For its entire five-season run on both NBC and TNT, the ratings-challenged Southland has struggled to stay alive. And after a heart-pounding and catastrophic finale on April 17 that drew a mediocre 1.8 million viewers, the gritty police drama is again facing cancellation. The day after the airing of what could be their final episode, which culminated in out-of-control John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) getting shot down by fellow officers, executive producer Jonathan Lisco and Cudlitz looked back — and ahead...
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On Wednesday's Southland (series?) finale, the entire Los Angeles Police Department will be fighting for one of their own.
This season's harrowing penultimate episode saw John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and his partner Henry Lucero (Anthony Ruvivar) kidnapped by drug addicts. By the end of the hour, Lucero was dead and Cooper only escaped after playing dead in a grave he'd dug for himself. Wednesday's episode (10/9c, TNT) picks up about three weeks later, and while John still hasn't been cleared to carry a gun and return to active duty, the rest of the force, including detetcives Adams (Regina King) and Robinson (Dorian Missick) are searching for the tweakers. "Cops don't go missing all the time, so when they do, it's a huge deal," Cudlitz tells TVGuide.com...
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Without question, the hour of TV I have been most anticipating — and dreading — this week is the season, and for all we know, series finale of TNT's remarkable, brutal, bleak yet gripping cop drama Southland (Wednesday, 10/9c). Anticipating because each week, this series somehow raises the dramatic stakes for its characters, in a grueling but rewarding tour of duty through the socio-ethnic sprawl of Los Angeles. Dreading because Southland has almost always lived on the verge of ratings extinction, from the time TNT rescued the show after NBC dumped it before its second season could even premiere, and I fear (as do many) that this fifth season could very likely be its last hurrah. (Several of its stars have signed up for new work during this pilot season, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall.)
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I was heartbroken to learn that there probably won't be a new season of The Glee Project this summer. Over the last two seasons, it has quickly become my absolute favorite guilty pleasure, and I've loved seeing last season's winner Blake Jenner (Ryder Lynn) become a star on Glee. I've heard the reason behind The Glee Project not filming this year is because Glee has not been renewed yet for Season 5! Should I be worried at this point? Do you think Glee will be really be canceled? — Amy
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The Pacific Dining Car near downtown Los Angeles is the kind of old-school, coronary-clogging restaurant where the walls are green, the steak is red and the clientele is LAPD blue. You won't find a Lohan or a Kardashian hanging out here, and the closest they have to a juice fast is a filet mignon smothered with Roquefort cheese. So it's only fitting that this is where the cast of the cop drama Southland has chosen to do an interview with TV Guide Magazine after a long day's shoot; the show prides itself on keeping it real.
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