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CBS calls in Canadian cops

By Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Published July 7, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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Strategic response unit members (from left, Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and David Paetkau) lead the action in Flashpoint.

Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg / CBS

Strategic response unit members (from left, Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon and David Paetkau) lead the action in Flashpoint.

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Flashpoint

* When and where: 9 p.m. Friday, CBS4

During the writers' strike, there was a lot of talk about networks importing shows from other countries to serve as original programming for their prime-time schedules. CBS brought Dexter over from Showtime and announced it would pick up the Canadian police drama Flashpoint. But it now appears CBS' interest in the show was a passing fancy.

If the network thought more highly of it, surely it would air some time other than 9 p.m. Friday in the summer, where it premieres this week. I'm sure the network is hoping to gain viewers by promoting it in Thursday-night episodes of Swingtown, but still, it's low-rated Friday night, which is even lower-rated in summer.

Not that I blame CBS executives for their ambivalence about Flashpoint. It's not terrible, not great, just sort of so-so.

Flashpoint may have some appeal to CBS' crime-drama-loving audience, but it is a more traditional police show as it follows a Strategic Response Unit, inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force.

The show is filmed in Toronto.

Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars, Just Shoot Me) stars as Sgt. Gregory Parker, the supportive leader of these cops who rescue hostages, disrupt gangs, defuse bombs, etc. Amy Jo Johnson (Felicity) plays the most prominent woman on the team, and David Paetkau (LAX, Whistler) is introduced as stubbly, mysterious newcomer Sam Braddock.

Friday's episode begins with Parker and his team trying to talk down a man who's holding a gun to a woman's head in front of a skyscraper. Snipers race to the rooftops, including Ed Lane (Hugh Dillon), who's also shown at home trying to juggle work and family obligations.

Flashpoint takes pains to show the emotional toll the job takes on Ed, but it's not anything we haven't seen on other police dramas.

After his role as the hammy guy on Just Shoot Me, Colantoni has reinvented himself as a nurturer, first on Veronica Mars and now in Flashpoint. He's a likable lead. Too bad Flashpoint doesn't have more to recommend it.