Southland, Season Two
Some of you may remember Southland, the (former) NBC drama that I wrote about several months ago. Its second season got canceled by NBC late last year after they’d already filmed half the episodes, in a truly stupendous WTF moment.
The show later got bought by cable network TNT, who agreed to re-air the first season and air the episodes of the second season that were already shot; no decision has yet been made on whether or not to produce new episodes… but hope springs eternal.
At the time, NBC’s explanation for canceling Southland was that the show was “too dark” and “too gritty” for prime-time network television. It was originally supposed to air at 10pm, but got briefly moved - at least in theory - up to 9pm because of The Great Jay Leno Debacle.
Not a lot of people believed NBC’s explanation that, once they’d seen the first two episodes of season two, they didn’t feel it fit well with the network at 9pm - everyone figured it was all down to Jay Leno.
The first two episodes of season two have now aired on TNT… and NBC’s original explanation is a bit more believable, now.
Don’t get me wrong - they’re not that “dark” or “edgy” or “gritty”, when all is said and done. But it’s not at all difficult to see why they’d make network execs uncomfortable.
Episode one is fairly tame, by Southland standards; it “merely” involves a small riot sparked by a fairly incompetent and unlikable (white) police officer shooting a (black) teenager for no particularly defensible reason.
Episode two ups the ante: it starts with a fairly messy triple homicide (of a mother and her two children) in which one of the (teenage) victims is tied up, naked (and pixelated, just to drive the point home), and is kind of implied to have been sexually assaulted; after a brief idyll involving Law And Order-style procedural work, and some insights into the personal lives of some of the main characters, it moves on to a high-speed pursuit which culminates in a single-car accident where two suspects are burned alive, after which the two officers have to fall back on coping mechanisms to deal with what they’ve been through and some annoying yuppies basically revel in the salacious details, real or imagined, about the triple homicide that started the episode. Oh, and the detectives arrest someone in the killings, as well, because everything needs a resolution.
Again, it’s not too hard to see how a network exec might be a bit squeamish about airing this at 9pm on a Friday, following an episode of the comparatively upbeat Law and Order.
Don’t get me wrong - I love Southland. It’s one of the few shows I make a serious effort to be home for and watch as and when it airs. It’s a very entertaining, very compelling drama, and it’s a pretty honest look at big-city law enforcement. That said, it was definitely pushing the boundaries for network television in this country, and - having now seen the first two episodes of season two - I really can’t fault NBC for getting cold feet, especially given that the show had pretty lackluster ratings in its first, obscenely short mini-series.
Initial ratings so far on TNT are decent-for-cable, but not spectacular. Here’s hoping TNT see enough promise in the show to keep it around for a little while longer.
(I don’t necessarily want to encourage piracy or anything, but if you live outside the US, or otherwise can’t see Southland, and would like to, there are options… or so I’ve heard.)
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