The final season opens with Officer Cooper clashing with his new 'boot', Gary Steele (DEREK RAY), while Lydia Adams trying to balance detective work with motherhood; Dave Mendoza (guest star Chad Michael Murray) getting injured in a drive-by, therefore, it's up to Ben to solve the case, much to Sammy's dismay.
The randomness of the action and the sense of futility distinguish Southland from run-of-the-mill cop dramas, but its downbeat tone and often non-linear approach make it better suited for a long life on cable.
Southland still gets it right most of the time, and stands above the more popular police and forensic dramas that satisfy our appetite for predictability while insulting our intelligences to greater or lesser degrees.
The final episode was emblematic of a series that, creatively speaking, appears to have gone out the way it operated - on its own terms, making no allowances for those who might call it too dark, too depressing or too inaccessible to deliver commercially.
