NBC’s overlooked police drama resurfaces on streaming 13 years after its abrupt goodbye
Streaming does this funny little magic trick where it reaches into the past, taps an old show on the shoulder, and says hey, your time isn’t actually over. Sometimes that tap turns into a second life. That moment has arrived for ‘Southland.’ It’s the police drama that disappeared silently more than a decade ago and is now stepping into the Netflix spotlight, thirteen years after its final episode aired. Per Collider, the show lands on the platform on January 16. For all the noise around modern streaming hits, Netflix has also become a great hiding place for shows that never quite got their flowers the first time around.
And ‘Southland’ fits right into that category. It’s a series that never tried to be flashy or comforting, and somehow feels even more relevant now than it did when it originally ran. ‘Southland’ was created by Ann Biderman, who would later go on to make ‘Ray Donovan.’ It premiered on NBC in April 2009 before being shuffled off the network and reborn on TNT, where it survived for four additional seasons. ‘Southland’ is set in Los Angeles and focused on the everyday grind of LAPD officers who spend more time reacting to emergencies than delivering speeches about justice.
The main protagonist of the story is John Cooper, a cop played by Michael Cudlitz. He gets assigned to train rookie Ben Sherman, portrayed by Ben McKenzie. The show never pretended policing was neat or heroic, which made it honest but also made it easy to overlook during one of the most crowded periods television has ever seen. Back then, ‘Southland’ was competing for attention against some big names: ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Mad Men,’ ‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Community,’ ‘Parks and Recreation,’ and ‘Modern Family.’
And by the time the series wrapped in 2013, Netflix itself was just starting to experiment with ‘House of Cards.’ What makes its return especially noteworthy is how well it has aged in the eyes of viewers. Across five seasons, the series holds about a 90 percent score from critics and a 98 percent rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The first season earned solid but cautious praise, while later years saw approval climb higher and higher. Its multiple seasons pulled perfect audience scores and respect for how fearless the storytelling became.
The final season closed things out with a 97 percent audience rating. Not bad for a show people forgot existed. Even Steven Spielberg noticed it back then, calling the series “genius” in 2009. He singled it out as something special at a time when praise from names like that could still feel like a golden ticket. But, it wasn’t enough to save the show. Now, with Netflix opening the door, ‘Southland’ has another shot.
