While John won by random draw from among all the (disappointingly few) entries, I would like to commend him on his excellent review & commentary that he posted as well. It was both well thought out and insightful, a true delight to read.

Yes – first episode was fantastic….

Someone said online that the show was slow on the Facebook page. Slow? What show were they watching – there was no way this episode was “slow”. Not every day of a cop’s life is action, and shoot em ups, if it is, there’s something wrong with how they handle the job.

Dewey, I can see – maybe he’d be the exception.

However, the way that everything played out was placed well together in the script writing. I also have to say that the cast worked well together on the show as it always had, and was thrilled to see that each original cast member returned for the most part in the first episode – was also thrilled to see others, such as “Sal” returned for the second.

The moments between Cooper and Ben, especially in the transaction dispute was fantastic. The way Ben says “I’ll be in the car….” as if to say, “Here we go again….” was priceless.

As far as Lydia’s new partner is concerned, she’s not the brightest bulb in the world, with me being a computer guy, and she asks, “How much does memory cost? I went to best buy and bought a memory stick and it has 2 million gigabytes of memory in it….can’t be all that expensive…” Well, different memory for different things, and if a memory stick had that much, she’d need a wheel barrel to carry it around in, LOL….:-).

Who ever said this episode was slow was watching the wrong one – I didn’t turn away from the TV once while it was on, nor did I find myself wanting to change the channel. If you liked Southland before, you’ll LOVE it now – new stories to unfold, and yes, maybe some past ones returning as well…..especially with Tammi and Sammy.

Great job again on Southland Season 3 – I agree with the original reviewer. It was fantastic!

Once again, congrats to John for his win! For everyone else that participated, thank you for your entries and comments. We appreciate your involvement.

Stay tuned for our next contest and more opportunities to win those coveted jackets – coming soon!

CONTEST IS NOW OVER! Winner of 1 Southland Jacket will be announced soon! – SouthlandTvFans.com Staff

Sorry everyone for the delay but here is the review. The contest runs from now until Midnight Pacific time Monday January 24. For complete contest rules please see our earlier posting.

Review & Recap: Let It Snow

By Davina Gantz aka gingercara

Where to begin. Last time we saw a new episode was April. I have watched all the episodes so many times I have them memorized. I, as have so many others, have been anxiously awaiting the new season.

There has been much speculation as to what the new season was going to bring with the show switching networks. Many media sources were able to view the 1st episode of the new season and have written reviews. I have heard nothing but fantastic things about this episode. The promos have given us all a glimpse into what the new season holds. Having  just seen the new episode I had to immediately put my thoughts to paper. So here goes.

Photo Credit: TNT/Doug Hyun

You know the expression “Don’t believe the hype”? Put that out of your mind. NOW. This episode had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. I don’t think I breathed the entire time it was on. I don’t even think I blinked.

The first scene introduces us to Lydia’s new partner Josie Ochoa. It’s obvious to me that Lydia does not care for her or her attitude. Josie is older, has been on the force longer and does things very differently than what Lydia is used to. This is made obvious by the car chase. It is against policy in Lydia’s mind I believe. This is not how Lydia would have handled the situation. She is used to being in the drivers seat, not riding along at the whim of someone else who won’t listen to her.

Next scene we see Cooper walking slowly and painfully to the bathroom where he puts on his back brace and takes the last of his pain pills. He is obviously in a lot of pain. But like anyone dedicated to their job he puts on his uniform and goes to work.

Cooper and Sherman are called in to handle a potential missing person’s report. Lydia and Josie are brought in when it is determined the woman is indeed missing after a search of her locker reveals her purse was still there and it is discovered she never punched out from her shift. Lydia and Josie, with the assistance of a police dog, discover the woman’s badly beaten and raped body.

Sammy and Nate are called to a double homicide involving gang members. After some investigating they discover who the killer is and make the arrest. Sammy and Nate still have the great chemistry they had in the previous two seasons, love seeing them work together.

