GUEST BLOG #60: DIANE HOLLOWAY Ponders the Future of "Southland"

[UPDATE: TNT announced Monday morning that it has picked up Southland, to air all six episodes shot for this season (and the seven that aired on NBC last season), starting Jan. 12. Contributor Diane Holloway has already explained why it's worth watching...]

[Bianculli here: Contributing critic Diane Holloway returns to a topic she first addressed in April. She regrets that circumstances have forced her to do so -- but I'm just happy she's been writing for TV WORTH WATCHING for that long...]

NBC Lets "Southland" Go -- But I Can't

By Diane Holloway

You might logically think that writing weekly columns for this site for a mere seven months isn't nearly long enough to indulge in the critic's version of a rerun. But you would be wrong. My passion for a certain show has gotten the better of me, so I'm touting it again.

Way back in April, in one of my first TVWW blogs, I praised NBC's gritty new cop drama, Southland. In fact, I compared it to Hill Street Blues, perhaps the original gritty cop drama, which I had just watched on DVD.

You may recall that NBC unceremoniously dropped the ax on Southland -- two weeks before its October second-season premiere. After weeks of rumors, it now appears all but signed-on-the-dotted line that Southland will return, moving from NBC to TNT.

Why this solution isn't reached for other shows deemed not quite popular enough for broadcast but perfectly acceptable in the cable universe is beyond me. The late-great Arrested Development would have been perfect for FX... or even HBO. It definitely deserved a longer life than it had on Fox.

The details have yet to emerge regarding Southland. Will TNT air only the six new episodes already filmed for NBC? Will TNT rev up production and shoot at least six or seven more for the second season? And will TNT launch its new acquisition with a repeat of the first season's mini-run that began in April?

All of the above questions are still to be answered -- but thanks to TNT for doing the right thing here and breathing new life into a prematurely canceled series.

For those who missed it, Southland was created by John Wells and premiered Thursday nights on NBC, in the time slot of Wells' long-running masterpiece, ER.

The ensemble cast included Austin actor Ben McKenzie (Junebug, The O.C.) as a rookie Los Angeles cop partnered with a tough veteran, played by Michael Cudlitz. Regina King and Tom Everett Scott played another cop duo, with a half-dozen other lesser-known but stellar actors rounding out the cast.

The series was noteworthy for its filmic quality and an abundance of bleeped-out four-letter-words. None of the language was gratuitous, mind you, but it was unusual for a broadcast network program to use such dialogue.

TNT, which boasts considerably milder police originals such as The Closer and Saving Grace, likely will not alter the tone of Wells's drama. That's good.

But Southland would have been more at home on FX, where at least some of the bleeps could be replaced by words. The Shield, Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck push the envelope for content and language, and Southland could have nestled among those series more comfortably than the good but relatively tame TNT shows.

Assuming this Warner Bros. deal between NBC and TNT goes through, Southland at least will live on in some capacity. Serious dramas on NBC were doomed by the network's shortsighted decision to air The Jay Leno Show every weeknight in prime time.

If Leno tanks (who among us doesn't think it will?), NBC may regret letting Southland go. Too bad... that's the price to be paid for ignoring quality.

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Diane Holloway was the TV critic for the Austin American Statesman for 30 years, until the downturn in the newspaper business prompted her to take a buyout. She's now sniffing out other possibilities. Before newspapers, she worked in Washington for the Library of Congress, the American Film Institute and the National Endowment for the Arts. Maybe something entirely different is next. Or not.