriller that features a game-changing twist.

That thriller is Meantime, based on **Frankie Boyle’**s novel of the same name and starring **James McAvoy in the lead role. McAvoy plays Felix McAveety, a man who’s struggling with addictive tendencies all his life. One day, Felix wakes up and learns that his best friend was murdered. Wanting to clear his name, Felix hires a pair of unorthodox sleuths: **adetective turned crime novelist (Josette Simon) and a longtime friend (Jamie Michie). This helps set *Meantime *apart from the usual detective thrillers, but it also gives McAvoy a chance to truly flex his acting muscles.

Most of McAvoy’s roles usually feature him as a supporting character or a grounding presence, particularly when he took on the role of Charles Xavier in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise. In recent years, he’s been allowed to tap into his more chaotic side, particularly when he played a literal multitude of personalities in Split. He needs to bring that same energy to *Meantime, *especially given how Frankie Boyle writes Felix. Felix is often prone to bouts of paranoia and hallucinations, which often lead him to make outlandish accusations and treat everyone as though they’re a suspect in his friend’s murder. This is a thin line to walk; McAvoy needs to make sure he can nail the comedic timing without treating Felix’s addiction as a punchline.

Luckily, McAvoy was the star of a crime thriller that shows he has the skills to pull off this performance. ***Filth ***features him as Bruce Robertson, a detective who engages in vices that include drug and alcohol abuse, in addition to acting as an outright bully. As *Filth *goes on, it’s revealed that Robertson’s behavior is the product of a failed marriage and mental health issues, which adds layers to a character that was previously portrayed as unsympathetic. If McAvoy can bring the same level of acting to Meantime, he’ll have another great crime thriller under his belt.

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

window.arrayOfGalleries[“article-gallery-1-551575212”] = ’“<div class=“w-gallery-carousel”><section id=“main-carousel-1-551575212” class=“splide splide-gallery” data-gallery-expanded-id=“main-expanable-carousel-1-551575212” data-gallery-expanded-thumbnail-id=“expanded-gallery-thumbnails-1-551575212”><button class=“expand icon i-expand” type=“button”></button><div class=“splide__track”><ul class=“splide__list” style=“—gallery-aspect-sm: 2 / 1; —gallery-aspect-md: 2 / 1; —gallery-aspect-lg: 2 / 1;” ><li class=“splide__slide gallery-main-img”>