IAmATVJunkie.com is a Torchwood Spoiler Free Zone Until July 20

3 Clips -- Parks & Recreation and Southland Preview Clips, Southland Star Cudlitz Interview by TVGuide.com

UPDATE: I apparently was misinformed and in turn misinformed all of you. There isn't an Office wraparound for Parks & Recreation tonight, My Name is Earl (a show on the bubble, btw) is airing right now. Sorry, gang.

I gotta say it right away, if you are not watching Southland you are missing the best cop drama I've seen since Hill Street Blues.

It kept me on edge, riveted and other terms like that the whole hour, right up until the grizzled Silver Lake training office played by Michael Cudlitz walks into The Faultline (or a reasonably facsimile, anyway), my favorite leather/levi gay bar in the neighborhood for a post-shift beer.

(Oh, and did you catch the reference to Barnsdall Park in the pilot? That really cracked me up, that place was notorious for years. I thought next time I was in town I would take pics of the huge signs they claim in the pilot script are now there warning about arrests for cruising there. And seriously, my gay brothers ... still cruising in parks? You should be having sex in places with towels and hot water. AND CONDOMS!!!)

Cudlitz was amazing. And very very brave of John Wells, episode scribe Ann Biderman and the crew in the writers' room to make the straight-laced white guy the gay cop.

How's he gonna deal with that beautiful Ben McKenzie riding shotgun with him? Hey, we're not all into the pretty boys, Officer John Cooper might be into bears.

(Me? I'd be distracted. Very distracted.)

Regina King turns in yet another remarkable performance. Her face says so much. Her diligent, world weary detective took us through every thought and every action with her whole being.

In this case the network hype is right, this is don't blink TV. I can't wait to see where this show goes, though I can wait until the daytime hours the day after it airs to watch it. It's so close to home for me ... the neighborhood is my old neighborhood, crimes like these are on our local news each night (if you can bear to watch the local news, it makes one really sad) and you just can't predict what's gonna happen next.

I wanted to write about the show earlier in the week, but I didn't think I could do it justice. I hope I did today.

Plaudits all around to the creative team and the performers.

Tonight on Parks & Recreation, Leslie and her team start to canvas the area about the possibility of their park going forward. Watch the clip to see what happens with one local homeowner and her case of NIMBY-ism.

It's funny because a lot of Americans are assholes. In fact, the woman they approach in the clip after the jump reminds me of a teabagger.

Good timing Messrs. Schur and Daniels. This show is coming at just the right time to comically expose a bunch of this country's hypocrises.

NBC is wrapping Parks & Rec with two eps of The Office again this week, so tune in early and stay there. 

Hey, can someone put Idris Elba in a car and send him to me? Please? Mmmmmm ...

30 Rock is brand new, too. Tonight we get to see what happens when Liz Lemon can't go to work. She's suspended for two weeks and you know that Liz without a show to put on is not a good thing.

Finally, you can watch NBC on a Thursday night again.

Maybe they're on their way back? Check their pilot orders at this Hollywood Reporter page and see what you think the prospects are for next year. Comments? That section is all yours. I'll hop in with a comment too, but you start.

Clip-o-rama after the jump.

Watch NBC's Southland Premiere Right Here Right Now Before Tonight at 10

Full episode from Hulu after the jump, but first, let's take a look at the reviews from around the web.

Rob Owen at the Pgh Post-Gazette:

In tomorrow's "Southland" premiere, Ben (McKenzie) is on his first day riding with no-nonsense veteran cop John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz, "A River Runs Through It"), encountering assorted challenges, many of which have been given away by NBC's promos for the series.

Cudlitz is particularly effective in his fatherly approach toward the rookie in a scene near the end of the premiere. The character is written to strike just the right balance between crusty honesty and spare empathetic concern.

Other officers patrolling the streets of "Southland" include Detective Lydia Adams (Regina King, who also makes a favorable impression in the pilot) and Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy), who's having marital difficulties. Still more characters appear but are not fleshed out much in this first episode.

Tim Goodman at the SF Chron:

"Southland" kicks off with enough indications of evil - gang warfare, drug life, sexual predators, etc. - to imply where the series might go. In this case, it's toward the darkness (not a lot of happy endings in the pilot) and the kind of roughness of language and visual content not seen since, well, "NYPD Blue."

(snip)

The casting on "Southland" is a plus and so is (creator Ann) Biderman's intent not to make it easy for viewers to succumb to "pilotitis." She introduces the large ensemble without pausing for reminders. Even that little refusal to pander is encouraging. Michael Cudlitz is at the center of this series as John Cooper, a veteran L.A. cop assigned rookie Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie) straight out of the academy and, as Cooper finds out, the son of wealthy and possibly famous parents.

(snip)

Regina King is Detective Lydia Adams, an astute observer of human behavior who, when her shift is over (and it never seems to be over) takes care of her elderly mother. Detective Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott) is her partner, a sensitive soul described as "an unhappily married father of three." The series also covers a gang task force, various street cops and the requisite bosses, with glimpses of home lives thrown in for emotional effect.

Biderman is an Emmy winning writer from NYPD Blue.

Watch it now, it's right after the jump. And the full screen button on the Hulu screen is on top of the box.

