Have you seen this show yet? Now I have and there’s a jacket on the way to prove it….kinda.

While my new SouthLand jacket hasn’t arrived yet, I can only attest that Klout has gotten me a preview to the new season of SouthLand on …. crap. For the life of me I can’t remember the network. Maybe it’s TNT. Yeah, it is TNT.

Well, here’s how my viewing of a pre-release version of this show came about (and also some more info on the jacket, the NYC party I didn’t get to attend and some Klout events going on around the globe).

Klout is a service – or a product – that gives you a rating based on how influential you are in your social circle. The score you get is some sort of indicator of how far you have reach, how many people on average listen to you, how much respect you have in the fishbowl and it also gives you a score to compare to other SocMed folks.

My score used to be in the 30s and I didn’t care much. It’s now in the 60s and I still don’t care. Except for the fact it sometimes puts my place in this whole community in perspective. According to Klout, I am a specialist and respected in my field. My field is sharing information, reporting on events and products, organizing events and training people in social media tools and techniques. Pretty cool.

Well, add to that the fact advertisers and brands are now looking at Klout to find people who can help them market products. Klout is now reaching out to people they deem as having reach and providing them with products and other goodies. There are no strings attached, but the unwritten understanding is that if you get a free jacket (that is supposed to be on its way – probably a members only SouthLand jacket) you might share that info with your network.

Further, if they have you watch a free preview of a show that nobody else can see yet, you might also share that info and your thoughts on that product/show.

What’s my take? Well, I review stuff for a living at JeffsNotes.com or TheGadgetReporter or any number of other publications, so this wasn’t heavy lifting. They weren’t influencing my review (see how I slammed Panasonic for their proprietary video format on a camera they sent me) and I had more content for my employers and my sites.

So, what did I think? The show is cool. It was the first time I watched an episode and it reminded me of Hill Street Blues, but in LA. The characters are pretty good – some are a little forced – and the storylines in this one episode were full of action. There are also substories already evident and that might get me to come back to watch during the season.

To be fair, I might not be the right person to review this show as I won’t go to scary movies, never watched even dramas like ER because I get scared, and while I do love NCIS and CSIs quad offerings, I shy away from grittier dramas.

That said, I’d give this show a B+ already. One final cool thing is that the action scenes (maybe this was only in the prerealease version) didn’t have music behind them. That made it feel more real, too.

Two final thoughts. Look above the control bar in this photo. See the time code? That’s cool and made me feel like an insider. Don’t know if that’s going to remain in the show – probably not – but it was interesting to see.

And I have no idea why, if I’m a 63 Klout person, that folks with half that score were flown into NYC for a private Klout party last month. I didn’t even get a call.

What do you think about companies that are focusing more on one-to-one marketing with hopes of reaching more intimate networks? What would get you to sit up and take notice? Food, shows, clothing, electronics?

I’d like to hear from anyone who went to NY courtesy of Klout and from anyone that’s gotten free stuff in the past from them.