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Flashpoint
SERIES: CBS, Friday 10:00p (60 minutes)

7.8 based on 15 reviews read critic reviews how did we calculate this? based on 22 votes read user comments rate this tv show

Get more information on this show at TV.com.

• Official Show Site (CBS)
• Official Show Site (CTV)

Starring Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon, David Paetkau, Amy Jo Johnson, and Gabriel Hogan

The Canadian series about a specialized unit used to dealing with urgent situations is based on the Emergency Task Force in Toronto.

GENRE(S):	Action / Adventure, Crime, Drama
CREATED BY:	Mark Ellis Stephanie Morgenstern
FIRST AIR DATE:	July 11, 2008

Also airing in Canada on CTV starting 11 July 2008.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63

Chicago Sun-Times Misha Davenport

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.

60

Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd

It has an appealing modesty that survives its bouts of aesthetic overexcitement--the occasionally lurching camera, hammering soundtrack, the sentimental pop song laid over the last couple of minutes as the principals silently end a long, hard day.

60

New York Daily News David Hinckley

It's more nuanced than the average cop drama, and for that reason, more intriguing.

50

New York Post Linda Stasi

The best part of this show is the acting, which is generally excellent - particularly that of Hugh Dillon as Ed Lane, the conscience-riddled sharpshooter. Too bad the writing isn't as on-target as Lane's high-powered automatic.

50

The New York Times Ginia Bellafante

Flashpoint lingers when it ought to speed up. It is a show about crisis that refuses to make you anxious.

50

Variety Brian Lowry

It's understandable why CBS would take its own low-risk shot with "Flashpoint" as summer filler. Yet as viewing experiences go, the series itself possesses so little flash, finally, that it's difficult to see the point.

50

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

It's not terrible, not great, just sort of so-so.

50

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

If you can ignore stuff like the impossibly clean subways and the fact that the cops call one another ''constable'' with straight faces, Flashpoint is actually rather formulaic.

50

PopMatters Cynthia Fuchs

Flashpoint works through the distress and damage it lays out here, it gets points for beginning with the difficulty, not with the triumph. Now, if it can just figure a way beyond the scary perp clichés.

50

Newsday Verne Gay

The first half is tautly produced, before there's a dramatic--and dramatically dull--downshift that'll get you ready for beddy-bye.

50

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

It goes through the motions quite competently and respectably. But it is nonetheless merely re-creating crime-series moves we've all seen many times before, with only the faintest afterimage of originality.

50

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

To be sure, Flashpoint is a perfectly competent police procedural right down to its convincing weaponry and tactics. However, based on the pilot, it isn't particularly fresh or inventive.

50

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

The Flashpoint pilot is competent, but very retro (there's an extended sequence of the team driving to a crisis point with their sirens blaring, the sort of thing that went out 15 years ago) and fairly dull.

42

Entertainment Weekly Adam Markovitz

It's nice to have fresh scripted material on the summer TV menu, but after an hour of dull wisecracks and predictable plotting, reheated "Law & Order" leftovers start looking pretty tasty. [11 Jul 2008, p.66]]

40

Washington Post

If it had something truly new or provocative to say about such matters, the essential redundancy of Flashpoint could be overlooked--but it doesn't, and so it can't. These good guys are too good for their own good. And ours.

The average user rating for this tv show is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Margie gave it a10:
great shows and great acting. Wish it would be picked up for fall show, please. much better than all those reality shows. Can't take anymore.. Please see how good it can be.

mary t. gave it a10:
LOVE FLASHPOINT best new show on TV in a long time hope it stays around for a long time to come. Really do love the actor Hugh Dillion one of the best actors to come along in a while love that bald head a those eyes.

Sebastien F. gave it a9:
It's a kind of a CSI show but following a SWAT team instead. I love it !

Asaf e gave it a10:
This show is amazing!! i can't get enough. The story is great the "Slow" pace and the nature of each episode is what makes this show great.

mary r. gave it a9:
Well written and well acted. great production values.

Tony C. gave it a10:
if i didn't recognize that as actually Toronto, I wouldn't believe this was Canadian - really really good cop show

Moh'd N. gave it a0:
Before you read: This review contains spoilers for the pilot only. While the idea for this TV show sounds exciting enough, the introduction of one of it's lead actors shakes faith in the mentality behind the show. The lead sniper - who's supposedly prepping the backup sniper - finds himself in a situation where he should be holding himself together much easier than scripted. For a sniper who looks OVER-confident at the beginning of the pilot and with face dents of someone who's been to hell & back, he cracks with overreaction under a situation only a newbie to the sniping job would break under. "Flashpoint is a different kind of cop show, since it portrays human emotions and how their actions would make the audience empathize with them" as per BC TV Review. Like I said: the idea of this show is good, but empathizing with cops requires from the audience to empathize with their characteristics first, then the situation in which to empathize needs to be well-scripted. Final thought: You cannot empathize with newbie-cop emotional reactions coming from someone as professional & as experienced as the sniper looked.

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