Flashpoint - The Complete First Season [DVD]

good

This is one of the best shows I have seen in a long long time.It could have slipped into one of two holes. It could have been an action packed shoot 'em up which rarely works well on the small screen and probably wouldn't have been very believable. Alternatively, it could have turned into an overly detailed and consequently tedious procedural show. It manages to steer a path between the two. The show is based on a real life Toronto police unit similar to SWAT but with their own integral negotiators. This is a brilliant set up because every episode can go either way with a brutal violent conclusion or the culprit talked down peacefully. The issues are dealt with in a mature and considered fashion which rather excellently means that the person with the gun is not always the baddy.The team is rather more imaginatively put together than in most similar shows. The team leader (Enrico Colantoni) is the cuddly negotiator whilst two bullet headed middle-aged men (Hugh Dillon and Michael Cram) are his subordinates. They have similar but different home lives and chat through raising teenagers on the way to work. A black junior policeman (Mark Taylor) and an Italian junior policeman (Sergio di Zio) have minor roles but occasionally get their moment in the limelight and both rise to the challenge when they do. David Paetkau plays the ex-special forces sniper who has transfered in. His difficulties integrating and changing his focus from killing to resolving the situation are well handled and his dark back story is mercifully not as overblown as it easily could be. The last team member is Amy Jo Johnson (the only american on the cast) who is the beautiful woman who has to struggle to maintain her position on the team.Each show starts with a quick introduction to a perilous situation and then winds back a few hours to see how the problem started. We then build up to the point where police must start making life and death decisions. There is one running storyline which revolves around the actions of one of the cops in the first episode but generally these are self contained stories.Okay there is the odd cliche. There are a few moments when the team storm in demand police leave their control rooms without bothering to get a briefing, the inevitable will they won't they is a little cheesy but forgiveable. I don't know enough about policing to say with any authority how accurate this is but Colantoni's brother is a Toronto cop which may have made a difference. There's regular use of police venacular (some of it pretty hamfisted but usually well done) and lots of gadgets.Overall, I love this show. It's entertaining intelligent and I liked that I didn't know which way things were going to go in a lot of the episodes. Highly recommended and I can't wait for the next two series.

However the episode count goes between viewing in the states, and what is mentioned on IMDB.com and on the DVD dust jackets, I have only viewed Flashpoint here in New Zealand via the Season 1 - 5 set from Amazon US. There seems to be an issue with some people over which episodes are a part of which season, but let me tell you by watching them on these DVDs (however labelled), they are in order!At the end of which I wanted more and could only source (the last season)#Six, through Amazon.co.uk. This means several things for you viewers State-side; 1)you must have a multi-regional player that plays Region 2, 2) expect subtitles in Dutch which can be turned off, and 3)the whole dust cover is also in Dutch. Just be grateful you can get it, it cost me about 15 pound or $28 nz dollars.Well worth the effort, good luck!

Arrived on the date it was supposed to, It was well packaged and arrived in working order, I received Dutch version of Flashpoint season 1 so Subtitles are in Dutch but all dialogue is in English, I'm very happy with this product and would recommend this to others as it is a great series to watch, you become invested in the characters interactions with the criminals and the interactions within the team itself.

A bit repetitive ---- each episode starts with a stand-off between a hostage taker and the SWAT team, and then flashes back 2 hours, or 4 hours etc., to show us how it all started. That's the format.Not much characterization of the perpetrators, and each episode adds a little bit more to the main cops.It's lightweight not too deep and you can always leave the series and come back later as there's not a lot to catch up on.English subtitles.

not too long like most shows and not too short, this is a brilliant tv series, cannot recommend it enough.how can i recommend it?its set in vancouver canada. there is nothing in the show that isnt involved with the story, ur given the story and it sticks with it. there is no life stories like most tv shows that are dragged out, no soppy eye batting from anyone either. its really genuine. one thing this show taught me is, its all about the hostage, bot the swat team, not the mad man with the gun, the hostage. great tv series. a diamond in the rough. i cannot recommend it enough. ever.is it rewatchable? yes it is. most shows are not.

Fraught times. Lives at risk. Often the one with the gun is not, though,a villain - merely a person under strain so immense that something has snapped. The psychological skills of the SWAT Team try to defuse crises which so easily could spiral out of hand.13 episodes. Each begins with A SITUATION, then back-pedals to reveal the events leading to it. These are very human dramas - the desperate father threatening hospital staff, determined his daughter receives the heart transplant promised; a son at last turning on his control freak dad; a wife-beater confronted by his victim's sister; a bullied girl retaliating against her tormentors; a bank raid where all is not as it seems.Coming over strongly is the concept of The Team as a family. Only working closely together can strengthen the chances each will see a new day. Always they are at risk. Not just physically. Anything may go wrong, subsequent tragic memories forever preying on the mind - perhaps even one of their own number destined to snap....A no-nonsense series. No space-filling subplots. Taut scripts. Good cast. Throughout involving.Recommended.