Cooper and Sherman pull over a woman changing lanes without signaling. The driver of the car comes onto Ben who lets her off with a warning and some flirting. Cooper’s only reaction was “did you get her number”.

Classic Cooper moment when the two officers are called to a toy store to deal with a distraught woman that can’t get a refund on a doll she purchased. Cooper handles the situation with his usual straight forward tell it how it is attitude.

Cooper and Sherman called in to assist with a bank robbery in progress. Very tense scene with much gun fire and an injured officer (Shots fired, officer down!). If you thought the riot scene from “Phase Three” was intense, this scene gives intense all new meaning. Cooper orders the other responding officers including Chickie to take off their vests to put over the window of the car so they can rescue the downed officer. They drive through the gunfire to get to the officer. Cooper pulls him into the car while Sherman chases down one of the robbers who ends up shooting himself in the head right in front of Sherman. Very intense scene, very well done.

My take on the new detective is she is a bit brash, seems uncaring but very caring at the same time. Maybe a bit prissy. She definitely gets under Lydia’s skin with her attitude. I think she will become more like-able once we see more of her. They do catch the killer and make an arrest after a not by the books car chase.

Lydia very obviously misses Russell and he misses her and his old job. He is not thrilled to be riding a desk.

Photo Credit: TNT/Doug Hyun

Very interesting moment after the bank robbery. Cooper asks Ben for assistance in standing up and walking across the street. Cooper is in quite a bit of pain, this is the first time he shows his pain to Sherman instead of brushing it off like it’s nothing. Cooper then goes to the hospital where his ex-wife Laurie works. He is very kind and caring to her but it is only to get pain pills from her. She tells him no, tells him he needs help. He gets a little angry, pulling away from her. She is on the verge of tears, you can see how upset she is about his addiction. There is definitely still a bond between them despite the divorce.

Sammy and Tammy. Last we saw them they were fighting because she was smoking pot and got her expensive camera and laptop stolen. Sammy feels bad about the fight and buys her a new camera. He comes home to her smoking, she says she is quitting and she is pregnant. What is in store for them other than a baby on the way? Sammy seems to be happy about it, Tammy, not so much. And then it starts snowing.

The episode is very well written, very well acted, it was great seeing SouthLAnd on my TV, shown the way it was meant to be shown. It is now a show for adults. TNT has allowed everyone involved with the show to make it the way it was supposed to be seen. If this episode is any hint as to what the rest are going to be like, fasten your seat belts, put on your helmet, we are in for one hell of a ride!

The good news – we are still going to have a contest and 2 lucky winners are still going to get the prizes! Rather than post it late and leave things rushed, thereby possibly excluding some people from participating in the contest, I’ve decided to change the format of the very first contest.

The not so great news (depending on your point of view) – it’s not going to be a creative contest like the original plan (Name That Caption!). We’ll save that one for another week (Episode 2 week maybe, with a screen cap from Let It Snow?).

Instead, we are going to post our full original review of the first episode, Let It Snow, on the site Tuesday night after the West Coast airing of the show.

Everyone is encourage to post comments/feedback to the review with their own reactions using the comment feature of this website. Remember – while you must create an account here to comment, you can quick register using any of the 12 Social Media services including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MySpace or others, so registering is quick and simple! Once you register, commenting and participating is simple and easy, plus your privacy is completely protected.

There are very few rules to this first contest. Here is a summary, with full rules and legalities to be posted with the contest when it launches.

1. Contest runs from the time the review is posted, Tuesday, 1/4/2011 until 7pm on Tuesday, 1/11/2011. Winners will be announced via posting on this website and through email notification on Wednesday, 1/12/2011.
2. You have to make a real comment/give real feedback! Simply posting “Cool review” or “Loved it” won’t work. Take a few minutes at least to give some real feedback of at least 20 words.
3. Only one entry per person, although you may comment on the review as many times as you like.
4. Contest open to residents of the USA and Canada only. Not open to professional/published reviewers or press members involved in the business of reviewing television shows or movies. Final determination of eligibility is at the discretion of the Webmaster and the contest sponsor.
5. If there are less than 10 responses to the review, one (1) prize will be awarded. Otherwise two (2) prizes will be awarded. Prize winners will be selected by random draw from among the eligible participants.
6. Shipping will be provided by SouthlandTvFans.com/InterFuzed using the method we determine to be most appropriate.
7. Void where prohibited by law.

