Didn’t stay very gold, did he?
Ratings are in. Looks good so far!
(I have to be careful of being too happy…I am a “new show jinx” - if I like a show, cancellation is right around the corner!)
Just curious, but what gave it away? That didn’t occur to me at all when watching it.
Just caught a rerun of it. Seems pretty good. The whole part with the lady detective fell flat. I’d rather it focus on the beat cops, since pretty much all cop shows these days focus on detectives.
When the camera panned away from the close up, you saw the other patrons at the bar. Let’s just say it was a feeling…but a bar filled with only guys and not a single woman to be seen? Granted, that could happen anywhere - even in a straight bar, but it does make you go “hmmm”…
Another clue, although I had to watch the episode a second time to catch this. Earlier in the show, they pulled up next to an unmarked police car with a suspect in the back seat. They were told that he was picked up for soliciting in a park. He was in the bar complaining loudly about getting arrested earlier that day.
I gues it was a combination of no females in the bar and the fact that all the bartenders were perfectoly groomed mucle bound guys in tank tops. They just looked TOO good for bartenders in your average corner bar.
I watched the first episode just before the second one aired tonight, and all I can say is that it may be better than some primetimecrime shows (I don’t watch them), but it’s no The Wire.
Too predictable, too many noble, self-sacrificing, but slightly flawed cops, struggling to right the wrongs of the world in their small way. And no bad guys anywhere near as interesting as Stringer Bell or Omar.
I don’t think I’ll be tuning in again.
Well, if you’re comparing it to The Wire, you may as well just give up on all cop shows now.
I liked tonight’s episode more, but I wished they would just get rid of the bleeped swearing. It’s annoying.
Caught last night’s episode. I may have been biased going in, but that was pretty terrible.
Look, if you’re going to shoot it as if it were a documentary or an episode of Cops, then the dialogue, characters, and situations can’t be so clichéd.
I almost never do watch cop shows, but since people were comparing this to The Wire, I tried it. If it’s better than the average cop show, it’s not better enough to make me watch it.
Exactly. IMHO, it was just plain, ordinary melodrama.
The Shield featured uniform officers pretty regularly as did Michael Chiklis’ previous show, The Commish.
As for Southland. It looks mildly interesting, but I can’t get over the ads that intone “NBC takes you behind the badge” as if a show about the police is the most groundbreaking thing in the world.
Plus, it stars the kid from The O.C…
I never took it as a fake-docudrama type show. Yeah, it’s got those camera angles, but there’s no interviews with characters or breaking the fourth wall.
I was completely put off by this week’s episode. An hour about a baby? Pul-leeze. Boring dreck.
It’s doomed. Where’s NBC gonna put it when Leno’s on five nights a week?
Saturday? Ha!
Sunday? Double Ha!
9pm slot? Triple Ha!
USA? Possible…
I didn’t mean to imply that it is a fake-docudrama type show, just that it’s filmed like one (or like Cops), which would be fine if the characters talked like real people or encountered situations that, largely, real people would encounter. Likewise, it would also be ok to keep the dialogue and plotting mostly as is and film it in a more traditional way. The problem is that the cinéma vérité framing combined with boilerplate TV-drama dialogue and plots throws into sharp relief just how phony the whole enterprise is. For anyone who’s ever watched Cops, I just don’t see how you can watch *Southland *without a voice in the back of your head whispering fake-fake-fake-fake-fake-fake-fake.
There were other things I disliked about it, but this was the most jarring.
I may as well put this here, as it’s too pedantic for a new thread…
Did you happen to see the original trailer for this show, where the veteran cop said “He’s new. He’s new.”
Well, that scene played out last night, and he only said “He’s new” once. I don’t know why, but I find that really annoying.
eh.
I was bored enough to just turn it off halfway through last night and I was watching it while playing on the computer, so… that’s really boring.
I love cop shows and have been looking for a new one to love. I loved ER and I REALLY love Third Watch, so I had high hopes.
Last week I watched it, was bored, and decided to keep on giving it a chance. This week I decided I don’t want to have to work to enjoy a show. I’ll keep looking for good reviews for a few weeks to see if it picks up, but so far no good.
I loved the pilot, but I thought last night’s ep was pretty weak. The entire baby plot was stupid and most of the things I found interesting about the pilot were pretty much ignored. And, again, the whole baby thing was straight out of 50 episodes of ER.
I would have no problem with that. Maybe it can replace all those NCIS reruns…