Southland [** Spoilers **]

Richard Dower

Anyone see the first episode?...i only really watched it for Ben Mckensie (The OC), just to see if he had improved as an actor or how he'd fair in a different show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southland_(TV_series)

The pilot was OK, fair...nothing ground breaking...one thing that did ANNOY me hugely was the bleeping out of cuss words, but it's very inconsistent!

At one point a cop says "asshole" and it's not bleeped, but in another a hooker mouths the same word and it gets bleeped

Why put cuss words in a script and then bleep them?....it's broadcast after the watershed in the US as well....not sure if i'll stick with it, maybe watch another episode or two.....ooh, and it had C. Thomas Howell

JP Liz

Its produced by ER's John Wells so should be worth a look especially as Benny Mac is in it

Full_Circle

Just watched this today. One of the better pilot episodes that I've seen in a LONG time. It feels like a mix between The Shield and Third Watch. Theres quite a few characters on board, so I look forward to getting to know them better over the coming weeks and months

moshea

Just watched this now, and enjoyed it a lot.

Gotta agree with FC's comment about it feeling like a mix of The Shield and Third Watch (which in my book, is good company to be keeping). A large cast, with multiple overlapping story-lines gave the pilot a sense of just scratching the surface - withs lots more to come.

Will definitley watch more.

WENTY07

I wonder which Irish channel will pick this up since critics have been v positive stateside following its first 2 eps plus its decent ratings means NBC May have a new drama hit at last!!

Full_Circle

Second ep was pretty decent too. And an old Shield regular popped up at the end too! Hope the quality keeps up, and that they start to fully explore some of the lesser characters at some point. Some of the bigger names have had practically NO screen time at all yet!

Richard Dower

Mr. OC star seems to be doing well...his acting has improved a bit. Second ep. was pretty good though. I'll give it a few more eps. of watching :-)

Richard Dower

Excellent episode of Southland, best of the three thus far!...Tom Sizemore and C. Thomas Howell gave excellent performances. I notice Taylor Handley paid a visit, OC fans will know him well as psyhco Oliver :-)

Ben McKensie i think has improved as an actor, certainly better then his limited wooden OC persona.

Kur4mA

I've watched the 3 episodes so far and have to say I'm liking it. I thought OC lad would do my head in, but he's not bad.

muffinman

I watched the first two episodes last night, and thought it was pretty good.. Nothing amazing yet but it can definitely go somewhere..

Richard Dower

Yeah i'm gonna stick with it, the ratings thus far have been very good...i think it's some of the best numbers NBC has had actually, for the genre/timeslot.

Basq

It's got an excellent cast it must be said!

I think it has the potential to be fantastic.. it's watchable, raw but not too gritty. If they could just get rid of the bleeping, that's very irritating!

Still, I'd recommend it!

Full_Circle

basquille wrote: »

If they could just get rid of the bleeping, that's very irritating!

On that note, does anyone know WHY they have to bleep everything out? Either don't use such fowl language (its not really necessary, just to make something seem believable), or else allow it to be heard. Everytime I hear the beep, it takes me out of the moment, reminds me I'm watching a TV show.....

Basq

Full_Circle wrote: »

On that note, does anyone know WHY they have to bleep everything out? Either don't use such fowl language (its not really necessary, just to make something seem believable), or else allow it to be heard. Everytime I hear the beep, it takes me out of the moment, reminds me I'm watching a TV show.....

I think the bleeping is there to try and convey to the viewer that it's gritty and real, in terms of the language they use.

But it's just plain daft!

Richard Dower

I noted the bleeping...but does anyone notice they allow "ass" but bleep the "hole" part???
As i pointed out in the first post, why are some "swear" words unbleeped and others aren't?

