Southland is officially moving to TNT, but will we get new episodes?

As often as NBC fails, there are certain things that they do well more often than other networks. I’m in love with their current Thursday night comedy block, and they have a tendency to put out really great police procedurals. Unfortunately, this is where the fail comes in. Life is an amazing show, but we’ll never see a season 3. Southland was also much better than I expected it to be: the 7 episodes that NBC aired pulled from the best aspects of Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order. Yet NBC still canceled it, after initially picking it up for a second season.

So as soon as NBC pulled that boneheaded move, the speculation began as to who was going to swoop in and save this show. Early on, TNT was named as a top contender, and now it’s official: TNT has announced that it will be airing Southland. Honestly, when I first heard the news, I didn’t really care. After all, the current deal that’s in place is to air the seven episode first season that already aired on TNT, and follow it up with the six episodes that have already been shot for season 2. But what about new episodes? Is 13 all we’re going to get?

The press release that TNT put out announcing this news makes no mention of the possibility of new episodes. Which begs the question, what’s the point? If I’ve only seen a few episodes of a show, and I hear it’s canceled, generally I stop watching. My TV schedule is busy and I don’t have time to get invested in a show that I already know is going to die. I mean, what am I, a Joss Whedon fan?

So before I reinvest in Southland, I wanted to find out if production has completely shut down, or if there’s still a glimmer of hope that new episodes will be made. Since some people were already assuming the worst, I did what any half-assed reporter would do: I took it to Twitter.

Seth Miller, who runs TNT’s Twitter account, says, “As with all of our series, TNT will evaluate the performance of Southland before deciding whether to order more episodes.” What’s that smell, ladies and gentlemen? Well I believe that’s the smell of hope. If you’re a fan of Southland, you can still make a difference. Take the plunge; reinvest in Southland and watch it when TNT airs it, starting Tuesday, January 12 at 10 PM, and make TNT earn their new slogan: “TNT: We Know Drama and How to Undo NBC’s Collossal Fuckups.”

Clacked by Kona Gallagher
on Nov 02, 2009 @ 13:09 EST5EDT