From the producers of ER "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."

Has some good actors in it. One of the cops is "Bull" from Band of Brothers. The main character is Ben (Ben McKenzie from the OC) and it starts off when him as a rookie cop. Also shows cop's lives in LA and different sections of the force (vice, gang wars, kidnapping etc)

It's up on hulu.com now for 5 more days before it premieres on TV on April 9th at 10pm

Here is a line up of the plot/actors from NBC.com

Quote :

"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."

4/4/2009 2:35:01 PM

Quote :

"a raw and authentic look "

god dammit, I am so tired of shit like this, "ohhh so gritty, cutting edge! ohhhhh"

so tired of shows stumbling over each other to be wild and shocking, NYPD Blue started this shit and TVs sucked for a decade

4/4/2009 2:44:45 PM

it'll never be as good as the wire.

4/4/2009 2:51:37 PM

the wire's season long stories were nice. It felt like it was going somewhere. ALso, it was funny as shit. Everyone knows that it take more talent to write good comedy. It also had black people as major characters.

4/4/2009 4:12:34 PM

Nothing will be as good as the wire. That was the best show ever. But southland looks great. I can't wait till next Thursday

4/4/2009 5:12:50 PM

just watched the pilot on hulu. it's alright--it's fairly intelligent, if a little derivative. i don't know why we need yet another police procedural show.

4/4/2009 6:00:42 PM

If Life gets canceled and this show put on next season, I will be pissed. I will probably be pissed.

4/4/2009 7:13:22 PM

well from what i've read Life is already doomed. Its ashamed because i really liked it. The episodes were very formulaic, but i enjoyed them and the chemistry of the characters. From what i have also heard though is that they are preparing to close up the season with some definitive answer which should be great. Southland should be great in its own right, i cant wait.

4/5/2009 1:01:30 AM

watched it. it was m'eh. decent premier. nothing special really. probably will never watch again

4/5/2009 1:04:17 AM

i'm digging it.

4/5/2009 9:33:25 PM

it'll never be as good as the wire.

and

IB http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/

4/5/2009 10:12:59 PM

a cable show will never be as good as the wire. I don't think it's even remotely trying to be.

4/6/2009 8:03:02 AM

I just want to see Ryan Atwood shoot people

hopefully I'm not dissapointed

4/6/2009 8:46:38 AM

you won't be disappointed in the pilot then.


The funny thing is that in the OC he was the brooding teenage badboy from the slums of Chino. Now on here he's the pretty boy rookie from 90210.

4/6/2009 9:01:05 AM

oops - didn't see this thread on the first page... delete mine plz...

This is really good!!

4/9/2009 10:40:25 PM

I liked it

Wife hated it

4/9/2009 11:07:09 PM

I watched it again last night. I had watched the pilot on hulu last week. I noticed several scenes were cut short or edited out from the two versions.


I really like the show, but I've been let down so many times by NBC that I really don't know what to expect from them. Other networks have been promoting their new series and using limited commercial breaks to really get the audience hooked on an episode. what does NBC do? shows about 4 minutes in the opening scene and then slaps a 5 minute commercial break in.

4/10/2009 8:26:53 AM

Well I'm glad they replaced ER with something. I found myself annoyed with the show, even having limited my exposure to nothing but the commercials.

Southland. Sigh. Another cop/lawyer/doctor drama. I guess that's all you can expect out of the networks during prime time. That or 'reality' TV.

4/10/2009 9:09:20 AM

i liked it.

4/10/2009 10:41:48 AM

Just watched episode 2 on hulu

I really like this show so far. I really like how it's not just a cop drama show like csi or law and order but it's more gritty and realistic and it goes into their lives and their family members.

4/17/2009 2:29:47 PM

yea it's gettin better

4/17/2009 4:16:48 PM

we watched last night

what's up with the bleeped-out cuss words? is it necessary?

4/17/2009 4:57:42 PM

if they dont want to get fined by FCC yeah.

4/18/2009 5:56:15 AM

i kinda wish i had never watched the wire at this point, because now i'm not even going to be able to fully enjoy a pretty decent cop show like this one, because it's never going to compare to the wire.

4/18/2009 8:31:52 AM

^^ i'm sayin' what's the point in even putting words into the script that they know they'll be bleeping out

it adds absolutely nothing to the show...if anything it comes across as retarded and kinda breaks up the flow

4/18/2009 12:25:44 PM

i wonder if a handful of episodes were made without being sure it would air on network TV (ie could have been on FX or USA or HBO or whatever) and then it got picked up by nbc. or maybe they're just trying to make it realistic/gritty, but yeah i don't like it. the bleep sound is really intrusive. if it was just blanked out it might be a little better.

