A weekly program focusing on the arts and entertainment

The series is called “Southland” and Arts and Entertainment Editor Bob Sokolsky says it is possible you may have seen it before.

A few seasons ago it had a brief run on NBC. Then it came to TNT where it was also dropped, recovered and almost dropped again. Sokolsky says it may last a while this time. Maybe.

That’s because it is a police series, once a mainstay of TV schedules now it’s a decent show that seems designed to fill in until another reality show arrives with its spotlight on non-entertainers who hope to become real entertainers.

Sokolsky says he wonders whether this is why “Southland,” while a well done show, seems to be doing so many familiar stories.

But, he adds, Gilbert and Sullivan seemed to be warning us about this many years ago when they wrote about “A Policeman’s Lot.”