NBC has canceled the critically acclaimed police drama Southland before airing a single episode this season. The series temporarily filled the Thursday 10 p.m. EDT timeslot of the long-running hit medical drama series ER last summer.
Southland was praised by critics and progressive sexual activists for its dark, gritty tone and portrayal of a tough Los Angeles cop whose homosexual activity gradually became an increasingly prominent aspect of the narratives.
However, its ratings dropped throughout its run, as more and more viewers discovered that the show’s dark, gritty tone was unrelenting and that the very forthright treatment of homosexuality would continue and intensify. One of the show’s two central characters was shown to be a homosexual, and attention to that part of his life increased as the show progressed.
NBC canceled the series after six episodes were already produced for the upcoming season, considering them too dark and gritty for the 9 p.m. timeslot they would have to fill because of the net’s decision to run The Jay Leno Show every weeknight at 10. The completed Southland episodes will not be shown on NBC, and the series’ producers may look for a possible alternative venue on cable.
The entire saga shows once again that the nation’s media elites are wedded to a progressive, socially transformative agenda which the public does not support or enjoy being subjected to.
–S. T. Karnick
I agree with Mrs. Lakely. You’re right about Leno’s show crowding Southland out, of course, but if the latter had developed a strong following and looked as if it would be able to build on that, it would still be in the schedule. Instead, it looked like most of NBC’s dramas: hopeless.
As to darkness, I think it’s great when done well (note my advocacy of Joel Townsley Rogers’s The Red Right Hand, but in Southland the tone seemed to me to be more of a fashionable attitude than a serious choice that was the only way to present an important drama. On the contrary, it appeared to me to be merely a way of pumping up a set of stories that really weren’t very original or particularly thoughtful.
Now, I say that not to argue that people should have disliked the show or that it had nothing to offer, as that’s definitely not the case, but only to suggest that this sort of “dark” treatment tends to set off my b.s. detector. On the other hand, I enjoy a variety of things other people would consider rather naive and perhaps even silly, such as Andy Hardy films. To me, the latter are more intelligent and entertaining by a good measure, but as you say, these are matters of taste that come into play in addition to the more objective aesthetic judgments we can make.
Fair enough. My wife told me today that she thought the homosexual angle “just didn’t work” with that character. (The cop played by C. Thomas Howell, she said, should have been teh gay one.) Hard to argue with that.
As for enduring different levels of “dark,” I suppose that is a matter of taste. It was intense, but within my threshhold. However, it appears I am in the minority.
I’m still shocked this show was canceled after renewing it for another season, getting six shows in the can, and not airing a single one of them. I’m guessing that if it were not for Leno’s show taking up five hours of prime time programming each week, NBC would have aired the show. But with less airtime to fill with scripted dramas, it’s easier just to pull the plug.
Actually, Jim, I think you’re right about the homosexuality angle being no reason to dislike the show and that the treatment of that aspect of the character was not overtly advocatory. However, I think it hurt the show’s ability to connect with most of its potential audience. Just a simple fact.
The same is true of the show’s grit and darkness. A one-off film noir or low-rated cable series is one thing, but given the show’s network-level budget, expecting a sufficient number of people to return week after week to watch depressing things happen is a bit much, don’t you think?
My personal judgment of Southland is that it was far too overwrought. The dramas whose defenders most claim to be realistic are actually the most emotionally exaggerated and melodramatic. Perhaps if critics and producers both understood that dynamic, the public would benefit from a far greater number of more nuanced cultural products.
This sucks. I’ve posted elsewhere here that I thought this show was by far the best drama of the 2008 TV season.
It was “gritty” and, yes, “dark.” But also compelling and often funny. The cop in the foreground of the photo above was the gay one … to which I say (certainly to the consternation of our gracious blog host) … so what? His homosexuality wasn’t really “celebrated,” or “in your face” like the defunct “Will & Grace” or even “The L Word.” It was just part of who the guy was, and it seemed to me that he was quite conflicted about living something of a double life. I was looking forward to seeing that story line continue.
What’s worse, however, is that this was simply a finely acted, plotted and directed show. Yes, it was intense. Indeed, the final scene had one of the more admirable characters doing something admirable and neighborly off-duty … and getting shot in the chest. The show ended with him bleeding on the doorstep … and there, apparently, he will stay.
Damn you NBC!!!!