Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Southland–TV Show Review

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Southland is a cop show on TNT. Somehow even though we are big fans of cop shows and watch a lot of TNT I’d never seen it before this weekend. Then I got a Tweet from Klout (the Twitter grading site) letting me know I had a “Klout Perk.” In short I was given a free online preview to the new season opener and some goodies of some sort to follow. Hey, sure I’ll watch. There is no obligation but honestly if you give me stuff I’m going to watch the show and probably comment on it. I don’t promise a positive review and the last time they did this for me I panned the show. (Lone Star TV Show Review – show closed after one or two episodes so I was not alone in not liking it.)

So I watched it. It’s hard to jump in on a series like this at the start of a fourth season. The characters now have full backstories and histories and a new viewer doesn’t know them. I found the start of this episode a little slow but perhaps that was because they were trying to (re) introduce the characters. And there are a bunch of characters. Some of the characters I liked – some not as much. I find people who are dealing with so much pain that they are trying to get black-market drugs rather than seeing a doctor too stupid to be sympathetic for example.

Like a lot of these shows there were multiple crimes to investigate. I don’t mind the switching from case to case, group of characters to group of characters too much. At the same time I find that it makes story development light and details are not so important as when one case is the heart of the whole episode. Not that the plots were poorly done – they were done well. I think this show is more about the characters than the crimes. While a show (think CSI, NCIS, The Closer to name a few I love) can do both the crime and the characters Southland is clearly just about the characters with the crimes a story to hang the character interaction around.

Would I watch Southland again? Yes, I probably would.  It’s worth a second watching. Maybe a third. I can see how one could get invested in some of the characters. There are enough of them and they are enough different types that is is not so hard to find one or more to really like. It would just take a little time. On the other hand, I’m not programming it into my DVR just yet though.

Disclosure: I was given a free product or sample because I’m a Klout influencer. I was under no obligation to receive the sample or talk about this company. I get no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.