Now, to answer the question many of you are probably wondering…. What do you win?

Why, nothing other than these fantastic SouthLAnd branded Nike Dri-Fit Golf Jackets!

So stay tuned to the website, follow us on Twitter and/or Like us on Facebook to make sure you stay updated on the latest news! This will be only the first of many contests to come throughout Season 3, and this is but one of the prizes we will be giving away! The best is yet to come for 2011!

Photo Credit: TNT/Greg Williams

As you should already know by now, the much anticipated Season 3 of SouthLAnd premieres next Tuesday, January 4, 2011 on TNT at 10/9 central. This is the first season of SouthLAnd written and produced entire for and by TNT and already the critics are raving over it.

I was privileged to see an advanced copy of the first episode of the season and I have just one word to describe it: Wow! Just… Wow. There is no doubt about it, fans – SouthLAnd is BACK, with a vengeance! Forget what you knew about the show before. Season 3 takes things to a whole new level, starting off with a bang and never looking back.

I don’t believe in spoilers, so I won’t be giving any out here (sorry folks!). Let me just say that having read the first couple of pages of the script on Facebook, I was still on the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat in the first 60 seconds. Throughout the episode I cried, I laughed, I was shocked, I was angry, I was surprised, but mostly I was entranced. It was, above all else, SouthLAnd.

You will be happy to know that all of your favorite cast members from the past are returning to SouthLAnd this season. While some of the recurring characters (like Michael McGrady’s Detective Salinger, Tom Everett Scott’s Russell Clarke or Emily Bergl’s Tammi Bryant) may not make it into every episode, they will be there and have a part to play. All of the key players, though, like John & Ben, Lydia & her new partner Josie (who you will love) and Nate & Sammy appear to be featured regularly as we’ve come to expect.

So sit back, tighten your seat belts and get ready for the ride of your lives SouthLAnd fans! SouthLAnd is back, with a TNT Twist! The long wait since Spring has definitely been worth it and if “Let It Snow” is any indication, the next 9 episodes will most definitely be ensuring us, at the very least, a Season 4.

Now, for the very dedicated SouthLAnd Fans – we are going to be running a series of Contests and Giveaways here on SouthlandTvFans.com to celebrate the return of the show, with prizes provided by TNT and our site sponsor, InterFuzed.

This past Tuesday, during our last pre-premiere Live Chat (also our biggest chat yet!), we gave away the first of our prizes two 2 random winners**. Chatters @aec702 and @hopsko were the lucky winners of special Nike® Dri-Fit® black Golf Jackets with the Southland & TNT logos embroidered on the back, courtesy of SouthlandTvFans.com and TNT*!  There are more of those to give away, too, as we will be conducting our first website contest starting later today through the night of the premiere, where we will be giving away 2 more of the jackets as prizes! We will be having website contests each week of different types where we will be giving away 2 jackets each week, throughout the entire season.

Also, as a very special treat to celebrate Premiere Week, during our next Live Chat (next Thursday on its new day, so as not to interfere with the show’s air date), we will be giving away 2 season downloads of SouthLAnd on iTunes to two lucky random winners in the chat, some time between 6 and 9pm EDT! You have to be in chat to win, though, so make sure you come chat with us. Our chat rooms are available for just about every possible user on just about every browser, operating system or mobile phone out there, so you have NO EXCUSE for not joining us!!

