Strap in for a rollercoaster ride through the streets of Los Angeles with our latest podcast episode, where the raw intensity of "Southland" meets the discerning eyes of yours truly and my co-host, Katy. Katy, someone who typically steers clear of cop dramas, was skeptical, but Lucy Liu's presence and the standout performances—including a remarkable turn by Ben McKenzie—piqued her interest. We tackle the show's stark depiction of gang violence and law enforcement, and how we navigated its darker themes. Plus, we get into the nitty-gritty of streaming with commercials and our strategy for episode selection to get the essence of the series, without the excess.
Ever wondered how a cop drama can influence your view on a city? Katy's hint of waning interest in Los Angeles might just surprise you. On the flip side, we're gearing up to embrace the artistry of French cinema with our next viewing challenge, 'The 400 Blows,' a film that promises to take us both out of our comfort zones. Join us for candid banter, as we dissect our favorite (and not so favorite) characters, rate the series based on our eclectic tastes, and reveal how our collaborative spirit shapes our cinematic journey. This episode isn't just about "Southland"; it's about the way we intertwine personal reflections with our shared passion for storytelling across different mediums.
Strap in for a rollercoaster ride through the streets of Los Angeles with our latest podcast episode, where the raw intensity of "Southland" meets the discerning eyes of yours truly and my co-host, Katy. Katy, someone who typically steers clear of cop dramas, was skeptical, but Lucy Liu's presence and the standout performances—including a remarkable turn by Ben McKenzie—piqued her interest. We tackle the show's stark depiction of gang violence and law enforcement, and how we navigated its darker themes. Plus, we get into the nitty-gritty of streaming with commercials and our strategy for episode selection to get the essence of the series, without the excess.
Ever wondered how a cop drama can influence your view on a city? Katy's hint of waning interest in Los Angeles might just surprise you. On the flip side, we're gearing up to embrace the artistry of French cinema with our next viewing challenge, 'The 400 Blows,' a film that promises to take us both out of our comfort zones. Join us for candid banter, as we dissect our favorite (and not so favorite) characters, rate the series based on our eclectic tastes, and reveal how our collaborative spirit shapes our cinematic journey. This episode isn't just about "Southland"; it's about the way we intertwine personal reflections with our shared passion for storytelling across different mediums.
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nady and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of Nady and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan aka Nady, of course, and with me on today's episode is my good friend Katie. Hi Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm just doing fantastic. I'm kind of in a weird headspace because I don't hate the TV show we're reviewing today, but I also didn't love it. So I have mixed feelings and I can't wait to find out what we watched for this episode, this episode today. We did not talk much at all about our thoughts, so this is one of the few times we're just getting a pure, unfiltered version of what we thought, of what was our show.
Speaker 2:this time it is the five season cop drama, Southland, which features a lot of to me anyway well-known actors, and so before we can get into the show and what we thought about it, we got to go over the synopsis, which is actually really short. Southland is about the lives of police officers working for the LAPD.
Speaker 3:That's pretty spot on.
Speaker 2:And it stars Michael Cutlets, sean Hattasee, regina King, ben McKenzie, and it has some special guest stars, one of which is an actress that I believe you've stated before that you are a fan of Miss Lucy Liu. Lucy Liu.
Speaker 3:Yes, I do really like her.
Speaker 2:So let's just get right to our likes and dislikes. When we first started watching I know both Katie and I it was kind of like a slow burn kind of, and also it's only showing on the streaming service to be, which is a free free.
Speaker 2:But with that it comes commercials, and so we had to sit through commercials. So it's basically like watching on TV, and I think that's one of the reasons why I kind of had a hard time getting into it, because I was like I don't want to sit through commercials. But so what were your first thoughts of this cop drama?
Speaker 3:See, I think we may be different here. My first thoughts are pretty similar to my final thoughts, which, if you want me to come right into it, I don't have a ton of positive to say. But very start, start from the very beginning. This is not my style, right? I love Lucy. It's comedy, funny, a cop drama? No, not, not really my thing. I will say just particularly a backstory.
Speaker 3:I did in college go through a really big law and order SVU phase, which is really dark. So I don't. I don't know why I was in that phase, but I'm not quite the same as some of the women in my generation who are very into mysteries and all these podcasts of murder mystery. Just violence, especially when it's so realistic. This is kind of a fueller, a directing. So how you addressed that, I think it's my little bit. You know, an actual workers on an bets team, and definitely a leader, to me is just nothing I don't want every day. Again, I'm just commenting on the content versus the actual show itself. That's real thing happening to real people. We're watching the violence that happens every day on the streets of LA and in many cities all across the country. I don't need to see that. It's depressing.
Speaker 2:As an actor, I lean more towards focusing on the acting in this show. I thought the acting was very well done. I thought everyone did a great job portraying their characters. Ben McKenzie I don't know if you know this was on Gotham, where he played Commissioner Gordon, so he's used to playing cop roles. He did a really good job. Content-wise, I didn't really have that big of a problem with the violence and I don't know what that says about me, but I am a fan of the Saw movies so I can sit through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the difference, really gross stuff.