Did anyone think that Tom Sizemore had lost weight?....i hope we see him again on the show. Nice to see C. Thomas Howell doing more mainstream stuff, he's been resigned to doing utter RUBBISH for that blackbuster knockoff film studio....The Asylum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asylum

I've seen one or two, they are DIRE beyond belief!!!

sheehy898

Personally I like the bleeping as it gives the show something different to all the other cop shows out there at the moment,I know it's a small thing but very unique.

Richard Dower

Latest episode for me was...meh, i noticed something, this episode concentrated on the detectives and heavy on their private lives....i found it dull. I found the episodes focusing on the cops much more interesting and enjoyable. I found myself realising the rookie cop and his older mentor were quite and interesting duo, i also thought C Thomas Howell did add a nice comedy element...

So didn't really enjoy this ep., i can assume then they'll move around and focus on different characters in each episode.

sheehy898

Richard Dower wrote: »

Latest episode for me was...meh, i noticed something, this episode concentrated on the detectives and heavy on their private lives....i found it dull. I found the episodes focusing on the cops much more interesting and enjoyable. I found myself realising the rookie cop and his older mentor were quite and interesting duo, i also thought C Thomas Howell did add a nice comedy element...

So didn't really enjoy this ep., i can assume then they'll move around and focus on different characters in each episode.

I have to agree,this episode was not as good as the previous ones,the episodes that concentrates on the street cops are much better.

Richard Dower

http://www.tv.com/story/14452.html?tag=topslot;button;

Richard Dower

Much better this week...much more engaging and interesting. Last week i said the detectives were boring?....well this week they were all much more interesting. I think the main issue with last week was that it revolved too much around the detectives private lives.

This week it was about them trying to help out a fellow detective retrive his gun, protecting one of their own etc. That kid with the radar sign was hillarious!

We have one more episode left as they only made 6 for the initial run,but a 13 episode second run has been ordered. Hope they get rid of that stupid bleeping though!

Caked Karen

Enjoy this show

Glad to hear thats its been given the go ahead for Season 2..its easy to watch yet kinda gritty.
Agree with the beeping..thought it was something with my laptop at one stage

lostexpectation

was wondering why we need another cop show but liked the old cop trying to figure out why the young cop is a cop.

lostexpectation

hate the female detective.

you could imagine the big bust in ep 5 taking a whole series up in the wire.

Richard Dower

Very strong mid season finale...they spread a wide net and involved alot of characters but the plots were interesting. I have to say though, and i never thought i'd say this....but Ben McKensie is really rather watchable on this show.

Him and older cop partner/mentor are the best thing about the show, they appear to have some interesting backstory. That's it for awhile...no new eps. until the new 13 episode run begins.

BUT...the ratings for ep. 6 slipped again!....down to 5 million i belive. If the slide continues i doubt it'll get renwed past it's 6+13 run.

JP Liz

Southland will be back on the beat.

The midseason cop drama was renewed by NBC for 13 more episodes late Friday, according to the trades.

Boston

I quiet likes cooper at the end. That was very well pulled off.

lostexpectation

can't believe what happend to yerman, and is that realy shock drama these days that yermna turns out to be???

i find it strange, bit all over the place,

and why did they allow yerone to keep using her mobile that first time they moved her?

ixoy

Really enjoyed this season - watched it all in just over a week (okay there's only 7 episodes but still...). Reminded me a little of "The Shield" mixed with "Homicide".

I think having a big cast, and revolving slowly around them, helps a lot. There's no real discernible main character, although I'd have to agree that Sherman/Cooper team-up is good (I already knew MacKenzie could act from "Junebug"). I also thought they played Cooper's storyline out well:

You could call it from the first episode and afterwards there was nice, but small nods to it

. Good character development.

The bleeping is irritating and it's a balance between trying to show it as gritty and realising that US networks have *bleep*ed up moral values that lets them show *bleep* like mutilated corpses but you can't say *bleep*.

Very glad it's got a second season as I believe it's the best new cop show I've seen since "The Wire" and hope that it retains its strong creative centre (I noticed the show's creator, Ann Biderman, had a hand in the writing of every episode).

