Southland (1 Viewer)

[WaveCrest]

Surprised there's no existing thread in the TV on DVD folder for the TV series Southland, which first aired on NBC but now airs on TNT.


TVShowsOnDVD have posted a new news article for Southland, regarding the second season (which consisted of six episodes) on DVD:



Southland: The Complete 2nd Season (Uncensored) - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

 

[Dirk06]

The fact that Season 2 is going the MOD route makes weep on the inside.

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Dirk06

The fact that Season 2 is going the MOD route makes weep on the inside.

I did NOT know this. How sad for such a fantastic show to get such treatment!

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by MattH.

I did NOT know this. How sad for such a fantastic show to get such treatment!

It's a good news/bad news thing. So is the show's existence. It's good that it's still on the air, but it's bad that TNT saw fit only to shoot six episodes for season two. And season 3 is only 10 episodes, meaning that three seasons in, we only have a total of 23 episodes which is worth about ONE season had it thrived on NBC! This show, wonderful as it is, is never going to get off the ground at this rate. They should film a little more for season four (I'm pretty sure it is coming back) simply to raise the show in the public consciousness.


I recommend this show to people every chance I get, and nobody's ever disappointed. Hopefully this kind of word of mouth will spread because I think this show, while totally off the radar, is as good as anything on HBO or Showtime, and should be an Emmy contender.

 

[Matt Hough]

As I remember it, TNT didn't shoot ANY episodes for Season Two. NBC had shot six episodes (but not aired any) before canceling the show fearing it was too dark for network broadcast. TNT picked it up with the notion of rerunning all of the first season episodes and then showing the ones already filmed for the second season. Ratings were decent enough for them to order their own 10-episode season. That is the one that's just concluded, and another 10-episode season has been ordered.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by MattH.

As I remember it, TNT didn't shoot ANY episodes for Season Two. NBC had shot six episodes (but not aired any) before canceling the show fearing it was too dark for network broadcast. TNT picked it up with the notion of rerunning all of the first season episodes and then showing the ones already filmed for the second season. Ratings were decent enough for them to order their own 10-episode season. That is the one that's just concluded, and another 10-episode season has been ordered.

Too edgy for network tv, eh...yeah, that's the stupid kind of thinking that's putting network tv to a deserved death anyway. All the good shows are on cable or pay networks; meaning, all the shows that people are looking forward to, and taking over the water cooler conversation. I guess in a couple years all we'll get from the big Four is more dancing reality competition crapola--that is, if they manage to survive with their increasingly bland and cheap programming.

 

[Dirk06]

MattH has it correct. NBC aired Season 1 in a 10 pm time slot (on Thursdays, if I recall correctly, but I don't remember well since I didn't get into the show until earlier this year). The real issue is that Season 2 was intended to air on NBC during the season they tried the great Jay Leno @ 10 pm experiment, pushing Southland to a 9 pm time slot. The show didn't really get much darker than its first season, but while the show was fine for 10 pm, NBC thought it was too dark for 9 pm and decided to can it.


I have to question whether the sales for the first season set were really low enough to only warrant a MOD release. It seems like Southland isn't a gigantic ratings success, even on cable, but it has a pretty steady following of fans. Surely if they were to release seasons 2 and 3 on one set, it would be a decent seller.

 

[Matt Hough]

In terms of graphic violence or intensity, Southland is no darker or more relentless than NBC's own Law & Order: SVU or CBS' Criminal Minds (a 9 p.m. show). And how short sighted of NBC (who really had no one calling the shots there with an ounce of sense) that they had this terrific 10 p.m. show that they could have used BADLY once Leno went belly-up and they were in desperate need of shows to fill those 10 p.m. timeslots on their schedule.

 

[Dirk06]

Graphically, Southland and the Law and Order franchise are on about the same level, but tonally, I think there's a pretty substantial difference. (I have never been a fan of CBS procedurals, so I can't comment on Criminal Minds as I haven't seen it.) Law and Order will deal with an endless array of social issues, but it tends to run black and white whenever it can get away with it. Southland has always been shades of gray on almost everything.


For example, there's that season 3 episode where Sammy kidnaps Nate's killer, takes him out to the middle of the desert and almost kills him point blank after the justice system is unable to keep him in custody. Just imagine if that had ran on NBC at 9 pm. Since Sammy ended up making the moral decision and didn't turn into a vigilante, it probably would've been fine, but I can definitely picture the NBC brass watching it and getting antsy.


And this is coming from a huge Law and Order fan.


And I'm actually kind of glad the show went to TNT. I can't even begin to imagine how NBC would've messed this show up at some point (well, other than canning it before it even began airing its second season, haha!). And even if they had kept the show on the back burner just in case Jay Leno failed, there's a decent chance the ratings would have fizzled out by the time it starting airing at the midseason since it would have been out of people's minds for a while. At least in what happened, the cancellation by NBC and pick-up by TNT gave it a considerable amount of publicity. And it's now on a cable channel that will be less interfering with the content.


(By the way, you're totally right about the TPTB at NBC having very little sense. It's borderline ridiculous at this point.)

