Netflix has been adding a lot of shows from TNT’s archives lately, and its latest addition already cracked the streamer’s top 10.
Southland debuted on NBC in 2009 before moving to TNT for its remaining four seasons when the peacock network attempted to cancel it.
Considering how good this show turned out to be, it’s a minor miracle that it stayed on the air as long as it did.
Now that the series has a new streaming home, Watch With Us is sharing three reasons to watch Southland on Netflix in January.
‘Southland’ Feels Like a Truly Contemporary Police Show
This may seem like an odd thing to say about a series that debuted in 2009, but Southland feels modern in a way that even current cop shows in 2026 can’t quite seem to emulate. Southland took some of its cues from The Shield, a groundbreaking FX original series that was itself inspired by The Sopranos. Since Southland was on NBC and later TNT, it didn’t have free rein to go TV-MA, but it didn’t sacrifice its realistic approach to the show’s stories.
There’s an underlying tension between the cops featured on this show and the general public that never completely goes away. Occasionally, it comes to the surface as it does in the scene above. Southland doesn’t make out its lead characters to be moral paragons, but they are doing their best for a city that sometimes has open contempt for them and the job they have to do.
‘Southland’ Spotlights Complicated Characters Who Aren’t Easy to Like
Southland benefited from great casting, particularly in the leading roles portrayed by Michael Cudlitz and Ben McKenzie. Cudlitz had some of the best performances of his career as John Cooper, a police officer who had to live with the constant fear that his colleagues would learn that he was secretly gay. His first partner on this show was Ben Sherman (McKenzie), an officer with his own crosses to bear.
Regina King also shines on this series as Detective Lydia Adams, a woman who struggles to build a life for herself outside of her job. Lydia also goes through a few different partners over the course of the show, but she’s usually far more interesting. King makes Lydia feel very relatable and down to earth, even when she’s thrust into some very dangerous situations. She’s such a strong character that the show could have just been about her. Instead, it features a large permanent and recurring cast.
The Stories Are Messy and Seem More Like Real Life
If you like happy endings, you may not like Southland. Although the show does offer some resolutions to its mysteries or issues that arise in each episode, it never pretends that all of its problems can be solved. The police officers and detectives do their best to put the proverbial band-aid on any given crime, but there’s always someone else to go after or another investigation to start. It’s a never-ending cycle, and not every character is cut out for it.
The ending of Southland doesn’t offer any real closure, and it concludes on a major cliffhanger that never got resolved due to its cancellation. That actually works out in the show’s favor, since it seems fitting that its dangling plotlines are largely unresolved. Real life rarely fits into those neatly tied TV stories from police procedurals. Southland stood out from the pack by not pulling its dramatic punches or letting anyone ever truly have a happy ending. Each episode is just another day of life on the hard streets of Los Angeles.
Southland is streaming on Netflix.
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