I don't watch a ton of TV (er, um, unless it involves auctions, storage units, picking, pawning, logging, gator-shooting, or gold mining....). What I do watch I scam online...and when I find a show I love, it's a dangerous thing -- I'll end up watching 9-hour marathons on a Saturday, the characters will pop up in my bizarro dreams...I start thinking that Omar's a real person and wondering how he's doing since they killed his pretty boyfriend. I cry when Stringer gets popped. I shame myself over being the ONLY PERSON ON THE PLANET who preferred Jack to Locke (I mean seriously, kiddo...). I worry about whether or not Audrina will find a good guy, she picks such lame d-bags. I end up falling asleep wondering what Benson will do if they take Maria Bello's son away from her. I think about kidnapping Sally Draper to spare her growing up with that shrew of a mother. I approach my television with the gravity usually reserved for...important things, like new Gaga videos (hated it) or Natalie Portman's Oscar dress (loved it).
So it's no small matter when I find another show I love. It's like inviting someone new to join the family. It's like sitting down to "define the relationship" with someone you've been dating. "Are you my boyfriend? Really? And I'm your only girlfriend? SERIOUSLY, though? And you're ready to declare it on Facebook? Are you sure? And did you know Facebook is now like a proper noun that gets spell-checked if you don't capitalize it?"
That sort of serious. Inviting a new show into my repertoire is a big deal.
So it's with a great sense of triumph and a serious sense of security for the future of our relationship that I publicly declare Southland my new favorite show.
"What-land? I don't think I've ever heard of it."
Yeah, that's probably because it was advertised as the Great White Hope for the prime time slot vacated by ER a few years ago.
UNFORTUNATELY, it was just too smart for the average viewer. Grisly, nuanced, subtle, great writing. You know, the type of show the networks have no idea what to do with and would rather air Two and A Half Men reruns in place of. That sort of show.
The sort of show with characters that have conversations that REAL LIFE people might have, complete with the occasional blank stare or irritated shoulder shrug or stupid comeback. The sort of police procedural drama that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator with lame interrogation sequences that reek of Psych 101. They don't need fancy famous guest stars or huge budgets with special effects.
It's shot in a very raw, almost grainy single-camera docu-drama style that makes you feel like you're really there, on the streets of LA, working the cases with the detectives. You're really there in the back seat of the squad car while the patrol cops cruise the streets. You're really there when the angry crowd of gansta punks start to close in on the cops.
Many of their extras are real LA street kids, gang members, moms and dads and normal folks - it lends an air of believability to the entire show to have people that don't look like they were in makeup for three hours to look "rundown and tough."
The show doesn't glamorize the cops or demonize the criminals in a predictably two-dimensional way. These cops have problems. Drug problems, marital problems, self-confidence problems, ego problems. The relationships between the cops and their partners feels authentic. The writing is smart and snappy without being artificially witty (not that I don't love me some Aaron Sorkin, it's just that REAL people don't speak like that. They have to think and breathe before the rapid-fire repartee can commence).
The actors are TOP NOTCH. When an awkward, tough-guy detective is trying not to cry, you really feel that lump in his throat when he speaks. When he twists his mouth in a fake, frozen looking smile, you know it's because he's barely holding it together. It's not over-wrought melodrama, it's real people.
The show just wrapped up its third season on TNT last night and I loved every second of it. Rather than a cliffhanging finale as the last two have been, they went out on a pleasant note, with some upbeat new changes for the characters that left me looking forward to the dynamics of next season.
Also - strangely, for a gritty, often bloody, always suspenseful cop show on a network geared slightly more toward the dudes, I can't help wondering why Southland ended up so short on babes and heavy on guys who look great in uniform.....oh well. Either way, it's a great show. Season 4 can't come quickly enough!
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