"Southland" Personalities and Money, Part 3

This article is a continuation of the ongoing writing that Jana at Daily Money Shot and I have been doing about the television show "Southland."  If you haven't been watching the show, you'll have several months to catch up before a new season starts in the fall (hint: don't get too invested in Detective Lydia Adams' partner(s) as they all, well, you'll see).

Today, I'll be focusing on Officer Sammy Bryant.

Personality Type:  The still-young veteran.

Background:  Sammy worked as a detective for the first few seasons of the show, where he investigated narcotics and gang activity.  After his partner was killed in front of him by a group of gangbangers, Sammy kidnapped and nearly murdered the person that he thought was responsible for his partner's death.  He realized that his conscience wouldn't let him murder, and, as a result, he requested a change from being a detective to being a training officer.

This past season, he's been paired with Officer Ben Sherman, for whom he played an appropriate foil as Sammy had gone through and dealt with many of the same strong, angry emotions that Ben portrayed in the last few episodes of this season.  Tragically, Sammy's experience couldn't deter Ben's inexperience, and season four ended with Ben shooting and killing the object of his fury.

Oh, also, Sammy's ex-wife was maybe the most annoying character on tv.  I was not unhappy that she didn't appear in this last season.

Analysis:  It is telling that Sammy was pushed to the edge with grief over his partner's death, but he still couldn't let himself murder whom he believed to be the guilty party.  While Sammy made mistakes by going rogue and kidnapping the gang member, he stopped short of murder, and, in doing so, was able to turn his life around.

Money Personality:  Though it is not a matter of life and death, many people out there have made a series of bad choices in their lives when it comes to money.  However, it is only a fortunate few who have had the gumption to say, "Enough!" and to then resolve to make better choices and to lead healthier lives when it comes to money.

In particular, I'm thinking of Andrea at So Over Debt, Annabelle over at Shopping Detox, and, of course, my "Southland" buddy, Jana at Daily Money Shot.  I love reading about how they're working to turn their lives around when it comes to money, and I think you will too.

"Southland" Personalities and Money, Part 2

This is the second part of a series that examines the characters on "Southland" in terms of what they can teach us about our own financial behaviors.  In honor of the season finale that airs tonight, I'm teaming up with Jana from Daily Money Shot so that you, gentle readers, can get as much "Southland" exposure as you can stand.

Can you stand it?  CAN YOU STAND IT!?

Last week, I started the series by taking a look at Officer Dewey (and no, not the moron police officer from the Scream / Scary Movie franchises).  Dewey is one of the secondary characters on the show, and today I thought it would be good to examine a more central character. Let's take a look at Officer Ben Sherman (as played by Ben McKenzie).

Personality Type:  Semi-Jaded Optimist.

Background:  Ben Sherman is a rookie cop. The first seasons showed his training and early partnership with John Cooper, though he now partners with Officer Sammy Bryant.  Ben grew up in an affluent family, which was a popular topic for insults from his training officer.

In a recent episode, Ben claimed that, while he used to care more about the people he was serving when he first started, he now views his work as something to do solely by the book, divorced from emotion. Even so, the last few episodes of the show have shown Ben's interest in saving and protecting a prostitute and her daughter, including enacting some off-the-clock vengeance on the pimp.  His actions show that he cares more than he lets on, and they underline his belief that he can be a positive force in the world.


Analysis:  An episode of the show from a few weeks ago started with the narration, "The average street cop in Los Angeles makes $75,000 a year.  It's not enough."  While that may seem like a lot of money, it stands to reason that Ben could have used connections that his family had to land and much more lucrative (and safe) line of work.  Nevertheless, he felt compelled to join the police.

Money Personality:  In Ben, I see an example of the struggle that people have between choosing their passion as a career choice versus choosing something that will help them pay the bills.  Even though Ben makes what is, by most accounts, a healthy salary, he is putting his life on the line every time he goes out on patrol (especially on this show), and Ben is leaving money on the table by not pursuing a higher-paying career.

This character hits home for me in some ways because, as I wrote about recently, I'm faced with the decision between keeping a good, high-paying job or going back to grad school to pursue that which I am passionate about.

