Unknown Trouble

Episode aired Apr 9, 2009
TV-14
1h

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

597

YOUR RATING

C. Thomas Howell, Arija Bareikis, Michael Cudlitz, and Ben McKenzie in Southland (2009)

Crime Drama Thriller

A rookie LAPD cop has a very busy shift on his first day in the field while a seasoned detective handles an apparent kidnapping involving a young girl.A rookie LAPD cop has a very busy shift on his first day in the field while a seasoned detective handles an apparent kidnapping involving a young girl.A rookie LAPD cop has a very busy shift on his first day in the field while a seasoned detective handles an apparent kidnapping involving a young girl.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

597

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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User reviews2

7.9597

Featured reviews

8Mr-Fusion

The seeds of excellence

'Unknown Trouble' is a curious pilot for "Southland" because this is a series that will eventually feature some finely-drawn characters, but this opener is primarily about the gimmick: the documentary style camera-work. The idea is to make the viewer a genuine fly-on- the- wall during these busts and it's a little surprising to revisit the show and see it dependent on cop archetypes. But like any other John Wells production, it hits you with an affecting scene when you least expect it. Here, it's with the greenhorn patrolman who's just (perfectly) shot his first bad guy - and whether he has the nerve to wear the badge again tomorrow.

This is a gritty drama, filled with blunt action (some of it harrowing). The characters may come at you fast and furious here, but give this just a little bit of time.

It will develop into something special.

8/10

5Haleyun

Jury Is Still Out.

Some potent angles, some cliché. Some characters are a bit too on-the-nose with their combative attitudes, or their superiority. The gang-banging chulos with no likeable Hispanics is not a great start while also presenting the black parents of two incidents as simply trying to survive in gang-ridden areas where they won't fight back or help the authorities take criminals down. When you have bad and good of all shades and styles, you get realness, otherwise it's clear the writers are ticking off check boxes. Though the rookie struggles, none of the hardened other characters are believably vulnerable, getting only a winding down glimpse of vulnerability in the last minute. I'm thinking it's worth going into the.next episode but Cudlitz' last scene in bar of nothing but overly chatty men may mean this isn't a show targeted to most.

Trivia
Executive Producer John Wells told interviewer Michael Jensen at afterelton.com that the scene in which the bar that Officer John Cooper visits is revealed to be a gay bar was originally much longer and less subtle, but the first cut of the pilot went seven minutes over, so they had to cut some of that content. Nonetheless, the scene was supposed to establish Cooper as a gay character, a fact that was hotly denied by some viewers until Cooper outed himself to Ben during the show's second season.

Goofs
Depending on how tight the shot is on the police car and the officers inside, sometimes the rearview mirror on the windshield is in place, sometimes it's been removed to not obstruct the view of the characters as they speak.

Quotes
Ofcr. John Cooper: Burn squad just showed up. You heard of Warner Brothers? This is "warn a brother" - you don't lie; that's how they get you. Lying is worse than an out-of-policy shooting. You just tell it like it happened, you'll be fine - no big deal.
Ofcr. Ben Sherman: Taking a life is a big deal to me, okay?
Ofcr. John Cooper: What the hell did you think the gun was for, huh? Show-and-tell? Look, you'll get over it - all right, they'll send you to BSS, you'll do all that Buddhist "I love and revere all sentient beings" crap; then at o'dark-thirty, next time you're up, you will drag your weary, fried ass out of bed, you will put on your gun and your vest, and you will do it all over again. You know why? Because this is a front row seat to the greatest show on earth. Can you abuse it? Yes, sir - you can, and you will; I guarantee it. Because it is relentless, and it gets to you, and it seems like it changes nothing. But a day like today, with some interesting capers, and a few good arrests? That's good. But every once in a while, you get to take a bad guy off the streets for good... and that, my friend, is God's work. So now you wanna be a pussy and quit, you quit. You're a cop because you don't know how not to be one. If you feel that way, you're a cop. If you don't, you're not - you decide.