Ben has a column in TV Guide.

Southland’s Ben McKenzie Thanks Fans, Previews “Phase Three”

I will be blogging the new episodes of Southland, which begin airing March 2 on TNT. In future posts, I’ll try to provide funny and/or insightful commentary (emphasis on the word try), but I’d like to devote this first post surrounding the Season 2 premiere to a different purpose: to say thank you.

The title of this episode is a reference to the third and final phase of a rookie officer’s probationary period in the LAPD. But I believe it also serves as a decent metaphor for the experience all of us have had working on Southland. A probationary officer only enters into Phase Three after enduring an enormous amount of grief. He must prove himself over and over again, both to his training officer and to others on the force. He must show that he is worthy of wearing the uniform. Nothing about his experience is easy. And nothing about making Southland has been easy either.

We shoot in the streets of LA — all over the city, in the heat, in the rain, changing locations as many as 5 times a day. We have had to be incredibly patient, waiting for NBC to pick us up, waiting to shoot new episodes, getting canceled, and now waiting to discover whether we have a future on TNT. The rest of the cast and I (and most of the crew) have been involved with this show for 19 months, and we have made 13 episodes. That is a long time to make the equivalent of one full cable season.

Now, make no mistake about it — our efforts pale in comparison to what real police officers go through on a daily basis. We are doing the TV version of a reality that is so much more intense and disturbing than what we do, there is little point comparing the two. However, they do share one thing in common: Both the actual police and the folks on Southland do what they do for one principal reason: We love it. We have a passion on this show that I have never experienced working any other job. And that passion shows on-screen.

That same passion has been adopted by our fans. And to those fans, we are eternally grateful. Thank you. Thank you, for writing letters, making phone calls, commenting on message boards, tweeting, etc. It is because of your efforts that we have found a new home on TNT, and that we can (finally) share our work with you. We are very proud of it and we hope you enjoy it.

If you want to do more to increase our chances of success on TNT, please watch, tell your friends to watch, and join us on Facebook. Trust me when I say that these efforts do matter. You guys have saved us before, and you can keep us on the air.

Next week I’ll talk about episode 2, “Butch and Sundance”. But for now, thanks and enjoy.

TVguide

March 02, 2010 | Media Alerts, Southland, TV News & Reviews | 0 Comments | Browse Archives