The New Show Promos, 1: Southland
April 12th, 2009 | Jonathan Gray
This is the first in a series of posts I hope to write, evaluating and discussing not the recent spate of new shows per se, but rather their promos, both on air and online. A good promo shouldn’t just get one turning on the television, but it should also start the text, telling us what to expect, creating characters, introducing themes, and so forth, and a good website should do likewise, while also reinforcing central themes and frames for those who visit after seeing the promo or the show itself.
I start with NBC’s Southland
While the clip above is an extended promo, many of the smaller ones underlined similar points, pushing three key points:
- It stars Ryan Atwood, of The OC fame
- It’s an edgy, gritty, warts and all depiction of the tough job of policing LA’s streets that promises to tell us what it’s “really” like for the city’s cops. Think Training Day meets Colors for television
- It comes to us from the folks behind ER
More after the fold …
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