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Studio:Warner Home Video

Cast: Ben McKenzie, Arija Bareikis, Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, Regina King

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

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