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I'm Not Your Friend, Buddy!! What Say The Critics About CBS’ Strike-Spawned SWAT-Like Canadian Drama FLASHPOINT??
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
A non-WGA Canadian drama co-greenlit by CBS and CTV as the writers were threatening to strike, “Flashpoint” follows the Toronto PD’s Strategic Response Unit, a SWAT-like team tasked with hostage situations and the like. The series’ most famous players are Canadian Enrico Colantoni (“Veronica Mars”) and American Amy Jo Johnson (“Felicity”).
I saw and didn’t hate the slightly strange pilot, which plays like a more thoughtful version of the short-lived Fox drama “Standoff.”
Johnson, the original pink Power Ranger, is now 37 and improbably alluring in bulky body armor as she hauls around a sniper rifle not much smaller than she is.
Entertainment Weekly gives it an “C-minus” and says:
… This grim drama about the members of an elite police unit kicks off with a supercharged hostage scene straight out of a Tony Scott film. But from there, it's strictly small-screen sameness with bargain-bin characters …
USA Today says:
… a cut-rate version of the kind of show CBS already has in overabundance. …
The New York Times says:
… may be too languid for its own good …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… 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. However extravagant the production becomes, the actors stay grounded. …
The Washington Post says:
… another victory for style over substance, slickly visual but essentially empty. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… It's not terrible, not great, just sort of so-so. …
The Boston Globe says:
… 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. …
Variety says:
… benefits from the sturdy presence of Enrico Colantoni as its easygoing sergeant, but the premiere mostly fizzles with what amounts to a minor hostage situation and its prolonged aftermath. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… 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. …
10 p.m. Friday. CBS.
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I am so there...... Many a tissue was used in her honour in my younger years.
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They were shooting this series just down the street from my condo... I noticed that they are calling this SWAT type unit "Strategic Response Unit" or SRU?! The Canadian version of the US "SWAT" is called ETF or "Emergency Task Force" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Task_Force). So why are they calling it SRU and not by the real name: ETF?
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She reminds me of Hillary Swank for some reason. Pink Power Ranger, man that show was pure comic gold.
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World Task Force and abbrieviate that bad boy...
AMERICA, FUCK YEAH! -
He deserves SO much better than this.
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meets Pink Lady and Jeff. And they're cops. On ice. And this time it's personal.
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"The series’ most famous players are Canadian"
famous canadian? ain't that an oxymoron or summit? -
It's:
I'm not your guy, friend.
I'm not your friend, buddy.
I'm not your buddy, guy.
He's not your buddy, friend.
I'm not your friend, guy.
We're not your buddies, guy.
Note the conspicuous absence of "pal." -
Look deftly upwards towards newco253 ;|
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and it still looks like garbage.
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A lot of the show was filmed right outside my work. Literally bumped into Veronica Mars' dad. Saw Pink Ranger, but was too nervous to say hi. Anyhow, good times.
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Needs more boobage.
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That's some painful news ... although I guess that means she wasn't actually a high schooler on MMPR.
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Looks ok, but its got its work cut out for itself. Toronto's not exactly the best place to locate a show.
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Now you know I am Canadian.
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Jul 11, 2008 8:30:37 AM CDT
When Americans think Canuks aren't famous I think of They Live
by stormwatcher
Cuz we are all around you bitch. Jim Carrey, Pam Anderson, Avril Lavigne, Keanu Reeves, William Shatner. So basically go f*ck yourself you US based school system navel gazing idiot.
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i thought 'pal' was suspicious but didn't have time to check it.
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goes from a pretty big american network show (just shoot me) to low budget american show on a barely watched network (well 2 if you count the change from UPN to CW) and now to a canadian show on canada's worst and most canadian (in a bad way) network? wow..what a career drop.
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thought this was airing on CBC in canada, i actually used my eyes and realized its CTV. well thats a step up.
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GO GO POWER RANGERS
GO GO POWERS RANGERS
YOU MIGHT MORPHIN POWERRR RANGGERRSS -
You guys really are like our smelly autistic cousins.
