DJariya

By djariya at 2012-01-17

Synopsis:



10 episode 4th season

Lucy Liu and Dorian Missick are joining the cast this season as a recurring guest stars. She will be Cooper's new partner. Missick will be Adams new partner.

Sherman will now be partnered with Sammy.

Can't wait. This is probably the best Cop show on TV right now. Shit, this is competing against Justified in the same timeslot.

Promo:

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5b88aoEOVWo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

mortalplague

Didn't realize this was back, it's about time!!! love this show.

TheKing

It's also going up against White Collar, Parenthood, Body Of Proof and Unforgettable (rerun this week). Hell, even ION runs their new episodes of Flashpoint in this slot. This is a really competitive slot.

Thankfully cable shows reair. Justified repeats at 11:03, Southland at Midnight, and White Collar at 1 AM. The only trouble with it is Justified is running at 63 minutes, which jacks up the repeat airings. But I give props to FX for airing their shows 3 times in a night as opposed to the standard 2.

But it's great to have this show back. Interesting to see where they go from last season't finale.

TGM

like the show, but just can't stand Regina King. Delivers her lines like a cardboard cutout.

Geofferson

Excellent show -- so glad it's back on tonight

flashburn

Fuck yes!

DJariya

I know you've never liked Adams, but I think it's funny that she's the center of the advertising artwork for this season and Coop/Sherman and Sammy are all in the backdrop.

Nick Martin

Absolutely love this show and all I can say is it's about damn time.

RoadToPerdition

Strong premiere and I think this is one of the better cop shows, though I admit that I don't watch many because it just feels like the same thing week in, week out. Southland is more about the story behind the cops rather than just the crime-of-the-week.

I will say that it felt like there was a ton of violence and shooting in this episode compared to previous episodes. I hope they aren't going for intense action every week over character development. I remember the first season, the shootout in the house (to avoid any spoilers) was a huge action moment because there hadn't really been any up to that point and I think it was last season with the shootout in the arena. It seems like they matched those moments and added a few more in for the premiere rather than building up to that type of action like they have in previous seasons.

DJariya

Fucking fantastic premiere episode. I know there are probably more Justified fans in this forum, but IMO this episode blew away Raylan Givens and company.

I like the addition of Lucy Liu as Tang alot. I was surprised to see how well she worked with Michael Cudlitz. at the Pootie Tang nickname.

at Tang checking her phone about the Truck Norris status while that dude was hanging himself.

I think Ben and Sammy are going to be a solid partnership. The 2 scenes which I thought was so well directed were the pursuit of that Hispanic suspect through the school and then Ben's chase scene with the black guy who beat up that chick. I know alot of Cop shows, especially on the major networks, feel very artificial and staged in their action sequences. But, Southland has such a gritty, gorilla shooting style that you as the viewer really feel like your part of the LAPD for a day.

And Holy Fuck! That shootout in the Police Station at the end was fucking insane!! Sucks that Lou Diamond Phillips took a bullet in the face.

at Ben and Sammy both pissing in their pants after the shooting.

at the video where Tang got attacked by that monster. OMG, I started to feel really uncomfortable watching that whole sequence.

Awesome episode from start to finish.

DJariya

I know 10pm was really busy last night with this, Justified, White Collar and a few other shows, but dang man, I can't be the only one here who watched this last night?

I like Justified alot, but I thought this episode was freaking amazing.

Gunde

I watched as well. It's a good show that really does well with the cop side of things.
Character development still needs work, but I'm glad it's back and this was a great start to the season.

FYI, the beating of Tang was based on a real video.

DJariya

Did not know the Tang video was based on a real life incident. Thanks

I think the way it was shot made it that much more frightening and realistic.

Gunde

Absolutely, I agree. It was actually worse than the real video - if it wasn't for the fact that the real one was real of course

DJariya

I just read a comment on another board and apparently the squardroom shooting with Sammy and Ben was also based on a real life incident.

Also, this is a show where I think moving to cable and being forced to make budget and cast cuts actually helped the show. It's actually tightened up the storytelling. Losing Chickie Brown and Sal along with Tom Everett Scott actually made the show better in the character department. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of Shawn Hatosy's character Sammy at first, but he actually became a really compelling character and losing Nate as his partner added to it.

Deftones

Love this show. So glad it is back. I like the addition of Lucy Liu and LDP.

I absolutely loved Sherman coming up with the story of the perp raping a little boy, completely on the fly when he ran into the backyard of bangers. Then the truck nailing the same suspect right after was awesome.

Gunde

Both real incidents:

Station shootout
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TI38xTCoiAI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Female cop beaten
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3jjW3DlzaRw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

DJariya

I mentioned this last season, but one of my High School classmates is a Sargent in the LAPD and is an extra and technical advisor on the show. He actually appeared in 2 scenes last night. The scene where the gang member got hit by the truck and after the raid where Adams confronted Donnell.

He's a cool guy and told me the paychecks he gets from working on the show are very nice.

Nick Martin

I've grown to hate the endless array of Cop Shows and procedurals on TV, but I love, love LOVE Southland.

It's so relentlessly grim and dark, of course always on a bright, beautiful sunny day. The banter and humor is always just enough to relieve that tension and adrenaline.

The diversity of the characters is great, everyone has something likable about them, even if it's just within a single line of dialogue. I just love this show all around, 100%.

BDB

Haven't seen this yet, but started to read through the thread and wondered how people had seen the episode, as it's Wednesday and the show would not have aired yet

DJariya

Ratings came out. 1.8M viewers watched. It averaged about 1.9 last season. Considering the ridiculous competition it was facing last night from cable (Justified and White Collar), it was a fairly decent start.

DJariya

Not counting the generic comments, I count 3 (including myself) who have commented and have actually watched the episode. Even White Collar, which is a pretty popular show, hasn't gotten much commentary. Seems like the majority of this forum watched Justified 1st.

Nick Martin

Okay.

At first it was a little vague that Adams didn't just know the crack whore, umm, informant from a case, but actually went to school with her. Made the ending more poignant since it was such a beautiful day at the beach, despite Miss Crack Whore bloodied and inside a cooler as the tide washed in.

Initial thought when Cooper is first shown working out, was damn he looks fucking good. Great moment to show off that his back is better when he dove into the car on so-called autopilot.

When the undercover cop pulled up next to Bryant, I immediately thought it was more fallout from last season's gang takedown for Moretta's death. On one hand it would've been far too soon in the show to bring that into play if that were to happen, but then again this is Southland so it wouldn't have been a surprise if it played out that way just because it's basically expect the unexpected with this show.

DJariya

You know I wasn't really moved by the crack whore storyline. I know the show moved forward in time, but I would have preferred a little closure with Adams relationship with Ochoa from last season. They ended things on a very rocky note. It's funny in 24 episodes Adams has had 5 different partners.

I agree about Cooper. It was good to see him working out and finally healthy. Nice little touch by the makeup department to show the scar on his back from the surgery.

dgmayor

Love this show and glad it's back. Was surprised to see Lucy Liu. After all the previous season talk about money cutbacks, I guess it's less of an issue now if they're signing on bigger names again, which is great.

I loved how she was obsessed with following a food truck (because I'm the same way about a few trucks in my area lol, ate at one today!)