By: Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 9/4/2009 (4827 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
IF there's a more daunting task in TV than taking over the time slot of a just-retired prime-time institution and trying to hang on to its audience, I don't know what it is.
And so it is that ER producer John Wells finds himself trying to match or better his best-ever work, as his new NBC drama Southland moves into the slot vacated just one week ago by the legendary medical drama after an illustrious 15-year run.
From Chicago docs to L.A. cops isn't really that far to travel, in TV-format terms, but it's asking a lot to expect viewers who remained loyal to ER to the bitter end to develop an instant affinity for Southland's cast of SoCal crimesolvers before they've even had time to finish grieving the loss of the County General crowd.
The wish here is that they'll get over the ER exit quickly enough to give
Southland the ratings push it needs to earn a full-season renewal for 2009-10, because Wells' new effort has the makings of a show that could become NBC's next Thursday-night mainstay.
Southland, which premieres tonight at 9 on NBC and CTV, is a large-cast drama that follows the day-to-day exploits of the chronically undermanned and often overmatched Los Angeles Police Department.
As he did with ER and Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle), Wells uses a newcomer to the job as the audience's entry point into the drama. In this case, it's rookie flatfoot Ben Sherman ( The O.C.' s Benjamin McKenzie), whose first day on the job will prove to be a harrowing introduction to L.A.-style law enforcement.
The old hand saddled with the task of breaking in the new kid is John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), a world-weary veteran who likens the job of policing the City of Angels to "driving through the sewer in a glass-bottom boat." He shows little patience for his new charge, but when the bullets start flying and Sherman shows he's up to the challenge, Cooper is quick to cut him some slack.
Southland isn't just about the cops in uniform, however -- the densely packed pilot episode also introduces the LAPD's detective class, led by Lydia Adams (Regina King), a sharp-eyed investigator who's struggling to balance her career against the demands of caring for an invalid parent, and members of the force's gang unit, who might just face one of the most against-the-odds battles in the entire badge-carrying world.
Southland is multi-layered and complex, examining the cops' casework and then following them home as they cope with various after-hours issues and conflicts. It'll take a few episodes to get to know the roster well enough to feel invested in the storylines, but Wells and company have created a drama that's surely worth the effort.
It isn't ER; nothing else ever will be. But Southland deserves a shot at succeeding in a slot that's known nothing but success for a long, long time.
* * *
Island intrigue: It's safe to say that everybody's got a wedding-from-hell story to tell. But the unlucky travellers on the Harper's Island guest list likely won't live long enough to tell theirs.
Harper's Island, a limited-run (13-episode) thriller that premieres tonight at 9 on CBS and Global, is a murder mystery in the grandest tradition, combining elements of Agatha Christie whodunits and Stephen King kill-athons to create a victim-a-week mystery that looks like it could be a whole lot of creepy fun.
The story begins tonight with the journey by a group of Seattle-based friends and relations to nearby Harper's Island for a wedding celebration. The island, however, isn't viewed by most folks as a festive place, having been the site of a mass murder seven years earlier.
The celebrants of the Trish Wellington- Henry Dunn (Katie Cassidy, Christopher Gorham) nuptials are blissfully unconcerned by the island's bloody history... until, that is, the first in their party falls victim to a new wave of killings.
The plan, according to CBS, is for a different member of the wedding group to be dispatched each week, with the identity of the killer being revealed in the July 2 finale. It's an intriguing concept, and a captivating first episode, but the real mystery here is whether viewers will be willing to make a weekto- week commitment during a time of year when so many are bound for their own island/beach/lake hideaways.
* * *
The price (in Canadian dollars) is right: The long-running CBS game show The Price is Right will have a distinctly local flavour next Wednesday (Apr. 15), when Winnipeg resident Nicole Bouchard hears her name called by announcer Rich Fields, then guesses right on the up-for-bids item and is invited onstage by host Drew Carey to compete for big prizes.
"We can't tell you whether your newly minted hometown 'celebrity' will take home the showcase," the show's publicist enthuses in an e-mail sent to the Free Press, "but nobody leaves The Price is Right without a great prize... and a really fun chat with host Drew Carey."
The Price is Right airs weekdays at 10 a.m. on CBS and Citytv.
brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca
Brad Oswald
Perspectives editor
After three decades spent writing stories, columns and opinion pieces about television, comedy and other pop-culture topics in the paper’s entertainment section, Brad Oswald shifted his focus to the deep-thoughts portion of the Free Press’s daily operation.