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The viral campaign they are running for the Bud Light-like Tru Blood synthetic beer is pretty cool. I really liked Six Feet Under and I am a pretty easy mark for vampire stories. Hopefully Ball can pull it off.
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Just saying, is all...
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rights to Lost but had no plan to air it until they saw the huge ratings the pilot got for ABC. They then decided to find room on their schedule.This is the same network that also bought the rights to Veonica Mars' first season but again did not air it until the Summer, when it was on at 4pm on Sunday afternoons. They couldn't have aired it then during the Fall/Winter TV season?But did not pick it up for seasons 2 & 3.This is the same network that subjects us to Canadian Idol in addition to American Idol.On the other hand, the CBC has the Rick Mercer Report. That right there puts them ahead.
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Shania Twain, Jennifer Tilly, Neil Young, Shannon Tweed, Dan Ackroyd, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Lorne Green, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Raymond Burr, Alexander Graham Bell, David Cronenburg, Neve Campbell, Kim Cattrall, Elisha Cuthbert, Tommy Chong (I went to the same HS), Satan's Cheerleader Yvonne DeCarlo, James Doohan, Linda Evangelista, Bredan Fraser, Brenden Fehr, Michael Fox, David Foley, Samuel Goldwyn, Terry Gilliam, Tom Green, Wayne Gretzky, Natasha Henstridge, Phil Hartman, Cory Haim, Bret Hart, Michael Ironside, Peter Jennings, Margot Kidder, Dianna Krall, Kristin Kreuk, Todd McFarlane, Lorne Michaels, Carrie-Ann Moss, Leslie Neilson, Bobby Orr, Mary "America's Sweetheart" Pickford, Christopher Plummer... Shall I go on?
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I love how the Variety guy need 30 people to be held hostage for it to be worthy of good TV
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and keep putting "Pal" in the mix of this "friend, buddy" crap? because they remember the first time they seen it in Ocean's Eleven. Remember with the Balloons, Ben Affleck's little Brother and James Caan's son.
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Margot Kidder? We got Christopher Reeves
Rick Moranis? We got Bill Murray
It's too easy. Still love me some Vancouver Island though. -
Seriously, thats all they have. This is CSI: Toronto.
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Sure, they're all famous, but none of them is famous for being a canadian, except gretzky.
Every in the world knows which country Will Smith comes from, but who knows or cares that Elisha Cuthbert is from Canada, except for other Canadians?
p.s. I'm Canadian. And not the self-hating kind either. I'm just upfront that the rest of the world doesn't know or care who we are or where we're from, buddy.
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my tv every time the promo comes on because they play it 500 times a day and that stupid song hints at yet another crime drama full of cheap musical emotional manipulation montages like Cold Case, which is for me the worst show on television, hands down. I hate it so much. The reviews confirm my instinct: this looks incredibly boring and will be gone faster than that lame Vampire show. I hope.
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on CTV ad nauseam.
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I'd watch her and red power ranger in anything!
what? -
It had some nice photgraphy, and of course, Enrico Colantoni is always worth watching. It's shitty timeslot is what will likely keep me from being a regular viewer. It's certainly no worse than the other procedurals CBS churns out, and definitely better than some.
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http://tinyurl.com/66pkx7
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Jul 13, 2008 2:24:58 AM CDT
I love Canadians and I love this show! I also hold no hatred for
by thebearovingian
If _X_ wins the election, I'm moving to Canada! Oh, really? Notice all the nut jobs who've said that and yet they're still here (in the US) b/c even they know it's the greatest country on earth but they never miss a chance to demean it. ATTENTION: One elected official does not ruin our country. We get the chance to vote every year/couple of years/every four years and kick the bozos out and hopefully replace them with better folks. If I was Canadian I'd be a proud Canadian. But I'm not. I'm an American and a damn proud one at that!
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Shania Twain will soon be Shania Bearovingian. Oh yes, she will be mine.
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so I guess it would be step up. But since she makes more money than you (just a guess; she makes more money than most countries), shouldn't you be the one to change your name? From now on you shall be known as "TheTwain".
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