NBC's Southland -- Benjamin McKenzie is a Man in Uniform; Also, Gay Cop Alert

"Okay, okay, nothin' to see here, just move along."

Are ya kidding? It's Benjamin McKenzie in an LAPD uniform. I know people of both sexes for which this photo is a realization of nights of furtive dreaming. Dreams that start on a lonely stretch of highway and then progress through a Miranda warning and onto a night of steaming hot ...

Sorry, I do tend to go on, don't I.

As this is a TV blog, let's get quickly to the facts. The show is called Southland and it's from ER producer John Wells, it premieres in the ER timeslot on Thursday April 9 (same night as the premiere of Parks & Recreation with Amy Poehler) and the cast includes Tom Everett Scott and Regina King, so there will be people you know there.

Even on TV I like seeing people I know there, just like at a party. I don't have to know them really well, just enough to exchange pleasantries and nod approvingly from across a room.

McKenzie plays a rookie officer learning the street next to a hardened vet played by Michael Cudlitz, with King and Scott playing detectives along with Shawn Hatosy who works in the gang unit. And there's more, too, you can learn all about it at this link.

It should be interesting to see how the show plays off the ripped from the headlines stories of the department. LA cops have been embroiled in a lot of dicey stuff over the last couple years, mostly officer-involved shootings that are repeatedly examined in the press and by our grand jury system.

I imagine in that McKenzie plays the rookie it's his eyes that we are meant to see the story through. In promos for the show (one after the jump along with a behind the scenes featurette) we see the series opens up with an officer-involved shooting.

And, per Michael Jensen at AfterElton.com, one of the primary cast members is gay. I think it's gonna be Regina King. I just think NBC-Uni feels safer with a lesbian than a gay man. Most Americans do for some reason. You can go there and join the discussion. I'm going to right after I finish this.

I hope if it is Regina, she gets time to sit down with Pam Grier to get prepared for the blowback from the African-American community. Grier talked about her issues with playing gay and the response she got, I posted about it at this link.

Not a show that I can watch in its time period (I don't watch violence after 10 pm, can't sleep if I do) I'll be time-shifting this one. But still looking forward to it.

Clips after the jump.

Full Episode The OC Video -- The Origins of Chrismukkah, By Josh Schwartz

I have a yarmaclaus upstairs in my closet, I'll be wearing it tonight as we exchange gifts.

Here's the episode that started it all, enjoy.

The OC airs weekdays on SoapNet.

Ben McKenzie, you are just sooooo ... and you were a poli sci major, too. You're perfect.

LINK

And So it Leaves With a Whimper

And so it goes ... away. I've been sitting here for a couple minutes trying to remember my favorite O.C. moment, and frankly, not too much comes to mind short of the Seth-Summer Spiderman kiss and any moment when Ryan was being a bit too self-mocking.

You have to know, it was a big deal in this Orange County I live in that a show was going to take place here. Then they shot it all in Manhattan Beach and Redondo and people kind of got over it. Since then, there has been a lot of TV activity here in the county south of LA. Most reality shows (as much as that's a contradiction in terms).

In fact, of all the shows, I think the fake one has been the most palatable.

Well, SoapNet will be running the shows from the get-go by next year, and if you missed it the first time around, have at it.

And, just to look back, here's some video from Season One:

Martin Mulkeen is Wistful on the End of "The O.C."

I was clicking around on a Sunday afternoon, looking for ways to make my case that the AP is consuming this Anna Nicole story with the ravenousness of a caged polar bear in Hawaii, when I came across AP's new hip and happening portal for the 18 to 34 crowd, ASAP.

And it's there where I found Martin Mulkeen's piece from last week on the final episode of The O.C., which will air this Thursday. He details some of the "meta" moments from the series:

Despite its notorious attention to all things pop, the program remained even more fascinated by its own reflection, brimming with self-referentiality both vainglorious and self-deprecating. To eulogize this cannibalistic impulse, we offer a list of the show's most memorable moments in self-awareness.

The moments are detailed after that. Reading them made me think of my pal Janet in Oklahoma, who has one of the two Yarmuclauses I bought.

Here's a little gift from me and YouTube to you remaining O.C. fans:

SoapNet Acquisition News: "The OC," "One Tree Hill"

Honestly, since my channel lineup shakeup (thanks, Time Warner, just the worst idea EVER!) I haven't even seen SoapNet on my way to another channel. Have no idea where they put it, but I'm pretty sure it's still there.

According to TVWeek.com, they've picked up The O. C. and One Tree Hill from Warner Bros. There are currently just about 80 or 90 eps of each, and I would guess that they will strip them like they have 90210 and Melrose in the past. If One Tree Hill gets picked up, I guess they would round out at least 100, but I just don't see it happening.

So, one afternoon soon, both Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush can tune in, from their separate homes, and look back on a time when they were dating their respective co-stars. That's a little creepy.

Also, Benjamin McKenzie can look back on the episodes he wallowed through, dragging that no-talent Mischa behind him instead of holding out for a decent film role or two, or instead of getting that Masters' degree in Public Policy.

I still have my Yarmuclaus, and I promise, Seth Cohen, that I will place it on my head every holiday season. Chrismukkah will stay alive.