So that is it! If you didn’t already have enough reason to watch SouthLAnd Season 3 for the show itself, now you have even more reason – Win Really Cool Stuff at SouthlandTvFans.com! Some of our contests will require that you have seen the latest episode, so be on your toes and pay close attention – you never know when the contest will require you to answer a trivia question about the most recent episode!

* Contest prizes provided by TNT Promotions/Public Relations to be used at the discretion of SouthlandTvFans.com for promotional purposes. TNT is not involved in, or responsible for, any contests or giveaways conducted on this site in any way.

** Contest and Giveaways are open to residents of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico & the US Virgin Islands only. Shipping, if any, will be taken care of by SouthlandTvFans.com. Taxes and duties, if any, are the responsibility of the recipient. Only one prize per household (verifiable roommates excepted) allowed for the period of 12/15/2010 through 3/31/2011. Full contest rules will be posted with the first contest.

Now, with no further ado, the winner of our contest, and proud new owner of the autographed SouthLAnd promotional poster is … @BullsBabe7, Maggie LeMay from North Carolina! Congratulations, Maggie!! We know from your Tweets how much of a big SouthLAnd fan you are.

To celebrate the contest’s success, we’ve also picked a 2nd random winner from the participants for a special “consolation” prize. This winner will get a copy of the SouthLAnd Season 2 Promotional Mailer package sent out to select groups and media outlets prior to the season premiere. This uniquely designed promo is sure to be a collector’s item one day. The “consolation” (if you can even call it that) prize winner is: @RonniEbel, Ronni Ebel from Alberta, Canada, and a brand new follower.

It’s worth noting that both winners entered the contest every single day, drastically increasing their odds of winning!

Congratulations to both winners! Stay tuned for more fun coming soon – we have another poster to give away and, as always, lots of great SouthLAnd information to share!

In order to allow more people to participate and get the word out about this great show, we’ve extended the contest for 1 week! So keep participating and spreading the word!

The actual poster with autograph

How about an extra special, limited edition mounted SouthLAnd poster used at one of the screenings in January? Even better, a poster autographed by SouthLAnd‘s own Detective Lydia Adams, Regina King?

Starting from now through 11:59pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, March 9 March 16, 2010, all you have to do is:

1. Follow @SouthlandTvFans on Twitter (if you don’t already!)
2. Tweet the following message in its entirety, at most once per day. The tweet must include the bit.ly link as posted and should not be relinked or changed, for tracking purposes.

Follow @SouthlandTvFans and win a limited #Southland poster! Watch new episodes of Southland Tuesdays @ 10/9c on #TNT. http://bit.ly/bZSrvl

Close-up of Regina's autograph

On Friday, March 12 March 19, 2010 a winner will be randomly selected from all eligible participants to receive the prize.

Most importantly, watch SouthLAnd every Tuesday on TNT at 10/9c! All new episodes every week for the next 5 weeks and we need all the ratings we can get to convince the Powers That Be to order more! So watch the show, spread the word and lets get this great show renewed!

The Rules

Of course there are rules! You didn’t think we could have a contest without rules, did you?

1. Only valid, pre-established Twitter accounts that existed prior to the start of this contest may participate. Accounts created after the start of this contest will be excluded from the total list of Tweets before a winner is selected.
2. Participants must be a legal resident of the United States or Canada, with a valid street mailing address. No PO boxes or FPO/APO addresses will be accepted.
3. Participants must be at least 18 years of age or older.
4. Proof of ID may be requested via fax or mail before shipping the prize, to verify residency and age.
5. The winning participant must continue to follow @SouthlandTvFans throughout the contest period and at least through the announcement of the winner on March 12, as they will be contacted by Direct Message (DM) for shipping information. If we are unable to DM the user, a secondary winner will be selected.
6. We reserve the right to exclude users whose Twitter accounts are determined to be fake, inactive, spamming, have zero followers or are otherwise not legitimate and active Twitter accounts used for normal & usual purposes, at our sole discretion. In such cases, all exclusions will be recorded and archived.
7. If participation is low (which we hope it isn’t!) we reserve the right to extend the length of the contest in order to give more people the opportunity to participate.

