What You're Not Watching, But Should

The NBC replacement show for ER this midseason was Southland. For some reason I'm really into this show. Maybe it's because I can catch up with it easily on hulu, the best thing since the microwave oven.
I just finished watching the latest episode, "Derailed" and Regina King as Detective Lydia Adams literally made me sweat. Entrusted to protect a teenage witness set to testify against a drug cartel, Adams takes on the men sent to kill them in her home. The extreme realism and claustrophobic atmosphere as they were being stalked in the house drew me immediately in.
And, are you looking for a hero? The real kind? Then King's Adams is your woman. She clearly sends out a warning of intent when she chambers the first shot gun shell, and then blasts the first intruder trapped in the stairway. She kills another just as he's prepared to shoot the witness. Effectively that chases off the other three guys.
All I can say is those two minutes were so tense that they over shadowed almost everything else that happened in the show. Almost, because the last scene encapsulated a tragedy that has become all too common in an economy turned to ashes.
If you need an excuse to give this show a shot, let it be Regina King. This is not the first episode that her character has stepped up and done the extrodinary, and it's not just the character, it's how King moves through her. It's not to be missed.