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Amazon.co.uk Review
Finding new angles on a police procedural drama is no easy task, especially with television schedules treating such shows as a mainstay of their line-ups for decades. Southland’s creators are acutely aware of this, and do try and turn this to their advantage. Rather, then, than following the standard crime-of-the-week formula, Southland is far more character driven, with its interests being the mix of people to be found within the Los Angeles Police Department.
It’s less of a common formula than perhaps it should be, and its strive for authenticity, whilst not on the level of something like The Wire, had meant that Southland has sometimes struggled to find a mainstream home.
But it found one, and the first two seasons, brought together in this box set, demonstrate the many strengths of Southland. Its willingness to take risks with convention, for instance, extends to the way it structures it episodes. There’s no crescendo a lot of the time, rather an episode ends when it ends. Furthermore, the drama is really quite cold at times, rarely bending to the whims of a modern day television audience.
There’s a tonal shift between seasons one and two of the show, brought about by behind the scenes changes on Southland, but the standards are kept refreshingly high. The Wire and The Shield both set standards that Southland can’t quite match, granted. But Southland runs them a lot closer than most, and also presents courageous, bold television drama, that warrants time and attention. It’s an anti-CSI, and all the better for it. --Jon Foster
DVD Description
From Emmy Award winners John Wells, Ann Biderman and Chris Chulack comes a raw and authentic look at the police unit in Los Angeles. From the beaches of Malibu to the streets of East LA, Southland is a fast-moving drama that will take you inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families.
Michael Cudlitz (A River Runs Through It) plays John Cooper a seasoned Los Angeles cop, assigned to train young rookie Ben Sherman (Benjamin McKenzie, The O.C.). Cooper's honest, no-nonsense approach to the job leaves Sherman questioning whether or not he has what it takes to become a police officer.
Cudlitz and McKenzie are joined by cast members Regina King (Ray, Jerry Maguire) who plays Detective Lydia Adams. Adams lives with and is the primary caregiver of her mother. Her partner, Detective Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott, Boiler Room) is an unhappily married father of three. Michael McGrady (The Thin Red Line) plays Detective Daniel "Sal" Salinger. Sal oversees fellow gang detectives Nate Moretta (Kevin Alejandro, Drive, Ugly Betty) and Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy, Alpha Dog). Arija Bareikis (Crossing Jordan) plays patrol officer Chickie Brown, a single mom who dreams of being the first woman accepted into SWAT.
Special Features
Featurettes:
Southland: Redefining the Cop Drama
Southland: Crime Tour Play All
Crime Tour Pod: 4th Street Bridge
Crime Tour Pod: The Jungle
Crime Tour Pod: The Coliseum
Crime Tour Pod: Platimum Motors
Crime Tour Pod: Silver Lake Drive
Crime Tour Pod: Slauson
Crime Tour Pod: Hollywood & Highland
Crime Tour Pod: The Mayan
Crime Tour Pod: Canyon
Backing the Badge
Deleted Scenes
Michael Cudlitz (A River Runs Through It) plays John Cooper a seasoned Los Angeles cop, assigned to train young rookie Ben Sherman (Benjamin McKenzie, The O.C.). Cooper's honest, no-nonsense approach to the job leaves Sherman questioning whether or not he has what it takes to become a police officer.
Cudlitz and McKenzie are joined by cast members Regina King (Ray, Jerry Maguire) who plays Detective Lydia Adams. Adams lives with and is the primary caregiver of her mother. Her partner, Detective Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott, Boiler Room) is an unhappily married father of three. Michael McGrady (The Thin Red Line) plays Detective Daniel "Sal" Salinger. Sal oversees fellow gang detectives Nate Moretta (Kevin Alejandro, Drive, Ugly Betty) and Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy, Alpha Dog). Arija Bareikis (Crossing Jordan) plays patrol officer Chickie Brown, a single mom who dreams of being the first woman accepted into SWAT.
Special Features
Featurettes:
Southland: Redefining the Cop Drama
Southland: Crime Tour Play All
Crime Tour Pod: 4th Street Bridge
Crime Tour Pod: The Jungle
Crime Tour Pod: The Coliseum
Crime Tour Pod: Platimum Motors
Crime Tour Pod: Silver Lake Drive
Crime Tour Pod: Slauson
Crime Tour Pod: Hollywood & Highland
Crime Tour Pod: The Mayan
Crime Tour Pod: Canyon
Backing the Badge
Deleted Scenes
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Southland is a gritty police drama set in LA, where the focus is as much on the characters as the crimes. It throws together a large ensemble cast of both patrol officers and detectives, giving equal time to each. Rather than forcing connections between them, the show is quite happy to have patrol discover a crime, then have the detectives take over the scene with little or no chit chat.
The tone and visual style is striking. The show aims to show the seedy underbelly of LA, and uses an almost documentary style to help this, as the camera avoids smooth TV shots to feel more like a fly on the wall show at times. It certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the crimes and characters, showing them warts and all.
