Flashpoint: Go Canucks Go
A quick break in the Malawi posts (if you’re not a Feed Reader reader, scan down for parts 1-3 of those), to point out that one of CBS’s summer additions is a Canadian show, Flashpoint. I’m quite excited by this, because, hey, it’s Canadian (produced by CTV). But it’s also pretty good. On one level, yes, it’s yet another crime-based procedural on a network that really should learn to do something else once in a while. And maybe “O Canada†is blaring too loudly in my head for me to think straight. But I think its “Canadianness†is somewhat evident in its less callous attitude towards “bad guys†and the fine art of killing them.
Flashpoint is about a police team that responds to hostage situations, sniper rifles in hand. But the pilot spent half of its hour looking at the effect that shooting someone had on the sniper in question, while the second episode starred the excellent Canadian actor, Henry Czerny, as the “bad guy,†and though its script was predictable, his performance added way more layers than your average CSI: Miami, NCIS, or Law and Order episode usually musters. The urge to turn a show about snipers into a “yeah, take that fucker down with three between the eyes†hyper-masculine romp would be considerable, but Flashpoint has human characters.
And it has lots of Canadian actors: Enrico Colantoni (who some may know as Keith Mars), Hugh Dillon, David Paetkau, and pretty much everyone else except for Felicity’s Amy Jo Johnson (who IMDb tells me is from Cape Cod, where many Canadians vacation, so we’ll let it slide).
So the show’s alright, at times very good, even gripping. Structurally, let’s get behind it: Hollywood needs such things to be successes for it to try experiments in letting Canadians (or others) make its shows again, other than simply as runaways. For those counting, the last primetime network show from Canada was Due South, whereas Flashpoint is American network TV’s first Canadian show actually set wholly in Canada. If it fails, it justifies many years of refusal to bother trying again (you can hear a studio exec saying, “It was too Canadian. Not enough firing. Americans want more 24, less cumbayaâ€). Its pilot garnered a pretty respectable 8.23 Million viewers in the US and 1.11 Million in Canada, winning its timeslot in both countries. Check it out, Fridays and Sundays at 10pm.
Hi Jonathan — this was one of the two shows I mentioned, at the ICA preconference, that were purchased as insurance policies during the Writers’ Strike. Fascinating that the network decided to go ahead with Flashpoint. I assume they saw it as low risk: summer airing, already paid for, proven genre. Bet the ratings were a surprise to the execs and it’ll be interesting to see if it makes it into the Fall. Rumors are that it may be moved to Thursdays for this particular run. As you can imagine, the fact that the show won it’s night in both the U.S. and Canada has lit up the blogs, forums, and news up here. The coverage was right up there with hockey trade season happenings (well, almost). Overall, I think it’s one example at the intersection of global production and the moment of crisis and opportunity in the neo-network era — i.e. the Canadians positioning themselves over the last decade to find moments of rupture that allow entry into the juggernaut’s market. The question as always is how long the door stays open and why it was opened in the first place. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of the other series — The Listener.
As an aside, thanks for taking the time to post your inital findings from Malawi. Great insights and commentary, really enjoyed reading them!
thanks Serra. And you’ve now quashed the theory that I have Canadian radar. As the show began, my wife and I just happened to be watching it. I said, “this is Canadian. I don’t know why i know, but i do.” Then along came the CN Tower. She was impressed. Now it’s clear that I knew this from your talk. Which makes sense. But I liked the dream of having radar for a while