Quick Take: Southland, "U-Boat"
I've figured out Southland kids. I've cracked the code!
Review: Southland, "U-Boat"
(S0203) It's taken me a while to figure out exactly how I feel about Southland, but I think I finally have it nailed: Southland is a good show that has the potential to be very good and may even occasionally scrape its way to the fringes of great. In terms of the greater television landscape, I call that pretty high praise.
There are two big and obvious problems that I have with the show, and they are both very minor, but they contributed to my not getting a good read on things for some time:
I really think if they simply dropped these two elements (a silent shot of the Southland logo with a shot of LA in the background would work just fine, I'd say) the show would be framed much better for what it does best.
All of that aside, this was a pretty good episode because it showcases the two best characters (John and Ben) at their best. Ben's first day riding solo was particularly engaging and dramatic, running the gamut from single-handedly finding a young Korean girl with Asperger's who had "wandered off" to a brutal confrontation with a celebrity chef-turned-stalker. (The fact that Ben got the bad guy just after he did his worst says a lot about the direction and integrity of the show.)
The Rene (Amaury Nolasco) and Lydia (Regina King) pairing is growing on me as well. Rene brings some humor and spice into the mix and warms up Lydia, who has been fairly dour and serious in the past.
The official show recap (below) references Gil Puente (Laz Alonso) working on taking down Trinny Day (Wood Harris, he of highest The Wire fame), but that must have been cut out of this episode late or moved to a different one. Maybe that's why the name of the episode doesn't make a lot of sense to me either (apart from the notion of a submarine that can pop up and cause havoc at any time?), but maybe I missed a small detail.
Video: Southland, "U-Boat"
Here's the episode recap, from TNT:
Recap: Southland, "U-Boat"
Ben winds up in a patrol unit alone for the first time. Among the cases he has to handle on his own are a missing girl and a suspected stalking case. Lydia and Rene spend the day checking in on and helping out Brianna and her baby. Over in Gangs, Gil Puente leads the task force to take down ex-banger Trinny Day, but Sal and Sammy have a hard time working with Puente. While patrolling with John, it is clear that Chickie has no command presence, but she is determined to work harder and become a good cop again.
From Around the Web: Southland, "U-Boat"
