Reviewing Movies

There has always been an immediacy to this series as if you’d joined the officers for a ride along. The principal characters are two detectives and two sets of beat cops. One of the strengths of the show has always been the fact that these are no cut-out figures but real people with real life-issues who perform their duties despite them. These are not idealized figureheads. There are continuing story-lines rather than unconnected episodes. With the last episode it is obvious the writers knew the show had been cancelled as everyone reaps the world wind in one cataclysmic climax.

It has always been the mark of a great actor to me that I fail to recognize that he/she is the one playing a part. In the early seasons of Southland C. Thomas Howell played Lydia’s detective partner Russell who nearly died of wounds received on the job and quit the force rather than take a desk job. It was not until he was identified in a supplement on Disc 2 that I realized he was the actor playing the wrinkled, wisecracking, buffoon Dewey in later seasons. Russell makes an appearance in the final episodes meaning the make-up department was very busy.