Flashpoint article
From the Chicago SunTimes.
Canadian cops bridge gap
TV REVIEW | Set in Toronto, 'Flashpoint' is slower-paced but watchable
July 6, 2008
BY MISHA DAVENPORT mdavenport@suntimes.com
'Flashpoint" is the first Canadian TV show since 1994's "Due South" to be picked up by an American network.
Though the characters on this show, premiering Friday on CBS, are relatable and watchable, the slow pace might prove to be too much of a cultural divide for an American audience used to the quick cuts and immediate resolve seen on American cop shows.
For once, Toronto is actually playing Toronto (not the Pittsburgh of "Queer as Folk" or the Chicago of "Chicago").
Basically "S.W.A.T" of the Great White North, "Flashpoint" follows members of a strategic response unit based on Toronto's real-life emergency task force.
As on "24," incidents occur in real time and are interspersed with flashbacks to what led up to the current standoff. Subplots follow the squad's personal lives.
The SRU is led by Sgt. Gregory Parker (Enrico Colantoni of "Veronica Mars" and "Just Shoot Me"). He's a little bit too nice of a guy (not the normal, prickly sergeant in most cop shows), but that's an asset as Parker is also the team's chief negotiator charged with befriending suspects and getting them to stand down.
The series' other recognizable face belongs to Amy Jo Johnson ("Felicity" and the original pink ranger on "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"). She plays Jules Callaghan, the lone female member of the team. As such, she frequently bests her male peers in training exercises and on the shooting range and would rather renovate her home than swim in the dating pool.
SRU captain Ed Lane (Hugh Dillon, formally of the Canadian hard-rock band the Headstones) is the focus of the pilot episode. Lane loves his job, preferring to skip his in-laws' 40th anniversary dinner to attend a retirement party for a departing member of the force.
He also treats the pilot episode's hostage crisis (a Croatian man shoots his estranged wife in the lobby of her workplace and takes an office worker hostage) as just another day at the office.
Also on the SRU: no-nonsense staff psychologist Amanda Luria (Ruth Marshall) and newcomer Sam Braddock (David Paetkau).
The standoff, which accounts for 20 minutes of the premiere, is filmed in a dramatic and tense way, giving you a sense of just how stressful such a job must surely be.
The camera lingers longer than you're used to in many scenes (including a tight shot on Lane's bald head, where beads of sweat are beginning to form), but the show is not without its quirky, comedic moments.
My faves from the pilot include when Lane and one of his SRU buddies break into Gilbert & Sullivan ("The Police Chorus" from "The Pirates of Penzance") after Lane's wife (played by Janaya Stephens) complains about missing her parents' anniversary bash, and when the bomb squad technician refers to the remote-control robot as his "girlfriend" and complains about having to spend all weekend picking the remnants of shag carpet out of her treads.
On a side note: How can it be Sunday already? /whine
Canadian cops bridge gap
TV REVIEW | Set in Toronto, 'Flashpoint' is slower-paced but watchable
July 6, 2008
BY MISHA DAVENPORT mdavenport@suntimes.com
'Flashpoint" is the first Canadian TV show since 1994's "Due South" to be picked up by an American network.
Though the characters on this show, premiering Friday on CBS, are relatable and watchable, the slow pace might prove to be too much of a cultural divide for an American audience used to the quick cuts and immediate resolve seen on American cop shows.
For once, Toronto is actually playing Toronto (not the Pittsburgh of "Queer as Folk" or the Chicago of "Chicago").
Basically "S.W.A.T" of the Great White North, "Flashpoint" follows members of a strategic response unit based on Toronto's real-life emergency task force.
As on "24," incidents occur in real time and are interspersed with flashbacks to what led up to the current standoff. Subplots follow the squad's personal lives.
The SRU is led by Sgt. Gregory Parker (Enrico Colantoni of "Veronica Mars" and "Just Shoot Me"). He's a little bit too nice of a guy (not the normal, prickly sergeant in most cop shows), but that's an asset as Parker is also the team's chief negotiator charged with befriending suspects and getting them to stand down.
The series' other recognizable face belongs to Amy Jo Johnson ("Felicity" and the original pink ranger on "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers"). She plays Jules Callaghan, the lone female member of the team. As such, she frequently bests her male peers in training exercises and on the shooting range and would rather renovate her home than swim in the dating pool.
SRU captain Ed Lane (Hugh Dillon, formally of the Canadian hard-rock band the Headstones) is the focus of the pilot episode. Lane loves his job, preferring to skip his in-laws' 40th anniversary dinner to attend a retirement party for a departing member of the force.
He also treats the pilot episode's hostage crisis (a Croatian man shoots his estranged wife in the lobby of her workplace and takes an office worker hostage) as just another day at the office.
Also on the SRU: no-nonsense staff psychologist Amanda Luria (Ruth Marshall) and newcomer Sam Braddock (David Paetkau).
The standoff, which accounts for 20 minutes of the premiere, is filmed in a dramatic and tense way, giving you a sense of just how stressful such a job must surely be.
The camera lingers longer than you're used to in many scenes (including a tight shot on Lane's bald head, where beads of sweat are beginning to form), but the show is not without its quirky, comedic moments.
My faves from the pilot include when Lane and one of his SRU buddies break into Gilbert & Sullivan ("The Police Chorus" from "The Pirates of Penzance") after Lane's wife (played by Janaya Stephens) complains about missing her parents' anniversary bash, and when the bomb squad technician refers to the remote-control robot as his "girlfriend" and complains about having to spend all weekend picking the remnants of shag carpet out of her treads.
On a side note: How can it be Sunday already? /whine