Southland
Southland: “Chaos”
The thought has been in the back of my mind ever since the première, but it didn’t hit me until tonight that next week…
Southland: “The Felix Paradox”
Ben Sherman defenders no longer have a leg to stand on. After constructing a ruse so despicable that it turns his…
Southland: “Heroes”
In the most well-known and beautiful scene of Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim, Conrad’s reliable stand-in Charles Marlow…
Southland: “Bleed Out”
The first police-related show I remember watching with regularity was Law & Order. It was the first show other than…
Southland: “Off Duty”
Southland is a rolling boulder: it’s been slowly gaining momentum since 2009, going faster as faster, getting better…
Southland: “Under The Big Top”
Think of police officers as circus performers. They put on their uniforms with the shiny badges and hop in their Crown…
Southland: “Babel”
The opening flash-forward, freeze-frame, and narration scene is the one major stylistic constant over Southland’s…
Southland: “Heat”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Southland has gone to the “it’s too hot in Los Angeles” well before. I understand the…
Southland: “Bats And Hats”
So much has changed season-to-season on TNT’s Southland that at first it’s easy to feel unmoored by the stability of…
Southland: “Thursday”
The pilot of Southland used Officer Ben Sherman as a window into the world of the LAPD. In its initial incarnation on…
Southland: “Risk”
Three weeks ago, after “Integrity Check” was over, I was upset that the preview for the next episode showed John Cooper…
Southland: “God’s Work”
Every character that Southland has followed since its premiere in spring 2009 resides in a moral gray area. John Cooper…
Southland: “Fallout”
There are times when I rag on the flash-forward technique Southland uses in the first scene of every episode. It’s…
Southland: “Integrity Check”
The LAPD is perhaps the most notorious major metropolitan police force in the country. A lot of that poor reputation…
Southland: “Legacy”
Though I love Regina King’s performance as Detective Lydia Adams, Tang and Cooper have taken over as the best element…
Southland: “Identity”
Even when it paints with far too broad strokes, Southland gets so many little moments right it can't help but seem…
Southland: “Community”
An episode like tonight is much closer to my ideal version of Southland. A frenetic pace of beat cops tearing through…
Southland: “Underwater”
It might not be the right word to describe a bleak police drama, but I’m incredibly fond of Southland. Almost all of…
Southland: “Wednesday”
Other cop shows get more of the glory, but over three tumultuous seasons, TNT’s Southland—formerly NBC’s Southland,…