» Southland Options

[YellowOctober]

Post deleted.

This post has been edited by YellowOctober: Jan 31, 2010 @ 12:12 pm.

[supposebly]

I watched for Michael Cudlitz and he didn't disappoint. I knew him from Band of Brothers, Standoff and a recurring role in Life and I always thought that something about him just feels very trustworthy.

It's a little too shaky!cam for me but I'll give it a shot. I don't know who any of the other actors are but Regina King is fabulous! Her face at the end, very nice, I really felt for her.

Everyone else is good, too although Regina Kings partner was creepy. He spoke so slowly. "I prooomise you." Shudder.

Probably just me.

ETA to nitpick: How the hell did the kid with the pink phone survive? Three guys shooting numerous times at a guy who stands still?

This post has been edited by supposebly: Apr 10, 2009 @ 10:23 pm.

[YellowOctober]

Post deleted.

This post has been edited by YellowOctober: Jan 31, 2010 @ 12:17 pm.

[chitowngirl]

It is on again on Saturday - both on NBC and USA.

It's on Hulu if you feel like watching it before then.

[janie jones]

Maybe they didn't hit him in any vital organs. They were kind of shooting randomly.

Another thing that stuck with me (oddly) is the sound every time Regina King's character opened her door.

I noticed that, too. I was thinking how they never have that sound on TV shows. But then I was wondering why she was leaving her keys in the car for the door to make that noise.

[snowprince]

The scene that was most accurate for me was Cudlitz's opening speech to McKenzie ("you ride with me, you back the badge"). That's basically a condensation of every speech a T/O gives to his/her boot on day 1. I got it as a boot, I gave it to my boots. Basically it comes down to this: "take those 7 months in the academy, ball em up & throw em away. That crap doesn't work out here. We'll start from scratch"

The ending speech was misplaced, as another poster mentioned earlier. It was better suited to either the locker room or over beers at end of watch. I guess the writers set it at the shooting scene for more dramatic "punch".

The dynamic between Cudlitz/McKenzie was pretty spot on. Probationers are teased, hazed like that to varying degrees until they "prove" themselves to the more senior officers on the watch. Having now been in an OIS & done the right thing, though he's still a boot & the teasing will continue, it will be much more benign in nature as he has won Cudlitz's respect. This is shown by the Cudlitz voiceover reading the entry he wrote in McKenzie's "boot book".

Some of the incidents you have seen/will see throughout the series are based on actual events, tweaked by the writers for TV. They came from interviews of both active & retired officers by the research staff.

Some things hit, some things missed. Overall for me, so far so good.

This post has been edited by snowprince: Apr 11, 2009 @ 4:30 am.

[YellowOctober]

Post deleted.

This post has been edited by YellowOctober: Jan 31, 2010 @ 12:18 pm.

[Lived In Inch]

I am making the Southland/ER comparison. Ben McKenzie is basically Carter, green with somewhat of a wealthy background. And they have a dry erase board to write to keep track of the different cases they are taking care of.

[Remus Lupin]

Southland is definitely in for the long-run. It is NBC's second best-performing scripted drama and third best of all it's scripted shows. The Office beats it in the A18-49 demo, but Southlands bests it in the viewership easily. The best-performing scripted drama is Law & Order: SVU, but that one is on the decline and Southland's pilot actually did better than the latest airing of L&O:SVU.

So, Southland has a shot at being the best-performing scripted drama on the network :P. It seems unlikely that there will be much viewership drop-off next week, seeing as Southland GAINED 0.50million viewers in the 10:30pm half-hour, instead of losing, like most pilots do. Things are looking up for this freshman and based on the pilot ratings, it looks like a certain pick-up for next season.

Which means, feel free to get attached! Things are looking good. Me myself, I didn't really dig it (I - just - can't - get into cop shows :P), but NBC needs a well-performing show, it's in really bad shape right now.

[yuliya]

So basically the writers have remade the ER characters as Los Angeles police offers. They should have just gone all the way and named the 2 lead characters, Peter Benton and John Carter.

[Mirella]

They should have just gone all the way and named the 2 lead characters, Peter Benton and John Carter.

Not sure why that's a bad thing. Classic is classic, and if something works, go for it. There's nothing new under the sun, and Carter and Benton weren't the first hazed green rookie/grizzled vet combo either. It's been 15 years since we saw Carter play that role, so I think there's room for an updated version.

Thanks for the interesting post, snowprince. Just out of curiosity, why are rookies called "boots"?

Remus Lupin, I hope you're right; I really love the show, and I'm going to keep watching, but I find it hard to trust NBC to give this show a long life after their boneheaded Leno decision. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

This post has been edited by Mirella: Apr 11, 2009 @ 2:15 pm.

[yesenializ]

I liked what I saw of the pilot, as a matter of fact I hadn't heard about the show and decided to watch it after seeing a few minutes of it undexpectedly. It definitely held my interest, and I think it shows a lot of promise.

Hopefully NBC won't be mucking this up like they did with my favorite television show ever, The West Wing (I still haven't forgiven Mother Zucker for not working it out with Aaron Sorkin and putting that show in the hands of John Wells; John Wells effectively ruined the show for me and turned it into a steaming pile of poo). I also got soooo over ER after its 4th or 5th season, and kept wondering when it was going to finally go off the air. [/end rant]

Back to the show, I hadn't seen The OC and wasn't too familiar with Ben McKenzie, but I think he was fabulous here. Agree with others who felt the speech by the TO felt too sanctimonious and not in the right spot, but overall I liked the flow of the show. I got a very crash-like vibe from it, don't know if that was intentional or not. I'll keep watching...

[Remus Lupin]

Remus Lupin, I hope you're right; I really love the show, and I'm going to keep watching, but I find it hard to trust NBC to give this show a long life after their boneheaded Leno decision. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Don't worry, I'm right. No pilot has done this well for NBC in a few years ... :P They'll be holding onto this with all their power! That is, if the ratings keep up. But they should keep up, because the show grew in viewership to the 10:30 half-hour and that is extremely positive. Especially in the 10-11 hour. The hopes are high!

[snowprince]

Thanks for the interesting post, snowprince. Just out of curiosity, why are rookies called "boots"?


Mirella, "boot" is an old military/naval term for a rookie/trainee. It is probably naval in origin, as the USN/USMC still calls their basic training "Boot Camp". Many Police agencies modeled their academies after the high stress, military discipline model of Marine boot camp, however many have moved away from that model de-emphasizing the military aspect.

Someone fresh out of initial training is referred to as a boot until they pass their probationary period. The probation for LAPD is 1 year

(wasn't sure how to quote so I copied/pasted your question)

This post has been edited by snowprince: Nov 29, 2009 @ 4:57 am.

[Mirella]

Mirella, "boot" is an old military/naval term for a rookie/trainee. It is probably naval in origin, as the USMC still calls their basic training "Boot Camp". Many Police agencies modeled their academies after the high stress, military discipline model of Marine boot camp, however many have moved away from that model de-emphasizing the military aspect.

That totally makes sense. I hope you keep posting here with this kind of information as the show goes on; it's really interesting.

(wasn't sure how to quote so I copied/pasted your question)

You copy and paste, and then highlight what you just C&Ped. Then, if you look at the little menu at the top of your reply box, you'll see buttons for bolding, italics, etc. There is a button that looks like a dialogue balloon for a comic strip. Click on it and it'll turn what you have highlighted into a quote.