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.

It Was $51.99 Last Week!!