Southland

This show is amazing. I literally stumbled upon it during the 2020 holidays while I was off work with nothing much to do due to laying low and staying safe from the COVID. This series was a holiday treat! I literally am embarrassed to say how fast I watched it but it was THAT GOOD. And I am a tough person to get sucked into a tv binge. This show grabs you from the first couple of minutes. The characters have a lot of depth and the acting is great for a TV series!! This show was a launch pad for a bunch of great actors that are now hugely well known. The storyline is thought provoking and very relatable to our continued and current cultural issues where people are still refusing to practice tolerance and acceptance. This show depicts the desperate need to demand equality. When I realized this show was almost a decade old and still, today, we suffer from the same national struggle that sickens me, these same issues of racial profiling and global discrimination will definitely be upsetting when watching southland but this show has a soul that makes HOPE seem like it just might be an actual possibility. Enjoy!

Southland is absolutely one of the best cop dramas to ever be made! There are thousands of cop shows out there to choose from but this is among the best and most original I've ever seen. The cast is excellent and make it a very believable show. It really is one of the more underrated shows in television history!

To start I have to say that the pilot episode was amazing and the show only got better until the season finale.

I have been policing for some time now and have yet to find a show that depicts policing as accurate as Southland. Sure there are some scenes in this series that are a bit over dramatized, as in any show; however, the attitudes, behaviours and problems officers face are very real.

Many of the messages Cst. COOPER says to his "rookie" Cst. SHERMAN are very valid in policing today and are often utilized. SHERMAN's responses to things that he has to see and experience are spot on.

The fact that many of the terms used in Southland are not sugar coated, as in other TV series, blows my mind and is what keeps me watching. I see far too much in other series where the characters actually seem awkward as their language doesn't reflect what their behaviour is showing or the producers want to appease the censors and use softer language.

Having two separate views of cases may distract some people, but this is exactly what it is like in reality. There are detectives in the same division as the front line officers and although they may work together on some incidents, often go about their day on different paths.

The finale is and what will make me a dedicated viewer because of how close it hits to home. As an officer you tend not to try and get involved in your neighbours business, this is a reality in today's world where anything can happen if you choose to do so.

All in all amazing acting, real characters, real settings and scenarios. I recommended this show to all my co-workers and anyone else interested in television shows depicting policing as it really is.

9/10 (Only reason I didn't give a 10 is because I don't believe anything is ever perfect).

I think Southland deserves to be considered amongst the great series: The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Better Call Saul, Rome, Dexter, Oz, Lilyhammer, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan and Peaky Blinders. It is also, arguably, the most underrated. It should never have been on NBC, which NBC realized, and then it went to cable at TNT. It flourished creatively, in its 4 seasons there, but never found it's audience. If this show had been on HBO, I think more people would have found it and sung its praises. Even Emmy didn't see what an incredible cast the show had and what brilliant writing it employed. Also, unlike so many long-running series, it's final Season 5 was its best. It was not supposed to be its final Season, TNT decided to cancel it, which only goes to show the unfulfilled promise that lay ahead.

There was not a single bad performance with any cast regulars, but Michael Cudlitz and Regina King stand out, closely followed by Shawn Hattoy and Ben McKenzie. C. Thomas Howell blows it out of the water in a supporting role and Lucy Liu and Gerald McRaney nail it in guest spots. The scenes with Cudlitz and McRaney, S5 E7, Heroes, is the stuff that should be taught in acting classes and should have garnered both Emmy nominations.

Best Season: 5 Best Episodes: Season 5, E7, 8, 9 and 10.

I work in the field, and I was genuinely impressed. Based on the pilot this show looks like it could be excellent. What strikes me is the focus on the very real impact of the job on the officers. In the real world, an officer doesn't fire his or her weapon at another person and then respond in a cavalier way or crack one liners (as you might believe from watching other cop dramas). The normal reaction is actually shock, and a massive adrenaline dump. and it takes time to process and deal with it. And as for language, I agree that I would rather see this show on cable where the realistic language wouldn't have to be bleeped out. Real officers and real bad guys don't say 'shucks and darn'... But bravo for NBC for putting something like this together. Can't wait to see more!