Contest is being conducted by:

SouthlandTvFans.com
c/o Complete Internet Consulting
PO Box 85
Burbank, CA 91503-0085

Contest prize graciously provided by TNT for promotional purposes.

So, here we go for week #2 – Lost!

Knowing the popularity of the show Lost (even if it did compete with SouthLAnd this week in the same time slot – bad ABC), your task this week is to find as many possible connections within 6 degrees between the two shows.

One of them should be, at least to hardcore SouthLAnd fans, pretty obvious right off the bat. There are quite a few others that are just as easy, however, and even more that you can find if you do a little digging.

I won’t say up front what the prize will be this week. Let’s see how many people respond, first. I promise it will be something worthwhile, though!

OK Fans – go get ‘em!

What’s The Game?

For our first interactive game here on SouthlandTvFans.com, we are introducing “The 6 Degrees of SouthLAnd“!

How Does it Work?

We give you a show or an actor, and you have to make the connection between it/them and SouthLAnd. There is not necessarily one right answer, so everyone should participate with as many answers as you can think of!

Do You Have An Example?

Of course we do! Here’s a very obvious, and easy example that we would never consider using in real life, just because it’s too damned easy for everyone to answer.

Game Objective: Connect SouthLAnd to the original Beverly Hills 90210 (BH90210)

Game Answers:

1. Michael Cudlitz (Officer John Cooper) played on BH90210
2. Roxana Brusso (Detective Alicia Fernandez on 6 episodes) played Alana on 1 episode of BH90210
3. C. Thomas Howell (Officer Dewey ) was on 24. Chad Lowe was on 24 and on Melrose Place. Melrose Place was a spin-off of BH90210 with multiple stars appearing from the original show.
4. Lex Medlin (Detective Andy Williams) was on 1 episode of BH90210

If you dig deeper into the filmography of the actors I’m sure you can find many, many more connections between SouthLAnd and BH90210, but you get the idea. Any connection counts, as long as it’s within 6 degrees of connectivity. The connection can be (in terms of our game and rules) an actor, director or producer.

Special Thanks To TeenDramaWhore.com

I’m sure that others have come up with this idea before, which even Shari aka @sizzlemaker (from TeenDramaWhore.com) readily admits, but it was a quiz just like this on her site that gave me the idea to add this as a regular feature on the site. Considering the stellar cast of SouthLAnd and their illustrious careers, there should be no end to the number of games we can come up with here! One has but to look at the number of listings for the actors on IMDB to see that SouthLAnd is loaded when it comes to experienced actors. When you extend that out to 6 degrees, you have the motherload of game show resources!

This Week’s Contest

Connect SouthLAnd to the original Melrose Place

There is an easy way and some not so easy ways to do this! Let’s see how many people find the not-so-easy ways!

What Do You Win?

Everyone who participates is a winner! There is no “one” winner for this particular game, because there’s just too darned many ways that the question could be answered.

However, we will take all the submissions that are received (assuming we get enough submissions) and pick ONE at random, to receive a special prize package that consists of:

• The respect and admiration of your fellow SouthLAnd Fans, of course!
• A special write-up about you for the website, highlighting you as the “SouthLAnd Fan of the Week!”
• If you don’t already have one, you get your very own username@southlandtvfans.com Gmail account with:
  • 10GB email account
  • Google Chat/GChat/Jabber IM
  • Google Sites website at http://username.southlandtvfans.com (optional)
  • Free mobile sync to your smart phone
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Docs

Submissions for this week’s contest will be accepted until midnight Pacific time on Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

What Are You Waiting For?

Start submitting your responses now by using the comment form! Remember, you can comment with or without a SouthlandTvFans.com account. Of course everyone is encouraged to sign up for a free account, but you can comment on any post using your existing account at Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AOL/AIM, or any website that supports the OpenID protocol.