Southland v Third Watch

Tonight I'm going to be watching Southland on More4 which is taking over from Brothers & Sisters which finished last week (and left me blubbering like a baby btw). Cute Ryan from The OC (as he'll be eternally known) is in it and it's about the police in LA. It's by the same people who gave us ER and my all time favourite Third Watch-so it has to be good doesn't it? I never miss a chance to plug Third Watch, if you haven't ever seen it, it really is the best programme or film I have ever, ever seen. It was never given a prime time slot in the UK (why? I'll never know) and I believe they mucked the schedule around in the US too.

I happened upon the very first episode one morning 7 or 8 years ago and was absolutely hooked from the start. It's set in New York and follows the police, paramedics and firefighters. Eddie Cibrian was the only person in it I had heard of at that time (remember the so-bad-it's-good Sunset Beach?). They do feature some amazing guest stars though, including Aidan Quinn, Mia Farrow, Roy Scheider (soooo scary), Paul Michael Glaser, Helen Mirren (almost unrecognisable), Charles Haid, Kate Jackson (absolutely wonderful and terrifying) and Henry Winkler (complete freak). Eve, Wyclef Jean (evil), Gene Simmons (super evil) and DMX even feature plus you get early appearances from the likes of Julie from Desperate Housewives and Rachel from Glee!

They've only ever officially released Season 1 on DVD over here, although I think we are getting Season 2 sometime. As I became more and more addicted, I ended up managing to track down all of the other seasons and recorded what I could off the telly. I had Season 6 sent to me each week as it aired in the US! My Mum and I never tire of watching it. Everytime we get to S6, we feel all nostalgic and start right back at S1 the next day. My Dad and sister despair of us, because we watch it practically every night and never get bored. Then Mum usually suggests we try watching something else because 3 episodes a night is a little extreme, but we always go back to this, because nothing else compares! I tried watching Trauma (I think it's on Virgin1 just now), it's good, but still not good enough. I'm hoping Southland is worth trying. Anyway, I could literally talk for hours and days and weeks about Third Watch-I know every episode, word and character! So I'll leave you to watch one of my favourite clips (because it's Bosco and I loooove him) from Season 1 (featuring the scary puppet man from Heroes). Enjoy!