Southland

[Hellfire]

From Emmy Award winners John Wells, Ann Biderman and Chris Chulack comes a raw and authentic look at a police unit in Los Angeles. From the beaches of Malibu to the streets of East Los Angeles, "Southland" is a fast-moving drama that will take viewers inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families.

Michael Cudlitz ("A River Runs Through It") plays John Cooper a seasoned Los Angeles cop, assigned to train young rookie Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie, "The O.C."). Cooper's honest, no-nonsense approach to the job leaves Sherman questioning whether or not he has what it takes to become a police officer.

Cudlitz and McKenzie are joined by other cast members, including Regina King ("Ray," “Jerry Maguire”), who plays Detective Lydia Adams. Adams lives with and is the primary caregiver of her mother. Her partner, Detective Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott, "Boiler Room") is an unhappily married father of three. Michael McGrady ("The Thin Red Line") plays Detective Daniel "Sal" Salinger. Sal oversees fellow gang detectives Nate Moretta (Kevin Alejandro, "Drive," "Ugly Betty") and Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy, "Alpha Dog"). Arija Bareikis (“Crossing Jordan”) plays patrol officer Chickie Brown, a single mom who dreams of being the first woman accepted into SWAT.

"Southland" is a John Wells Production in association with Warner Bros. Television. Wells, Chulack and Biderman serve as executive producers. Biderman is the creator and Chulack will also serve as director of the series.

I heard about this show a couple weeks back but figured I'd just lump it with the hundreds of other police dramas that I tell myself I need to watch, then forget and catch it sometime later in the year, but I caught it after 30 Rock tonight and enjoyed it. Seems like something that would be on F/X rather than NBC. So, anyone else happen to catch it?

[livid]

Yeah I thought it was pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of SHAKY CAM and I'm not too thrilled about it looking pretty much like a scripted episode of Cops but it wasn't bad. It'll be interesting to see how it progresses as the season goes on.

[MalaCloudy Black]

What I saw wasn't too bad, I'll probably have to watch it on Hulu or something - the news kept interrupting because we were having severe weather, so I'd catch 5 or 10 minutes and then sit through 15 of weather updates. >_>

[zero]

I liked it except for the conclusion to the Regina King plotline, which I thought was way too much clichéd cop drama nonsense and it hurt the realism of the rest of the show. Based solely on the premiere, it came across as someone trying to make The Shield on network TV, "The Shield: Lite." It doesn't have the character depth that The Shield did right off the bat, but that could be coming in future episodes. Not bad though, there's oddly a void of straight-up cop shows on TV right now, so hopefully this one will be worth watching.

[Mike Ockizitchy]

Has anyone kept up with this? I have and I'm enjoying it so far. As Zero said there wasn't much character depth to start off but I feel like that facet is picking up. Anyone else watching and enjoying?

I mostly tuned in because, and yea fuck it Idc, I loved the OC. I wanted to see how Ben McKenzie could hold his own in other roles in different genres. He's done well so far. Heard he lit it up in a one man play while researching IMDB, glad he's not stuck in a funk from such a show as the OC.