Idiot Boxers Review: Flashpoint, Season Three Premiere
TV review by Merrill Barr, co-host of The Idiot Boxers
Show: Flashpoint
Airs: CBS, Fridays, 10pm
Episode: Season Three Premiere
Throughout the years, many studios have been looking for ways to cut costs. One way they discovered was to share production costs between two studios. That’s exactly what American CBS and Canadian CTV did when they came up with one of the best cop dramas ever conceived (surprisingly, for the summer). The show is Flashpoint, which has begun its third year in the United States (season three has already aired in Canada).
The show centers around the Strategic Response Unit (the Canadian version of SWAT, the real unit the show is based on is called the ETF), or SRU for short. For the last two years the show has focused most of its energy on four of its main characters, Team Sergeant Greg Parker (Enrico Colantoni), Team Leader Ed Lane (Hugh Dillon), Team Sniper Jules Callaghan (Amy Jo Johnson), and Team Sniper Sam Braddock (David Paetkau). But the start of this season, if anything, proved that, that focus is about to change.
This season starts with a bang (literally). We join the SRU team as they attempt to defuse various bombs throughout the city, set by a maniacal eco-terrorist. The episode managed to maintain and amazing pace even through all of its “slow” moments. If you are a new comer to the show, you get a great sense of the comradery the team shares with each other. They really are, like a family.
This whole bomb thing, fills about half of the episodes plot. The real intrigue comes midway through when one of the team members, Less – Lethal Weapons Operator Lou Young (Mark Young) accidentally steps on a land mine in such a fashion as to not set it off immediately. The episode then becomes a race against fatigue to defuse the land mine. This is where the focus shift comes. We no longer care about the four main people we have been following for two years, we care about the guy we barely notice.
That isn’t to say that Lou wasn’t a key member of the team, that we saw every episode, but he is far from a main character. But, when the focus is put on him, you bet your ass you care if he lives or dies. We then see a beautiful relationship play out between the teams Demolitions and Tactical Tech Expert, Spike (Sergio Di Zio) and Lou. It all leads to one of the shows most heart stopping moments when
SPOILER
Lou, after realizing there is no chance of saving him without risking Spike’s life, moves hit foot and sets off the mine.
END OF SPOILER
The beauty comes in the way this is played out. After the incident occurs, we just see a complete emotional collapse of the team. The most gut wrenching comes from Spike who is walking in the opposite direction with his back to Lou, who just hears what happens. But he doesn’t need to turn around. He just falls to the ground is disarray, completely destroyed over what has occurred. It is anger inducing, moving, and beautiful at the same time. I would equate this moment to the death of Ryan Chappelle in season three of 24. While he was far from a main character, the death left a numbness of emotional pain in the audience. This episode was no different.
The season premiere of Flashpoint is most likely a sign of things to come. We’ll get to see more of the characters who haven’t gotten a chance to shine yet. I hope to see much more from the summer series. With all that said, this one is definitely, another must see.
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Tags: Amy Jo Johnson, CBS, CTV, David Paetkau, Enrico Colantoni, Flashpoint, Hugh Dillon, Mark Young, Premiere, Sergio Di Zio, SRU, Three
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Kevin Carr crawled from the primordial ooze in the 1970s. He grew up watching movies to the point of irritation for his friends. He was a font of useless movie knowledge until he decided to put that knowledge to good use. He is now a professional film critic read worldwide, much to the chagrin of Michael Bay.
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