Cop shows are a dime a dozen. There are buddy cop shows not worth the time, and there are others that have endured. Think Law & Order, The Wire, and CSI.
But every once in a while, a crime drama comes along and captivates the audience; a captivation rooted in authenticity. Such was the case when Southland premiered in 2009 on NBC. The show anchored the network’s 10 p.m. slot.
It seemed like NBC had a winner, until it didn’t.
Southland, produced by Emmy winner John Wells, among others, was canceled by NBC a mere two weeks before the start of its second season. And it’s not that Southland wasn’t great television. The crime drama, starring Michael Cudlitz, Ben McKenzie, and Regina King, was reportedly collateral damage after NBC decided to bring back Jay Leno and give him the 10 p.m. slot.
Fortunately, TNT picked up the rights for Southland, which went on to air five total seasons, from March 2010 to April 2013.
Southland Is Streaming Now on Netflix
All five seasons and 43 episodes dropped on Netflix on Friday, Jan. 16.
The crime drama follows veteran training officer John Cooper (Culditz) and his rookie partner Ben Sherman (McKenzie) as they navigate the gritty streets of Los Angeles.
Their storylines eventually intersect with fellow veteran officer Bill “Dewey” Dudek (C. Thomas Howell) and detectives Lydia Adams (King), Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy), and Nate Moretta (Kevin Alejandro), among others.
Southland Plays Like a Documentary
The show was shot on location in corners and pockets of Los Angeles, which, in and of itself, serves as a character on the show. Southland brilliantly peels back the layers in Los Angeles’ many working-class neighborhoods, which are too often ignored in Hollywood or overly sensationalized.
Southland producers masterfully balanced a crime drama that was careful not glorify the line of work at the Los Angeles Police Department and villainize an entire community. It’s the rare cop show that is popular among the rank-and-file, as well as those who lived those experiences in those exact neighborhoods.
“I binged all 5 seasons of Southland in the span of a few weeks. I’m blown away, I have watched a lot of cop shows and this is my absolute favorite,” one Redditor shared in a post four years ago.
The Redditor also opined, “It feels like the realest, grittiest one I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing held back and the last few episodes are some of the most disturbing and unsettling TV I’ve ever seen, simply because it feels THAT real … the characters seem realistic and flawed, there’s an element of never knowing what to expect just like the officers because silly/harmless calls are included as well as very dangerous ones.”
