I gave this show a shot initially for a couple of reasons: 1) It was touted as the follow-up production for the team behind ER; and 2) Ben McKenzie (aka the O.C.'s Ryan Atwood (which I accidentally typed "Ryan Atwork"--geez, I need a vacation) would be making a return to TV, and I just had to see if he had any real range to work with or if this would be another forum for him to not talk very much and punch people. Replace "punch" with "shoot" and that basically sums up his character (although with considerably less worrying about Marissa, so it was a nice change of pace).Although Ben McKenzie (who plays Ben Sherman--another in the long line of "we don't want the audience calling him by his old character name, so we're going to name the new character his real name" tactics used by writers to try to break a character out of an old r
ole--not that that's going to stop me) is the audience's doorway into this world or police-ness (he basically plays Dr. Carter, the newbie), the show is shot in pseudo-documentary style, and much like ER, bounces from one storyline to another, although with much less overlap and no where near as ground-breaking a result. Where ER completely turned the hospital drama on its ear, Southland tries to shake things up with its style and approach to storytelling, but all in all, it's not much of a game changer in the end. The documentary feel is supported by the shaky camera work, rough production aesthetic, ceratin noir elements, almost a total lack of soundtrack, and would-be natural dialogue (going so far as to bleep out swearing), but it all just felt too self-important and scripted to me to be genuine. The acting is solid and the actors are all good, but the wording was so unnatural that the delivery just wasn't (or couldn't be) convincing. It's fine for the dialogue to feel scripted for a scripted show, generally speaking, but for a show that was aiming for gritty realism, it kind of fell flat. In the end, it just felt like they were trying way to hard to be authentic for it to actually feel authentic. I think this is something the show could definitely work on, but given that this isn't really my genre, I'm not sure I care to stay around long enough for them to work out the kinks.Given that this isn't my genre of choice, I think that had a lot to do with why the show failed to resonate with me. I enjoy a good detective drama, but beat cops have never really held much appeal. In general, I don't particularly like cops, so when a kid got shot (about 17 times in the chest and lived... uh, yeah...), I found myself extremely excited that we were going to the hospital. Yay! A hospital! Doctors! Look they're wheeling him to the operating----and we're back on the street. :( Again, it's not the fault of the show, it's more based on my own sensibilities. What few interactions I've had and my friends and family have had with cops have been annoying and aggravating. Cops are kind of jerks most of the time, and I can't help but to not really care to watch them all that much... Given such sensibilities, I actually enjoyed the pilot more than I would have guessed...
Anyway, there were several storylines going at one with different cops at different levels trying to resolve t
he problem. I had a hard time caring about any of these cases. Unlike ER, there was very little background for the people who had been kidnapped, shot, etc., and I had a hard time relating to each of their stories. That wouldn't have been a problem so much if the cops themselves had been more engaging, but aside from Ben McKenzie and the always excellent Regina King (and Tom Everett Scott (!), but he was only in a couple of minutes), I wasn't particularly enthralled with the majority of them. I think the documentary approach was a big part of this problem. In an attempt to make the dialouge and storylines feel super realistic, they made them feel much less realistic after all was said and done. Nothing sounds faker to me than dialogue that's trying to sound genuine. This made most of the cops' interactions with one another and with the bad guys feel forced and failed to suck me in.It was a lot of fun to see the ever taciturn and hot-headed Ryan Atwood
back on screen, and he was by far the best part of the pilot, but I don't think that's enough to keep me watching. Don't get me wrong, it was a giddy thrill to see him want to punch a guy (aww, that takes me back), but after all was said and done, Ryan alone wasn't enough to save the ensemble of cops, and the crimes of the week weren't engaging enough to compensate. Although, given that his character is apparently from a rich neighborhood (I believe they said Beverly Hills, but I'm going to assume it's the O.C.), a crossover can't been too far off--if Marissa hadn't died, she could always overdose in L.A. and save Tijuana the trouble...Although the show didn't really do it for me, that isn't to say it was bad. The production was well thought out and the culmination of the pilot made for some real interest and investment (particularly Ryan's shoot-out). If cop shows are your kind of shows, I'm confident you'll love Southlan
d. It wasn't your standard crime procedural, and for that I salute them. It was a nice change of pace from the current spate of CSIs, Law & Orders, and whatnot that clog the airways at the moment. That said, cops have never really been my favorites. Especially beat cops. Not that driving around and harassing people isn't just an absolute blast to watch or anything, but I found myself much more interested in the much more interesting cases that involved more than just pulling people over (shocking, I know).I think the show has potential and it's nice to see a show breaking out of the box, but I don't think the Southland pilot was very successful (although I do think that has a lot more to do with my tastes than with the show itself).
All in all, unlike several people in the pilot, I was not blown away. I give it a C+.
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