TV Jots

Hard Times Ahead for Ben and Chickie

TNT import Southland reaches the halfway point of its six-episode second season with the brand-new March 16 installment “U-Boat.”

The episode features the return of Arija Bareikis‘s character Chickie Brown and Tom Everett Scott‘s Russell Clarke, both of whom were no-shows during last week’s “Butch and Sundance.”

As Ben handles several cases during his first solo patrol outing, earnest Chickie realizes she has to up her game when she’s paired with Ben’s training officer John Cooper.

Meanwhile, Lydia Adams and her temporary partner Rene Cordero (Amaury Nolasco, Prison Break) do some follow-up on struggling Season One single mom Brianna Smith (State of the Union‘s Lily Holleman), and abrasive Gil Puente (Laz Alonso, Avatar) continues to rub Sal and Sammy the wrong way as they work the Trinny Day undercover operation.

Preview a few scenes from “U-Boat,” which premieres at 10pm ET, below.

On a Side Note: If you’re a fan of Southland and haven’t done so already, now is the time to start recruiting all of your family, friends, acquaintances, and maybe a few strangers for good measure and convince them to watch the drama each week.

The ratings for the first two episodes sank from week to week (2.5 million versus 2.055 million total viewers and 1.3 million versus 968,000 viewers aged 18 to 49), which isn’t exactly what a network wants to see while determining whether or not a series merits a pickup for another season. Since Southland is excellent TV, I’d personally love to see the procedural avoid its fate at NBC and stick around for at least one more run.

Now on to the sneak peek…