Southland is one of the best cop shows ever to air

Southland is one of the best cop shows ever to air. It's got that immediate sense of danger that comes from hand-held camera work and well-executed, fast-paced action. The plots are intelligent and at times surprising and even brutal. The characters are well-developed, and their personalities, back-stories and situations will stay with you, even haunt you the way certain characters or scenes from The Shield were able to, which is probably the show I would most compare it to, though Southland is not about the anti-hero. It is similar in that it is one of the only shows that will leave you bolt-upright and riding an adrenaline rush right up to that last second--and then you can't believe you have to wait for next week (or next season) for the next episode. I think Sons of Anarchy is the only other show currently airing that has this effect to this degree. Again, though, Southland is not about the anti-hero; so it's not like Sons in that way at all. The cops are heroes on this show, well revered, if completely human and at times very flawed.

This show seems to me to be a kind of a cross between the cop-centric, officer-on-the-beat episodes of Third Watch with the grittiness of the Shield. What a wild ride all of these seasons in one set would be. If you haven't seen this show before, I envy you the experience coming your way. Please note that this show has "seasons" on par with the average BBC show in length, which means that with three full seasons of Southland included in this set, you will still only get 26 episodes. So, consider it a single season's worth of shows. Still, worth even overpaying for, it's that good. If you haven't seen the first season, grab that and extend the awesome by 7 more episodes. Oh, by the way, Southland incorporates an amount of uncensored swearing that would make Sipowicz from NYPD Blue blush. It's not that non-stop vulgarity the Wire delivers throughout; it's more like pointed punctuation that is realistic and not written around or out. It works, if that sort of thing isn't a deal-breaker for you. (When the show airs on TV, most of the curse words are dropped out of the sound. Hopefully, this set continues the tradition of just leaving the colorful, realistic language in there, though.) In short, a fantastic cop show that has probably flown under your radar. Spend whatever they're charging; it may seem like too much, but after you're sucked into a few episodes, you'll think it was a steal.