Richard Dower

Southland returns January 12th on TNT!!!!

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/02/tnt-picks-up-acclaimed-drama-southland/32261

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/02/southland-to-face-off-with-jay-leno-at-10pm-in-january/32250

[mods - can we merge all Southland threads please?]

Basically it's just six new episodes....the 7 already broadcast + the 6 new ones that were dropped and not broadcast....damn!

J-blk

TNT may pick up more episodes but for now they'll just broadcast the 13 already filmed it seems... it could still live on though, smaller numbers required for it to be considered a success on TNT after all...

Richard Dower

It's a good show, but they need to focus on the rookie cop and his partner more.

JP Liz

Starts on TNT tonight

Richard Dower

JP Liz wrote: »

Starts on TNT tonight

YES!....thanks JP, but is it a fresh episode or one of the 7 already broadcast?

J-blk

Richard Dower wrote: »

is it a fresh episode or one of the 7 already broadcast?

AFAIK, it's Season 1, Episode 1 - TNT is broadcasting the episodes from the very beginning, then when those 7 have aired, I think they will broadcast the 6(? - I think it's 6 more) Season 2 episodes straight after them so it'll be awhile yet before a "truly" new episode airs.

Richard Dower

Lads, any info on brand new eps.? - how far have TNT got airing the first 7?

J-blk

Richard Dower wrote: »

Lads, any info on brand new eps.? - how far have TNT got airing the first 7?

March 2nd AFAIK is the air date for the first of the new episodes (and since it started on the 12th of January, that sounds right...).

Richard Dower

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/02/18/southlands-john-wells-on-nbc-tnt/42389

JP Liz V1

no news on a season 2 yet?

Richard Dower

Bit early for that, what counts is Southlands numbers with regard to brand new eps. i guess TNT will wait until the first season plays out.

Richard Dower

Heads up...a brand *new* ep. of Southland airs on TNT tonite!

pickarooney

I'm debating watching this. Do we know if the writers were aware the series was dead before they made the last episode or is it one of those eternal cliffhanger shows? (don't give away the ending, though!)

Richard Dower

7 were originally ordered, then a further 13 for series 2....they filmed six and it got axed (before it was even broadcast), ergo it's really only a 13 ep. first series.

pickarooney

Ah. I don't think I'll bother so.

Richard Dower

Well season 2 has started, it was a very solid ep. They kinda skirted round the season 1 finale though, did anyone notice the bleeping?....it's even more annoying now!

Why?...because TNT allowed some swear works like s*it, but f*ck gets bleeped???....makes no sense!, still liking Ben McKenzie and the acting is usually very good.

Will it last?....will TNT order more eps.?, my gut tells me no. I think the ratings just won't justify ordering more...but we'll see, i'll report ratings later on.

Richard Dower

Ratings, in the range i expected....enough for season 3?...bit early perhaps.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/03/southland-returns-modestly-to-2-5-million-and-a-1-0-rating-with-adults-18-49/43779

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/03/white-collar-beats-southland-by-40-with-viewers-and-13-with-adults-18-49/43795

http://www.metacritic.com/tv/shows/southlandseason2

Basq

Bring a series back like this..? It never had a shot at a third season!

Richard Dower

^ well...i'm hoping it gets renewed, but even TNT execs. don't seem keen on the show.

expectationlost

whats with the pixelating, i've nevere noticed the bleeping.

Richard Dower

Outstanding ep. last night - it was pretty much a Ben standalone ep. and he played it well. The quality of the writing for S2 has been top notch....this show deserves more viewers/attention.

Zippitydoo

Completely agree with you, solid stuff so far and getting better with every episode. Definitely the best cop show out there at the moment in my opinion.

Richard Dower

Ratings rise for Southland....but i thought Tuesdays ep. was the weakest of the new 4 broadcast thus far:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/24/repurposed-law-order-svu-on-usa-bests-new-southland-on-tnt/46011