True grit: My kind of reality television
It began with Homicide: Life on the Street, with the murder po-lice, the Waterfront, the dark and twisty tales of life in a Baltimore cop shop. Who can forget following right along with newbie Tim Bayliss as he desperately sought Edina Watson's killer in season one? How we agonized when the brilliant Frank Pembleton was brought down, not by bullets, but by a stroke? Seven seasons of awesome by Tom Fontana and based on David Simon's Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets.
After Homicide made its final bow, as desperate as Bayliss for equally brilliant entertainment, I uncovered Oz. I didn't have HBO when Oz actually aired, but was lucky enough to score DVDs via Netflix. As with Homicide, I was instantly hooked and quickly mainlined the entire six season run in less than two months.
I even got to tell Tom Fontana how much the show meant to me in a brief encounter during MWA's Edgar cocktail party one year. He probably thought I was insane.
After I finished this fix, I faced a whole lotta nothing. At this point, I still didn't have premium cable and though there were a few shows I enjoyed, none had the hard-hitting edge I craved. I needed something other than bright shiny Hollywoodized characters with improbably pretty actors. I'm not against pretty. Pretty has its place, but having gotten a taste of something more visceral, more real, I wanted more. Fabulous writing merged with excellent casting/acting. It had to be there.
Then, there it was. From a familiar source: The Wire – a different view of Charm City and yet another show that I had to wait to see until it was done and available via iTunes/streaming. My inner addict breathed more easily. All too soon, however, I finished watching the five seasons.
I cast my wandering eye about, hoping for a new fix. A new show to fill that gap. Sure, I watched other dramas, but nothing that resonated with me as much. Some tried too hard. Some not at all. How could I settle for bland polished Hollywood pablum when I'd been exposed to the real thing?
Luckily, a faint glimmer of hope began to dawn. Rumors of a hard-hitting cop show set in Los Angeles began to surface on the Intarwebz. Was it going to live up to the early buzz? Would it be worthwhile? It would air on NBC, not HBO or Showtime. Could it work or was this only another iteration of the same, boring thing?
In April, 2009, SouthLAnd's first episode aired. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Yes. This. A short mid-season show, okay. I could live with that. After all, short seasons work. The Brits do it all the time. No need for overlong 22 episode arcs with filler. Keep it short. Keep it tight.
SouthLAnd had everything I wanted. Tough, true, deeply flawed characters with non-cliche story lines. I loved it–and therefore, like too many major network shows (Firefly!) it seemd to be doomed. 
After ordering a 2nd season and even before that season aired, NBC first moved, then cancelled it. I wept. I ranted. I wailed along with countless others online, including Michael Cudlitz, who plays Office John Cooper. His twitter account was my one source for information that I knew was correct. I followed his every tweet like a crack whore sniffing out her next score.
Then, out of the blue, there was hope. Rumors began to fly that the show wasn't dead yet. It was only sleeping…and the rumors turned out to be true. Suddenly, TNT stepped in, picked up the back half of the 2nd season, and miraculously, treated the show how it needed to be treated. It cut the budget, trimmed things up, but my fix was back on and I could breathe easier.
SouthLAnd returned for its fourth season last week to my great delight. I need these characters. I need these stories. They satisfy something in me that wants to see cops do their best…or maybe screw up, but pay the consequences. Good things, bad things, real life things. It gives me balance. About a year ago, I even posted about how controversy can be a good thing, based on some online discussions about Officer John Cooper's sexuality.
Just as with the Tom Fontana/David Simon oeuvre, this is not a pretty show. There's no gorgeous blonde detective with high heels and fancy suit and too much makeup prancing about. The women and men look like working class people, not over-polished talking heads, just flawed characters doing their best to keep their lives together doing a thankless job. They're you and they're me, seen through the lens of a hand-held camera on the manufactured stage of a police precinct. Nope, no shiny here, just real people.
This is my reality TV. Not competition shows, nor ridiculous dating shows, nor any of that ilk. Give me well-scripted, well-acted drama and you'll hook me every single time.
Sure, some days, I just want to cuddle with my kitty and watch mind candy like Glee, but others, give me SouthLAnd and the complicated, fabulous characters and storylines. Make me think. Make me feel. Inspire me. This is my drug of choice.
How about you? What shows evoke strong emotion/inspire you?
