Anybody watch this? I've only caught the first three episodes, and like it so far... although it does this irritating repetition of character points.

I've heard the next three episodes tank a bit. Anyone shed some light?

Never seen it.

Gee, thanks for the insight.

Hey, glad I could help.

I have seen it... and I concur... the opening is lost in rehash, however!!
One might consider it the method by which they catch folk up if they missed the first eps... due to not knowin it was startin... havin other things to watch... Or, just a cheap way to cut their 47 minute episode down to, what, 42? I haven't timed it.

I do like the casting. I think the ensemble is broad enough to do some very interesting things. I am reminded of Hill Street Blues. The complexity of "the genre" certainly makes the large ensemble more likely in RL-- so I appreciate the feel.
I have a mixed feeling for the bleeping of strong language. The difficulty is student access to the video, that they bleep it signals it is inappropriate, but that adults do use it in real life. My kids tend to think they are grown... in spite of the reality that they're middle school... Still, it makes it a much more grown -up show, and gives it the ability to compete with cable production... except they wouldn't bleep the language. Lie to Me doesn't use profanity... and that is a VERY grown up showw...

Now... from where did you hear the next eps tank???

I watched the first three eps as well and then missed one or two and then caught a later ep and was very confused as none of the main characters from the first episodes seem to show up and I thought I had made a mistake as to which show I wanted to watch.

Hill street blues is a good comparison and I too like the cast and complexity.

I know its a cop show, but thats it.

Not what I was referring to, and those intros rarely last longer than a minute anyway. I actually like 'em.


Personally, I wish we'd follow the British and have a censorship-free timeslot. A show like Southland would be perfect for that. And I hate Lie to Me. Contrived garbage, that is.


Can't recall, although I just watched episodes 4 through 6 and thought they were fine. Looking forward to the "season finale."

That stated, I don't see this show lasting much longer. The big cast is great, but it's also going to hurt it, I think. A similar show in the 90s (High Incident) suffered from the same problems, and it barely made it through its second season.

Nah... it's a revolving cast. My favorites are the two beat cops and Regina King's character, but I've been satisfied by all of the character subplots so far... and the one detective with the crazy wife hits a bit close to home.

You need to learn how to post-whore.

It's when they say something pertaining to a character's past... then say it again... and again... and again... until they finally address whatever it was a couple of episodes later. It's irritating as Hell.


Oh, yeah... I'd say it's far more contrived than most shows. It'd be better if they had a procedural element to it, but the way it plays out it's almost as if the main character knows what's going on the whole time, then chooses to reveal it at the end of the hour. There's no substance to it. At least in The Mentalist (another show that's quickly getting boring), the actual team does some investigative work that feels at least somewhat necessary.

And I love Tim Roth, don't get me wrong, and most of the cast is great, but the leading actress doesn't sell me.


Life suffered from bad promotion, and then too much confusion following the WGA strike. Staff writers left, replaced by not-as-good writers, and the whole "did we reboot or not" deal didn't help much. But, yeah, that show will be missed.

Southland's problem is its enormous cast, I think. It doesn't have the ability that E.R. had to feasibly put every character in the same location very often, which makes some of the plots harder to follow. But, it is good TV, so maybe it'll catch on.

In general, though, I think people are just tiring of the cop genre. They need a break.

I do think if you wanna sell a cop show, it better have some kind of delightful twist... like Dexter... or eve Castle. The POV has to change. Except that... for us oldsters, rehashing the Hil Street characters would be lame... but it could work if they re-did it for the younger generation and updated the relationships... a thing they did do with LIFE.Granted the cast wasn't as unwieldy, but the concept is there. With word of Laurell K. Hamilton's work coming to TV... that has a cast that could be as complex... great spots for some outrageous cameos... or season stars... and it is, at its heart, a cop series. I think it could fly, but the location... can't go regular network- anymore than Tru Blood, or any number of others. It is NOT PG.

Actually . . . it kind of sucks.

Oh, really? Our resident curmudgeon hates something on TV? Really?

I think the purpose of every "previously on" is most certainly to remind viewers of important threads and plot points. Some might do a "last week on," but I can't think of a single show that I watch that just does it for the Hell of it. I usually skip them, anyway...

And that still wasn't what I was referring to. Southland takes a scene from the end of the show, freeze-frames it, and a narrator gives a quick synopsis of what's going through a character's head. I quite like that approach.


I disagree. I think we wind up with a ton of crap because writers feel the need to have some "delightful twist," when all the audience wants is a good story with good characters.

I see a huge similarity between Hill Street Blues and Southland, but I see very few similarities between HSB and Life. Care to elaborate on that a bit?

PG's for PBS.

Because it sucks.

Chuck is better.

Hell, even T:SCC was better.

It's good. Chuck is better, I agree. T:TSCC most certainly was not.

Notice the past tense of the latter.

Say what you will, resident curmudgeons, but that finale rocked.

Chuck's finale? Sure did. But Southland only rocks sucking rocks.

Did you even watch it?

Anyway, I'm wondering if the writers have caught on to the "cast is too big" notion, since at least two of the major characters are in positions to be written off the show.

Thoughts?

Yep.

But I rapidly lost interest when the guy they had the retirement party for showed up in the next episode. Of course, the fact that he was hale and whole and attending his retirement party one episode after he had been near-fatally wounded was, I suppose, just a minor glitch.

I meant the finale, turdless man.


Yeah, I felt that I had missed an episode after that dude showed back up, but I let it slide because the rest of the show is fucking excellent. And at least they haven't promoted anybody from major to full-bird, eh? Or had marines in special forces?

No . . . but Southland still sucks donkey balls.

Not. But it'll get canceled after next season anyway.