David E. Kelley is adapting Michael Connelly’s 2024 bestseller Nightshade for television under the title Welcome To Catalina at HBO Max.
The project centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell, exiled to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island. While following up drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts, Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor — the single incident that propels the series’ first case.
The production arrives with notable behind-the-scenes heft: Kelley will executive produce alongside Matt Tinker, Barry Jossen, Tana Jamieson, Ross Fineman and Connelly himself. HBO Max is the lead studio on the show, with A+E Studios attached as co-studio.
HBO Max is developing Welcome To Catalina under its current model for drama procedurals intended to return each year with sizable orders and moderate cost — the strategy introduced by the Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt, which produces 15 episodes a year. The adaptation therefore arrives as a candidate for a large, annual episode order rather than a limited run.
Kelley is not new to Connelly’s work. He previously created a television adaptation of Connelly’s short story Avalon at ABC, which cast Neve Campbell as Nicole “Nic” Searcy, a female L.A. Sheriff’s Department detective lead. That Avalon adaptation ultimately did not move forward. Kelley also created Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, based on Connelly’s novel The Brass Verdict; that series is filming its fifth and final season.
The timing matters. Connelly’s work has already anchored several television franchises — Bosch on Prime Video and The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix — and HBO Max’s move to develop Welcome To Catalina looks designed to fill a Connelly-shaped gap as those shows move on or wrap up. HBO Max also has a slate of current pilots, including the cop drama American Blue and the family drama How To Survive Without Me, suggesting the streamer is investing in series that can return annually.
The friction in the story is straightforward: Kelley has both a proven record adapting Connelly and a recent misfire with Avalon. The Lincoln Lawyer remains active but is reaching its conclusion with a fifth and final season, removing one current Connelly property from the field. That mix—past success, a stalled project, and a closing franchise—raises a practical question about whether HBO Max will commit at scale or treat the adaptation as lower risk testing ground.
Welcome To Catalina’s premise — a veteran detective exiled to a small island who uncovers a body while handling minor offenses — maps cleanly onto the procedural model HBO Max has favored. The streaming service’s established approach to yearly returning dramas, using sizable episode orders to build audience habit at moderate production cost, fits the concept better than a limited series would.
Given Kelley’s history with Connelly adaptations and HBO Max’s procedural strategy, the facts point to a clear outcome: Welcome To Catalina is being positioned to become the streamer’s next returning Connelly-based procedural. If HBO Max greenlights the series under its established model, Kelley’s new show is likely to be ordered as an annual return rather than a one-off, making it the platform’s planned michael connelly hbo max series.
