Review: ‘Southland’

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“ER” is barely cold in its grave and John Wells has another show up and running at NBC: “Southland,” which premieres tonight. “From the beaches of Malibu to the streets of East Los Angeles, ‘Southland’ is a fast-moving drama that will take viewers inside the lives of cops, criminals, victims and their families.”

Or at least that’s what it says on the website. And it could very well turn out to be just that, but the pilot seems to prefer a more narrow and predictable slice of Los Angeles, one in which a mostly white police force takes on the crimes of the city’s grittier (read: mostly nonwhite and immigrant) neighborhoods. No Malibu beaches or even swimming pools in the pilot.

We do get Ben Sherman, a rookie so white-bread that he’s played by Ben McKenzie (late of “The O.C.”) and has, apparently, a father in the film business. “You have ‘90210’ written all over you,” mocks his tough-talking partner, John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), and certainly, you can easily picture young Ben lounging at the Peach Pit (though I’m not sure this is what Cooper meant.)

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