The large main cast includes rookie patrolman Ben Sherman and his trainer John Cooper; another patrol officer "Chickie" Brown and her various partners; Homicide partners Lydia Adams and Russell Clarke; and Sammy Bryant and Nate Moretta, of the gang unit. Of these, Sherman, Adams and Bryant are the most immediately interesting. Sherman has the classic rookie storyline, but he is a rich Beverley Hills boy who became a cop to deal with some personal demons. Regina King plays Adams as a fascinating mix of emotional but effective, never falling into cliché, while Bryant is a young detective with an even younger wife who drives him to distraction.
There's a good mix of ongoing plots and crime-of-the-week, including a teenage girl prepared to testify against a gang, a series of home invasions, a lost police weapon, and a large number of murders. The detective and patrol stories are kept well balanced, but more importantly it's the character's private lives that really draw you in. Whether it's Bryant bickering with his wife, Sherman and Cooper becoming friends, or Adams dealing with her elderly mother, they come over as real people, and you want to find out more.
Southland is consistently good, and at only seven episodes in this season is well worth your time.
The tone and visual style is striking. The show aims to show the seedy underbelly of LA, and uses an almost documentary style to help this, as the camera avoids smooth TV shots to feel more like a fly on the wall show at times. It certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the crimes and characters, showing them warts and all.
The large main cast includes rookie patrolman Ben Sherman and his trainer John Cooper; another patrol officer "Chickie" Brown and her various partners; Homicide partners Lydia Adams and Russell Clarke; and Sammy Bryant and Nate Moretta, of the gang unit. Of these, Sherman, Adams and Bryant are the most immediately interesting. Sherman has the classic rookie storyline, but he is a rich Beverley Hills boy who became a cop to deal with some personal demons. Regina King plays Adams as a fascinating mix of emotional but effective, never falling into cliché, while Bryant is a young detective with an even younger wife who drives him to distraction.
There's a good mix of ongoing plots and crime-of-the-week, including a teenage girl prepared to testify against a gang, a series of home invasions, a lost police weapon, and a large number of murders. The detective and patrol stories are kept well balanced, but more importantly it's the character's private lives that really draw you in. Whether it's Bryant bickering with his wife, Sherman and Cooper becoming friends, or Adams dealing with her elderly mother, they come over as real people, and you want to find out more.
Southland is consistently good, and at only seven episodes in this season is well worth your time.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Watched most of the first and second series on TV, and thought it a stunning, but almost criminally under publicised and watched series. Saw that the whole lot was on DVD and waited 'til it eventually came out over here. Watched it again, and still have the same opinion: great series, fresh and totally involving from start to finish. Very highly recommended. Mike
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Since enjoying Homicide Life on the Streets and NYPD Blue plus Law & Order I have spent many hours and even more pounds looking for an intelligent cop drama to match these gems.I am pleased to report that this exactly what I am looking for.The characters are believable,well written and the acting is excellent.The threads of some of the plot lines continue through a number of episodes and these blend in well with the stand alone episodic story lines.
I note that series 3 is currently being shown on Channel 4 which I am recording.Downsides? too few episodes in each series but I understand from Wikipedia that this is due to the American TV industry and their reticence to sanction grown-up programmes.
First rate stuff,and I am very fussy with what I will watch.
I note that series 3 is currently being shown on Channel 4 which I am recording.Downsides? too few episodes in each series but I understand from Wikipedia that this is due to the American TV industry and their reticence to sanction grown-up programmes.
First rate stuff,and I am very fussy with what I will watch.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of the best Police series I've watched bar The Wire.
Only reason I've given it 4 instead of 5 is because of the short length of the 2 series (13 episodes in total). Read more
Published 1 month ago by CB.91
gritty US crime drama
An interesting US crime drama. Not The Wire by any means but good none the less. Well acted with interesting characters, a few twists, clever relationships. Read more
Published 1 month ago by richcole13
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Another gritty police drama, this set in Los Angeles - Ben the rookie learning the hard way what is needed. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. D. L. Rees
The people in blue
A well-acted LA cop show that focuses more on the people in the uniform rather than providing intriguing crime stories. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maria2222
Southland: 'The Shield' without the strike team?
Imagine 'The Shield' without the ongoing dubious shenanigans of the strike team and that just about sums up Southland. Read more
Published 3 months ago by R. J. Knight
Good series but.....
This is a good series, but you don't get that many episodes. I saw it on the TV and thought that the episodes in this package were merely Series 1. But they're not! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brian Sheeran
Southland - the underrated cop series
Southland was hidden away on a digital channel, and I only came across it because it kept being highly recommended in the Radio Times. Read more
Published 3 months ago by johnduncan
An unexceptional and unsatisfactory muddle.
I suppose it must be very difficult to come up with new ideas in the heavily populated genre of police TV drama. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Willy Eckerslike
Wonderfully written compelling drama
Southland is beautifully observed, well written and acted drama. The subleties in the characters, their flaws and personalities, are what makes the drama work and what drives the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by D. Noel
Not real enough
This show has been justly praised for its gritty realism and the acting of the main characters played by Michael Cudlitz, Ben McKenzie, Regina King and Shaun Hatosy is excellent. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stephen Churley
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