'The Unusuals' & 'Southland' review - andreikirilenkotattoo on TV

In today's column, I review the two new cop dramas on the block: ABC's "The Unusuals" and NBC's "Southland":

There are plenty of dramas on television about cops, but precious few about being a cop.

The "CSI"s and "Law & Order"s and the rest are driven largely by plot. It's been a while since we've had a drama specifically about the culture behind the badge -- so, in typical TV fashion, we get two at once: ABC's "The Unusuals" and NBC's "Southland."

You can read my full review of "The Unusuals" and "Southland" here. Both shows have certain things that are interesting about them, but if I had to pick one to recommend, it'd be "The Unusuals," for reasons I go into in the column.

But because of the Passover holiday(*), I won't have time to do a separate "Unusuals" pilot post for tonight, so feel free to discuss it here. I likely won't have any more time to do a separate "Southland" post, either, but since it's airing tomorrow night, I'll at least get some kind of open discussion post ready to go for when it's over.

(*) While we're on the subject of the Night That Is Different From All Other Nights -- which, btw, gave us the ever-popular Dayeenu rule -- chances are I won't be getting around to "Lost" and/or "Life" until sometime tomorrow morning at the earliest, and my Thursday viewing may be even more disrupted. Sorry.