Newly-Reviewed Programs
TV on DVD
All Shows: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

2008 Fall Season
2008 Summer Season
2007-08 Midseason
2007 Fall Season
2007 Summer Season
2006-07 Midseason
2006 Fall Season
2006 Summer Season
2005-06 Midseason
2005 Fall Season
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss TV In Our Forums

The Black List 80
HBO, 8/25

Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House 67
HBO, 8/18

The American Mall 59
MTV, 8/11

True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet 66
Lifetime, 8/9

America's Toughest Jobs 46
NBC, Monday

Gavin & Stacey 78
BBC America, Tuesday

Z Rock 55
IFC, Sunday

The Cho Show 44
VH1, Thursday

The Principal's Office 57
truTV, Friday

Tabatha's Salon Takeover 50
Bravo, Thursday

Skins 66
BBC America, Sunday

Primeval 73
BBC America, Saturday

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


8.1

based on 15 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
read user comments
rate this tv show

Get more information on this show at TV.com.

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...

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.

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.

New York Daily News David Hinckley

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

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.

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.

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.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]]

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 8.1 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Laura S gave it a10:
I love this show. Finally, a cop show that depicts "real" police with characters that are true to life. I look forward to the next episode!

K gave it a10:
The best parts of this show are the acting of the 4 leads, and I think there will be more of a mix of characters once that of Sam Braddock gets more involved. I like that it's not all action all the time--that's been so overdone by now.

Gustavo S. gave it a10:
I thought the episode was AMAZING, all the tension, the characters, the history. It's the best show of the summer for sure!

EJ A. gave it a9:
As a Canadian, I get where the show is comming from. The first Episode is loosly based on an actual even that occured in the Summer of 2005. A man took a woman hostage after shooting his wife, and the real action went down only one block south of where the episode was shot. The show isnt supposed to be all action all the time, it is written to show the human side of the story, and praticualrly the human side to the police. The "SRU" is based on the real life Toronto ETF. And as for the comment in the Miami Herald about "impossibly clean subways" I urge you to google TTC (Toronto Transit Comission) I assure you I regualarly ride the Subway in Toronto ... THEY ARE THAT CLEAN.

Discuss this tv show in our forums

Return to top of page

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

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