 by snicks
Video Blogs
TV Shows:
Find Articles On:
Who's onlineThere are currently 50 members and 1795 guests online.
|
IMHO "Southland" (1.2): Mozambique
The second episode of police drama Southland aired on NBC last night, and the show has officially hooked me thanks to the wonderfully gruff gay character of John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and his increasingly interesting relationship with wet-behind-the-ears new cop partner Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie). I have to admit to being skeptical about this show after last week's premiere. I loved the no-nonsense character of John, but most of the other characters (including rookie cop Ben) left me cold.
But this week delved more into the character development of former blank slate Ben and the mentoring relationship between him and John. Ben is feeling quite cocky after last week's heroics (where he shot a bad guy) and after receiving congratulations from random cops on the street can barely get his swollen head into the squad car. His "Top Cop" status is short-lived when he makes a ... rookie mistake (ha!) and almost screws up the bust of a robbery-in-progress. John reads him the riot act, and a humbled Ben is reduced to squeaking "yes, sir" for the remainder of the day (which is actually pretty funny). Gentlemen, start your slashfic! The main story in this episode involves an abandoned baby (who is first seeing crawling in traffic, ala Baby's Day Out, in an unintentionally hilarious scene), which means the terrific Regina King gets lots of air time (why this woman isn't a bigger star I'll never know). We also get a retirement party for the cop played by C. Thomas Howell (who I didn't recognize at first), which leads to the show's best scene, where Ben finally opens up to John about his childhood growing up in Beverly Hills as the son of a "scumbag defense attorney".
As I said, the show officially has me hooked. I can't wait to see how they develop the partnership of Ben and John, and even though we didn't get any glimpses into John's private life this week, he's still the most interesting character on the show. What did you think of this week's episode, and will you be coming back next week? Submitted by on Fri, 2009-04-17 11:48. |
 Recent Comments
Recent blog posts
|
Welcome to AfterElton.com!
- Login
- Join Now!
News, Reviews & Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media
It's a little thing, but...
Luvs it!
They're starting to makeup for the generic sexlessness we got from Wll & Grace with John. I loved seeing him get flustered when everyone was giving Ben congrats. I kinda hope its revealed that he has a boyfriend in West Hollywood and has a poodle for a pet. Just to f*@# with us some more!
Visit my blog: http://darkesaint.wordpress.com/
Take a break and explore the world of hedonism and pleasure-seeking!
Chuckles!
Yep, I like it
They are developing Cooper quite nicely, an the other characters too, slow but steady.
And yes there was a slashfic inducing moment where Ben and Coop connected there, it will be interesting to see how their interaction goes.
BTW, the soundtrack is great, its a nice element of the show.
I for one, will be watching.
Enjoying Southland
It's a bit more of an 80's kind of cop show, which is admittedly a little refreshing in the blizzard of futuristic forensics shows that are out there. Don't get me wrong, I love CSI. It's just nice to have a cop show, and one that doesn't star cops that are as nasty as the crooks.
I also think that not having John's sexuality be his primary character trait is a good thing. A major sign of progress in media is when we can have gay characters whose whole point in the show is not just to be gay. If John is a stereotype it's the stereotype of the hard-bitten veteran cop.
Now, it remains to be seen how his sexuality will be used, but this is also true of the straight characters as well. We have a character in a troubled marriage and another in a relationship that he clearly feels guilty about in front of his daughter. The others remain to be determined. But right off the bat it's clear that this show is not one where romance is the core plot.
Hopefully as the show progresses we'll see some positive character development. For now I'm going to keep watching.
Cop classic
This site tipped me off to the show's pilot, which I went back and watched (partly to see the hunky gay John character -- no pun intended).
I was pleasantly surprised by the pilot, and think this week's second show is a strong follow-up. It reminds me of how ER was at the beginning, and tracing back through St. Elsewhere to Hill Street Blues, it reminds me favorably of that show...in that the show is about cops and detectives on the beat and in relationships, rather than just solving crimes forensically or through contrived interrogations and courtroom scenes (we have enough of those). It goes back more to the Adam-12 kind of cop show, but updated, gritty, with a modern bleakness, and playing out my wishful thinking of Martin Milner in the character of John <g>. Kind of a Brokeback Mountain scenario in the cop world?
I'm impressed by how quickly the main characters were developed. I also like that, with the crime of LA being fairly stereotyped, the rest of the show explores multiple levels of racial relationships, which makes the gender and sexuality issues feel more authentic to me.
I plan on continuing to watch. With all of the dumb retro of 80s stuff, it's nice to see a revival of some of the best of the 80s (Hill Street Blues, St Elsewhere, LA Law), which was character study dramas. This show is starting in the best spirit of them.
Btw, did I mention that John is hot? I like looking at his forearms. Interesting character; not an entirely flattering person, which I think is good. I think this is going to be a subtly vanguard show for the diversity of visible gay characters.
Absolutely!
That John is supposedly gay is just the cherry on the cake. . .
. . .it's a good show!
Regina King is like buttah, and I can't believe that's C. Thomas Howell. . .