Flashpoint: Attention Shoppers
By fred | August 15, 2008
(S01E06) It’s not hard to imagine what I was expecting to see happening during this episode before it even started, because that’s been one of my biggest “complaint” about this show so far : guns are out in some kind of hostage situation. As always the episode started right in the middle on the action, and, shocker, it looked like some kind hostage situation and the guns were out !
Yet, something was different than the usual, right from the start you could tell that it wasn’t your typical hostage situation, that something else was at play here, and that as he first sign this episode was probably be a little different than usual, and by different I obviously mean better.
But not so fast, now we’re back 5 hours earlier, before things started. Which leads us to what remains the weakest part of this show : the times before the SRU is being called somewhere, the times when everyone is waiting for the call, talking, training, whatever. Since day one this has been the weak spot of the show, and that doesn’t seem to change one bit.
Whether it was some chit-chat no one cared about, or a scene to show Jules in her bra because, well, men love to see girls taking their clothes off, none of this was really worth being there. And the whole phone call scene or the reaction to the new guy when Jules successfully did something so boringly standard for everyone here, was really painful to watch, a bit pathetic, and most definitely insulting to Jules, too.
Anyways, at that time I was praying for some kind of alarm to go off or something, so this mess would finally end, and eventually it did. We then met with Tasha (Sarah Gadon), poor girl trying to keep her life on tracks and do what she can to survive a difficult neighborhood, stupid gang members bitches, and an alcoholic mother who can’t even wake up. Also, as it rapidly became clear, she was recently raped (well, as we found out later it was “only” an attempt of rape, “luckily” for her).
But because she dared go to the police and report it, she now had three girls willing to simply kill her, things took a wrong turn and Tasha ended up shooting a gun and hitting two girls in one shot. Yep, she’s gifted alright. And this leads is to the new situation the SRU team was confronted this week, but there’s a reason at first it looked like the police was in charge and almost taking people hostage : it was no hostage situation !
This was a refreshing change, and with a full commercial mall filled with people still walking free as our guys had to locate a groups of girls armed and still shooting at one another in the middle of everything ! Again, once they’re on duty the show is pretty strong, always takes a more psychological approach to things than just shooting and blowing things up, it’s a more realistic and honest card they’re playing and it’s quite enjoyable.
Sure, you could see the whole ending coming, with Tasha thinking her killing herself, and Jules rescuing her, but that doesn’t take anything away from the quality of this episode. Tension was there everywhere, no time was wasted with idiotic scenes and once again we had a really strong episode of a show that’s turning out to be a very nice (summer) surprise. Sure, it’s another kind of cop-drama, but it’s a really good one !
It’s usually good when characters on the show have more layers, a personal life that may affect their work, etc but at this point, as reminded by the last scene of the episode, I think in this show specifically it might not be the best thing. It’s their weak spot, and maybe they should focus more on what they do best, since they do it so well…
PS: did we really need some much shots on things like giant billboards for Dancing With The Stars ?? *sigh*
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Flashpoint