Speaker 3:But it's not just the violence, nathan, it's also just the darkness. The very first episode a 10-year-old girl gets kidnapped and you think obviously this is the first pilot episode. The cops are going to be the good guys and they solve the day. But the episode ends and the detective finds ants and realizes the ants lead to a trail of the little girl's body and it's like, ok, first episode that's just so dark and then I mean it falls. I actually didn't watch the episode. It wasn't our essential list. The little girl that tries to help the cops she sort of like rats on her, rats out her. It's a lot of gang violence, by the way, so content-wise also like tons of gangs and you see how gangs affect these neighborhoods. This little girl's like trying to do her best to be ratting out all the gangs. Does she die Like I never? That wasn't in our episodes essential. So what happens to her?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know either, because, yeah, like Katie said, we went through an essential list because there's like a plethora of episodes and we ain't got time to watch every single one. We did that with Isla Lucy too, and so we ain't got time for that. But I will say, from what we watched, it doesn't seem like you miss that much when you watch the essential episodes. Obviously, the girl, the teenage girl who helps them, they don't really talk about her and other episodes, so it's not clear what happens to her, unless, obviously, if you watch them in order, which, again, we ain't got time for that.
Speaker 3:Well, I watched the essential episodes in order and I will say, for the most part, not till you get to season season one, two and three, it's the same characters, but once you, there's some characters pass away and so, like season four and five is where you start getting new people that you might be like wait, who's this? Where'd they come from?
Speaker 2:And that was the thing too we talked about before. We, you know, dove even deeper into the show that at first we're like we don't care about these characters, but then, as I kept watching and I'm like I do care about these characters and I did find myself getting sad when some of them died, and I just again goes back to how, to the acting and the relationships that are built. And I think that's why in our essential list we we use the list of like the top 15 episodes, and low on the list are like episodes from the earlier seasons, and then high on the list are like four and five seasons, and so it just shows that this show obviously gets better as it kept going. And so I mean I guess that's a testament to how well done this show was, because usually it's like the first couple of seasons are like awesome and then it kind of dies down. But it seems like this show is like the complete opposite and I think it has everything to do again with the acting.
Speaker 2:And I actually enjoyed the storylines. Again, I don't know what this says about me, I don't know if it says that I'm morbid, but I think the storylines were compelling, the relationships were built really well. So like when, again, when characters passed away, you actually felt for the other characters that are dealing with the aftermath of that, and so I thought it was a good show. I thought it was good. Are there things I didn't like? Yes, but I'll let you go first. I mean, you've already listed what you've been like.
Speaker 3:Well, there's. No, there's more things, trust me I will say too like so the synopsis was so brief, but yeah, I think if there are definitely different character arcs, like you've got sort of partnerships, like you have these two characters and sort of there you know because you're following just like you would fall in the cop car so each partner pair kind of has their own things they deal with, or detectives, um, and every once in a while they all cross paths and such. But okay, one negative being you don't really see as much of the personal life I wanted. If it's going to be a drama I wanted to see a lot more of and I thought the moments that were included were powerful when they brought in the life of the family or spouse or relationship, like maybe lack of a relationship because of their job, and I think that really brought to a real side of the, what it's like to be a police officer, like they're not making big bucks. So some of them were like living in tough living conditions or trying to make ends me, or like having drama with their spouses a lot because, of course, the job and the stress of it, like there's a high divorce rate in that community, unfortunately, because it's a very high stress situation and you're not guaranteed to have your spouse come home safe every night. Um, so I wish there was a lot more integrated there.
Speaker 3:And the other thing that like really annoyed me was Ben. So the guy he's, he played the like main hottie from the OC TV show. Um, his name is Ben in the show and they just played up like he was a rookie for seasons one, two and three. So like it was the same trope, the same kind of comments and joke and like oh right, rookie, like for 30 episodes. I'm like we get it. He's new, like they.
Speaker 3:It drove me nuts. I felt like they should have been done with that season one and just let him be on the force and be normal. So that that also annoyed me. And then my last thing would be the character Dewey. I mean, he's supposed to be annoying, but the fact that he just kept being allowed to come back on the force, I guess he's the reason people say like defund the police, because this guy's like corrupt, horrible, makes poor choices, is addicted to alcohol, continues to work for the force, like goes rehabbing, comes back. He's a total jack wagon, sexist and he's like stays on the show like I thought they were gonna kick him off and he showed back up again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was surprised that episode where he basically Takes the cop car and drives around like a crazy person and flips over the cop car and Almost kills his fellow police officer in the process of doing this. I thought that would have got him kicked off the force but it didn't. And yeah, I thought that was kind of weird too and I mean, I guess it's just to show the different types of cops that are out there and there's their good cops, bad cops, and they all have to work together and Try to bring justice. But I'll I'll go into some of my dislikes. There weren't that many.
