'Southland,' premiering Thursday on NBC

Newsday (MCT) - REASON TO WATCH: "ER's" replacement, in one of network's TV legendary time periods.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The Los Angeles Police Department patrols about 500 squares with a force that numbers just 9,000, and we know this because "Southland" tells us even before the opening credits. Told from multiple perspectives _ think "Crash," if you must _ there's the lead, John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) who has to take the new guy, rookie Ben Sherman (Benjamin McKenzie, "The O.C.") on his rounds _ think "Training Day," if you must. Cooper has little tolerance for Sherman, whom he sees as some rich kid without ties to the department or to the job, which is "like driving through the sewer in a glass-bottom boat _ if you don't think you can handle it now, get out." Back at HQ, there are detectives like Lydia Adams (Regina King), Russell Clarke (Tom Everett Scott) and "Sal" Salinger (Michael McGrady). Tonight, gangbangers and other stories _ all tragic, violent or plain gross.

BOTTOM LINE: No police force has been scrutinized as brilliantly, foolishly, soapily, cruelly, kindly, absurdly and relentlessly as the LAPD. So, familiarity should be no issue for viewers _ they've seen it, from "just the facts, ma'am," to Vic Mackey. But if "Southland" can't conquer viewers with originality, then what? So far, just competence: Cleanly written, produced and acted _ Cudlitz is the standout _ "Southland" is a solid TV show in search of a big, exciting, compelling reason for being. But the TV landscape is too jam-packed, and the cop genre too richly and deeply mined, for just another series on the personal lives and tragedies of cops, as important as those stories may be.

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SOUTHLAND

10 p.m. EDT Thursday

NBC

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