 

[WaveCrest]

Southland's cable ratings for it's third season seemed to keep steady (source: TVbynumbers), getting around 2 million. I hope it carries on well next year when the fourth season premieres on TNT.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Dirk06

Graphically, Southland and the Law and Order franchise are on about the same level, but tonally, I think there's a pretty substantial difference. (I have never been a fan of CBS procedurals, so I can't comment on Criminal Minds as I haven't seen it.) Law and Order will deal with an endless array of social issues, but it tends to run black and white whenever it can get away with it. Southland has always been shades of gray on almost everything.


And this is coming from a huge Law and Order fan.


And I'm actually kind of glad the show went to TNT. I can't even begin to imagine how NBC would've messed this show up at some point (well, other than canning it before it even began airing its second season, haha!). And even if they had kept the show on the back burner just in case Jay Leno failed, there's a decent chance the ratings would have fizzled out by the time it starting airing at the midseason since it would have been out of people's minds for a while. At least in what happened, the cancellation by NBC and pick-up by TNT gave it a considerable amount of publicity. And it's now on a cable channel that will be less interfering with the content.


(By the way, you're totally right about the TPTB at NBC having very little sense. It's borderline ridiculous at this point.)

NBC is known for making dumb decisions. They were in 3rd place (boo hoo) during the 70s, hired Fred Silverman to run things (he'd turned around BOTH CBS and ABC already) and tore out their hair while he greenlit more stupid shows than any network exec in the history of television. Then they enjoyed about 20 years of largess by putting out some of the best, most popular shows that ever existed. Go figure. Now they're crying the blues again. What they need to do is keep up with the times, try somehow to figure out what people actually want to watch. And it's not another competition reality show. What people like are the scripted shows on cable. Cutting edge, relevant shows with outstanding scripts and acting. Office workers stand around the water cooler talking about HBO and Showtime fare; nobody ever talks about what happened on CSI the night before.


More than ever before, the Big Three are increasingly irrelevant to the people they're broadcasting for. Reality shows are cheap to produce and keep them in the black, but people are getting bored with those, and want shows that actually mean something to them. The networks cancel soap operas and put "lifestyle" programs in their place. Does ABC really think a cooking program is going to last as long as "One Life to Live?" And then there's NBC--they had Southland. Southland was exactly the kind of show they should be airing--the kind of show that could make people stand up and notice. The kind of show that could have gotten the kind of acclaim that would get them all those Emmys they so desperately lack. Okay, I'm over-playing it, but you know what I mean. The networks will complain that their lack of tv dominance is due to increased competition from the web and cable outlets, but they're also giving up their best shows to those same competitors. I don't understand it. To survive, you have to keep up with the competition, but to thrive, you have to go one step further.

 

[Dirk06]

What's funny is that the networks will complain about how increased competition from cable has ruined them, but they don't really seem to be doing anything about it. What's really telling is that after cable has almost systematically taken the 10 pm hour from the networks, CBS has gone on the record by saying that they use the 10 pm hour to nurture lower-rated shows produced by CBS' own television studio into enough seasons so that they gain a better chance at getting syndication deals (which explains all of those procedurals CBS likes to air. See also: Medium). A similar situation seems to be the case at The CW (as claimed by TVbytheNumbers, though they can't offer proof), where it's believed that the network runs at a deficit due to low ratings, but makes it up from DVD sales.


While there's a multitude of reasons networks are failing and cable is succeeding, one standout is the fact that they don't offer as much quality programming as they used to. And when they do, it's not really given much of a chance to actually succeed before the network will pull it from the schedule. I don't blame viewers now for being gun shy about new network shows. When shows like Lone Star and more recently, The Paul Reiser Show, get pulled from the schedule after just two episodes (and that's only this season!), it's hard to want to get invested in a show you may find interesting when the threat of quick cancellation looms unless it's an immediate ratings success. When my brother and I talk about television, he repeatedly tells me that his general rule is that he waits until a show has at least been renewed for a second season (often, he'll wait until a third) before he starts watching it. Of course, as a big fan of the sci-fi and fantasy genres, he's hit especially hard. It also doesn't help the networks that they used to be such behemoths in the industry that they're having trouble adjusting to their scaled back size and numbers. But after two decades since cable started gaining prominence, you'd think they'd have some sort of new business model worked out that wasn't so heavily dependent on syndication deals (like CBS) or home video sales (like The CW).


If handled correctly, Southland could have brought some prestige to NBC, and maybe even nice ratings if they had stuck to their guns with it and gave it a smart time slot, but let's be honest: that wasn't going to happen. At least TNT is willing to nurture its middling-but-steady ratings.

 

[WaveCrest]

TVShowsOnDVD posted a new news article on their website on Tuesday (10th May) about the Southland second season DVD set. The link to the news article is below:



Southland: The Complete Second Season (Uncensored) - TVShowsOnDVD.com news article

 

[Ted Todorov]

So where the hell is Southland Season 3???


I watched and loved 1 & 2 , mostly on iTunes, and now S4 is out on iTunes, but I can't watch it until I see S3, and that is nowhere. Not on DVD, not on Netflix, not on iTunes.


What is wrong with you people? Why do you refuse to take people's money?