Speaker 2:We already talked about the first one, that at first the show was kind of slow and kind of had a hard time getting into it, but as it picked up and again, according to our list, that's what fans thought as well the other dislike is the language. This obviously is not a show that you could watch with your children, so that that's probably another reason why Well, to be honest I mean we talked about this before we started recording I actually didn't finish the essential list because I don't have time to watch it when I get home, because we have two kids and I Don't have time to sit down and watch it. So that's why I actually wasn't able to finish it, and I'm assuming you were able to finish it because you just sat with Ben and watched the whole time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no, I had to like watch it while I was doing other stuff. I mean, here's another point that makes me shows. I don't like it. I was just like fast-forwarding, like I Wanted plot, especially because I was just sort of rushing through. Maybe, and maybe if I'd given it more of a chance and sat with it, but just to get through the episodes I'd like oh, this is about to be a gangbust scene, skip, like there's no plot development here. Yeah, it was a slow burn. I couldn't get into it. You should finish, though, nathan, because the very last, like the whole series ends on quite a like depressing and sad cliff. They're like I'll tell you right now, they did not plan to end on season 5, episode 10, like that was not the plan, because the way it ends, you're like what I? I want to ask you and this may be my last commentary on the show as a whole is I didn't like any of the characters.
Speaker 3:There was none that just was like man. I really like this person. I kind of liked the girl, the blonde girl. I mean, remember her name, vicky, I think, is what they call her. She was probably my favorite. But who was your favorite character? Or maybe who is your least favorite.
Speaker 2:Well, I liked Michael Cutlet's character. He, he was the guy the John Cooper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he had the bad back and I thought it was kind of funny Because there's one of the episodes I just finished. Him and Lucy Lou are driving and they're like she says do you know what they call us now? They call us the walking dead and I thought that was funny because Michael Cutlet's ended up being on the walking dead TV show. So I thought that was kind of funny and, yeah, I liked his character. I actually liked Ben McKenzie's character. I actually ended up liking a lot of the characters because, like I said, I cared about their relationships. I thought they did a good job at building their characters. Again, it was a slow burn of doing that, but once it got started, I actually was invested and I am excited about finishing, even though now you You're making me sad that ends on a cliffhanger, yeah, but I, yeah, I thought it was a good show. I think it's up there. In my opinion, it's up there with the law and order kind of shows.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a good question. Would you put it up there?
Speaker 2:I'll say this I'm glad that this was on our list, because I don't think I would have ever watched it. It's it's one of those things where I'm excited about the list that we're doing with the movies and TV shows, because we're watching stuff. Yes, some things we've seen before, like Aladdin and I love Lucy, but there's gonna be things on this list that you and I probably never would have thought of watching. And then we start watching it and I end up liking it, so I that's what happened with this show I ended up liking it, so I'm I think we're done talking about it, so we can just go ahead and rate it. So I'm gonna assume that you're gonna rate it pretty low, so I'm gonna let you rate it first, because I'm gonna rate it actually pretty high.
Speaker 3:Hmm, it's not my genre. I and I also was never really brooding. I liked John too, for I'd say, but I was never really Brooding strongly first character, so I'm gonna give it a two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I figured you'd be rating it pretty low. I'm actually gonna give it a surprising 4.5 out of 6. I thought it was good. I did. Obviously there's flaws, like the language and the slow pacing at times, but other than that I thought the acting was great, I thought the action was great, the story lines intrigued me, and so it's getting a 4.5 from me. And Before I let our listeners know what we're gonna be watching next week, if you've been following on our social media platforms, you'll know that I am on a journey to watch every single best picture Nominate for the Oscars, and by the time this episode drops, I only have one movie left to watch because I'm not rewatching Barbie and other movies impressive impressive.
Speaker 2:But I'm actually really excited, and the more I watch these movies, the more I'm like man. Any of these movies could win. Do I think that that some of them should win? No, but any of these movies that are nominated could win. And it's crazy that episode of the Oscar prediction is going to come up the Saturday before the Oscars. So March 9th, I believe, is when that episode will drop. Katie is not going on this journey with me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I just need to know what I'm watching next.
Speaker 2:Okay, but anyway. So March 9th is when the Oscar episode is gonna drop, so take a quick listen of what we're gonna be listening and watching next episode. Ah what a year what a class.
Speaker 3:Ah, I've known some crétins, but at least they were discreet. I must disappear all the time I must live my life. Ah, they're going to ask me, my old man, to go forward, otherwise you'll never be in the race. I have no little sick in the species. Don't touch the hat.
Speaker 1:I'm waiting for all of this.
Speaker 3:We'll leave it free Maybe too much.
Speaker 2:If you didn't understand a word that was said in that trailer, it's because we're watching a French movie. We're going to watch movies that we never would have thought of watching. We're going to be watching the 400 Blows. It is available on Max, formerly known as HBO Max, because it is a classic. I think it was in the 1950s or something that this movie was made. I'm excited.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming there's English subtitles.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's what we're watching for next week. This is what happens, katie, when you say you're going to go through the list and tell me movies that you don't want to watch, and then you don't do that, I have to just go through the list by myself. This is what happens, katie. Do you have anything you would like to say to end this episode of Southland?
Speaker 3:I just had to be thinking I don't think I want to go to LA anymore.
Speaker 1:Good times.