4/18/2009 1:48:08 PM

I couldn't finish watching the second episode. It was way too melodramatic and implausible and plus you just know that little girl is going to get butchered by the gangs. They kept presenting her in all these touching scenes... OK I GET IT - SHE'S GONNA GET KILLED!! Just kill her and move on. No one cares. Its such a cliche anyway. Snitches get stitches Yes, I understand, its the ghetto. They hardcore ova there

4/18/2009 1:59:50 PM

(she didn't get killed, but they did shoot up her house)

4/18/2009 3:06:55 PM

plus, who in their right mind is going to go charging into a hold-up without waiting for his more experienced partners.

I know they were trying to develop his character by showing us that he does have flaws and isn't perfect, but jesus dang.... He deserved a bullet in the head for that kind of stupidity. Plus, that whole scene was SO predictable as soon as he started charging in. How else could it have ended? Worst writing ever.

The first episode was so good... How could they have screwed it up so quickly?

[Edited on April 18, 2009 at 3:19 PM. Reason : s]

4/18/2009 3:19:02 PM

Quote :

"I just want to see Ryan Atwood shoot people hopefully I'm not dissapointed"

4/18/2009 4:29:39 PM

bump for tonite. Maybe I can get through an episode w/o Jeepin4x4 texting me!! j/k dawg

4/23/2009 9:52:21 PM

too late

4/23/2009 10:31:42 PM

i like this show, i do. But it seems like they tried to introduce too many characters over the first two episodes. That's not a bad thing, but they dropped half of them this go round but still didn't really make too many leaps forward with those they centralized on, other than Ben and Coop's father issues. We still have no idea what's up with Tom Everett Scott's character except being lead to believe he's a cheater/womanizer/something like that.

I just feel like there wasn't anything happening this time, no real huge case to get my interested. And after two episodes focusing on Jamilla and the gang shooting there was no mention of it tonight. And then the scenes from next week is concentrating on something completely different. So they need to get centralized before they begin branching out in 10 different directions before we get to know the characters.

4/23/2009 11:03:52 PM

I have to agree with all that ^

4/24/2009 4:15:24 PM

ok here is my rant and rave about last night's episode.


as a whole, i enjoyed last nights episode. I thought it was very good. An aside: I don't mind that much of the crimes are solved off camera, i feel like there are too many procedural shows out there so for them to just find a DNA match for the killer off camera and then move in to arrest him was ok to me. I enjoy the gang detectives', Bryant and the latino, arcs. I don't know why, but I just seem to be more intrigued by them than Regina King's "im too into my job" and Tom Everett Scott's "don't care attitude" characters.

It seems to me they are trying to deliver this show as an "ensemble" with such a large cast that each one may or may not appear in each episode...I never watched ER (which is produced by the same guy) so I don't know if that's the formula they used there or not. If it was, it worked for ER. But my initial assumption was this show was based around officer Ben Sherman, and for him to be missing the entire episode really kind of irritated me. Now don't get me wrong, it would be too cheesy/corny/fake for the detectives to work with the same 4 street cops on each crime in the city of LA so for the detectives to have a complete crime and investigation without Sherman and Cooper was more true to life. I want to say that starting a story line and then dropping it for 2 weeks would get on my nerves but i've been watching LOST for 5 years so i'm used to that i guess. But this isn't lost, there is no big mystery or end game. So to introduce all these personal story lines, then go weeks without seeing the character or touching on the character is a mistake in my opinion. especially when i forget the whys and reasons and then stop caring all together.

[Edited on May 1, 2009 at 8:02 AM. Reason : .]

5/1/2009 7:58:30 AM

holy shit balls

I was on the edge of my computer chair during the river run and the gang invasion.

I can't wait till next season (only 7 episodes this season??? wtf)

5/22/2009 10:40:36 AM

this is actually a pretty decent show. only reason i got into it was because of ben mackenzie, since the O.C. was the best show ever.

5/22/2009 10:53:12 AM

finally got around to watching the finale.... did not see that one coming!

7/6/2009 6:56:12 PM

yeah..awesome finale!

[Edited on July 6, 2009 at 10:18 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2009 10:18:27 PM