No show advertises its desire to be taken seriously - its bid for instant-classic status - as insistently as this visually austere account of the daily lives of Los Angeles patrol officers and detectives.
Of all the boneheaded decisions committed by the peacock network over the last year, taking the ax to the John Wells cop drama Southland might surpass them all.
Southland does especially well at putting you inside the action -- chases, mob scenes, shootouts are unusually kinetic and suspenseful and felt for a television show.