Have you ever followed your own passions at the expense of the opportunity to land a more secure job?  Let me know in the comments.

**Update 03/27/2012** After talking with my brother (the police officer), I was told that the show got the salary information incorrect.  Based on the actual year that the show started, Ben Sherman would probably have earned $60,000 a year as a rookie, not $75,000 as the show claimed.  Additionally, since Sherman started, the LAPD has slashed wages to the point where new cops only earn about $48,000 a year to start out with.

When you compare $48,000 a year versus the amount Sherman could have (conceivably) earned by using his family's connections, I think the point that I make above is a little better made.

"Southland" Personalities and Money, Part 1

I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of the television show "Southland."  Part of my interest undoubtedly stems from the fact that my brother is a police officer in the Los Angeles area (though he's not specifically LAPD). More specifically regarding the show, I appreciate the gritty realism that comes from showing the very humanly-written characters perpetually not meeting up with the idealistic standards that we place upon police service; the cognitive difference between idealism and reality keeps drawing me back.

As I've been watching the show and learning more about the characters, I have realized that many of the characters' personality types shown on the program run parallel to personality types that real people have, particularly in regards to money.  This article is the first in what will be a series of analyses of some of the major and minor characters on "Southland," and what these characters show us about how people respond to money.

Our first stop:  Bill "Dewey" Dudek (as played by C. Thomas Howell)

Personality Type: Nihilistic Opportunist

Background:  Dewey is a police officer and a recovering alcoholic.  He also has an abrasive, grating personality, and he frequently proves himself to be racist and sexist.  His disease was at one point so out of control that in a fit of alcohol-fueled rage while on-duty, he seemingly intentionally wrecked his police car, which caused injury to himself and his partner.  After he completed rehab, he was welcomed back onto the force, and he was placed on active-duty.

What I find most interesting about Dewey, however, is something he said a few episodes ago.  In the episode, Dewey notices that one of his colleagues (Officer Jessica Tang as played by Lucy Liu) is about to have a meeting with her superiors to discuss her involvement in the shooting of a teenager; Tang was considering lying about the event, and she eventually chose to do so.  The teenager had been holding a gun, which caused Tang to fire; however, after she got to the victim, Tang realized that the gun was only a toy with an obvious orange piece of plastic on the tip.  In a quick act of desperation, Tang broke the orange tip off of the gun, so that it was now entirely black and therefore looked more like a real gun.

Dewey, who claimed to have been before disciplinary committees three times and who had nevertheless held onto his job, offered the following advice, "You can't change what happened; it's between you and God.  If you can live with it, nobody can stop you."

Analysis:  Dewey is an example of a Nietzschean superman at its finest.  The philosopher Frederic Nietzsche believed that nearly everybody on earth was bound by some form of morality, and Nietzsche opined that those who realized this could live above morality (or beyond good and evil) and that these people, these supermen, could also take advantage of the herds of people who were bound by morality.  For Nietzsche's supermen, as for Dewey, life becomes a profound quest to find out what "you can live with."

Money Personality:  The most obvious parallel to Dewey when it comes to money are those who enrich themselves with little to no regard for how their actions affect others.  In fiction, examples include Mr. Burns on "The Simpsons" and Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.  In real life, these are the Bernie Madoffs, the energy traders at Enron in the early 2000s, and, if these recent articles are to be believed, the present-day executives at Goldman Sachs and Google.

While it might be easy to point the finger at the super-rich, I'd like to suggest that this line of thinking can affect those of us with more modest means as well.  To the extent that any of us looks at having more money as life's key goal, and to the extent that we're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal, we're taking steps towards being like Dewey.  And while I still don't know about you, I'm pretty sure the world doesn't need any more Deweys.

Don't get me wrong: earning and having money is a good thing.  However, inasmuch as money becomes the only thing for any of us, we've taken a precarious step down a slippery slope.

What do you think?  Are you a fan of "Southland?"  Let me know in the comments.

*Update* Goldman Sachs has responded to the above criticism.