I know I’m weeks too late for this article to be relevant (Southland’s 5th season finale was on April 16th) but, in a way, that’s all the better to keep this terrific, criminally underrated show on people’s minds.
If you haven’t been watching “Southland” when it was on NBC, then got cancelled, then got a second life on TNT, you’re really missing out. This show follows L.A. cops (like Michael Cudlitz’s macho, gay beat cop, Benjamin McKenzie’s ace rookie-cop-gone-bad, and Regina King’s cool under pressure detective) on the beat, weaving a dense, realistic tapestry of stories. This is the anti-cop-show cop-show, it transcends Law and Order cliches at every turn. In an era when network cop shows have never been fluffier (Bones…really?), the show is a needed dose of insulin.
Nowhere was that more apparent than in the show’s terrific 5th season finale. I’m not here to convert new viewers to Southland, I’m just here to say that this is the best show TNT has ever had on, and they’d be crazy to let it go out with such a wild, fantastic final episode. The epic cliffhanger alone makes it worth another season.
Who isn’t curious to see whether Mckenzie’s Officer Sherman can keep getting out of tight spots? Who isn’t rooting for King’s Lydia and her former partner Russell (a sly Tom Everett Scott) to get together? And what will happen to Cudlitz’s iconic cop John Cooper now that he’s been shot and left for dead…by other cops? It was a bleak, beautiful ending for the show. BUT it doesn’t have to be. Southland doesn’t have to go out like that, and TNT shouldn’t let it.
Grade for First Season: B+
Grade for Second Season: A-
Grade for Third Season: A- [This season was nearly perfect, surprising deaths, and a great arc between rookie cop Sherman covering for his pill-addicted training officer, Cooper, who nearly gets him killed before being forced into rehab.]
Grade for Fourth Season: B- [A little too procedural, the main cast was cut down too much.]
Grade for Fifth Season: A- [Come on TNT, let us see Lydia and Russell get together at the very least.]