Southland turned out to be better than the ads for it made me believe. The ads seemed a little over the top, heavy handed even, but the show itself worked very well.
Michael Cudlitz's Officer Cooper has that nice combo of jaded and cynical but still obviously caring. His character seemed most likely to be over the top from the commercials, but in the context of the show came across about as close to perfect for the moment as you could ask. Looking forward to more with this character.
Benjamin McKenzie as Officer Ben Sherman also did very good. We didn't learn a whole lot about the character in the Pilot, but that makes sense in the debut as we will most certainly be learning more about him. Well acted by Mckenzie and has a nice rapport with Officer Cooper, that will by nice to watch develop.
Everything else in the show worked, and apart from a couple of moments that didn't quite jibe with the reality of the rest of the episode, makes me optimistic for the rest of the series.
