Flashpoint: He Knows His Brother
By fred | August 22, 2008
(S01E07) Finally got to sit and watch the latest offering from Flashpoint. I’ve been pretty pleased with this show so far, and I think this episode did prove a few things that had been established in previous installment of the show. The first one of all, is that it is a really good show. Sure, it looks like another cop drama, and there’s a very good reason for that : it is!
But far from being your usual cop drama as you see so many of them on television, or just on CBS for that matter. Yes it’s about the SRU and they have to deal with crisis and situation that can be extreme, but the show is clearly putting focus on the psychological aspect of things, favoring a more realistic approach, taking time to talk and think things through rather than rushing into big explosions and gunshots. In that way it’s like the anti-24.
At first, episodes would open by putting us right in the middle of the action, often up to seconds before the tension was so high something had to happen, right now, before we were taken back a few hours. This episode, much like last week’s, didn’t really do that. Instead of putting us right in the middle of things for a moment, it shows us different moments one after the other : before things take a wrong turn, a little further as they’re going worse, then again later when the SRU needs to react…
It’s different, and I’m not sure it’s better. In fact, this week, I’m sure it wasn’t. Because instead of having the full breakfast scene, up until either the gunshot or the SRU trying to take the door down, we had about all of that, only in a very shorter amount of time. The end result was that we knew all that was going to happen, and when it did it didn’t had the full effect it could have had otherwise, because we felt like we’d gone through it already. And we had, only this time it took (much) longer.
I’m not sure why they decided to go that way, but I don’t think that was the best choice.
Other than that, the show’s weaknesses are still the same : in the moments before the team gets called up, when they’re training, chit-chatting, joking, or just waiting, and in all the personal lives of the crew. This time, all eyes were on Braddock, as he was affected by his soldier’s past. I still feel this wasn’t the best part of the show, really, but at least it helped to understand what he was gong through this time.
Even since he joined the team, he’s been all about the action, shooting his guns, taking down the bad guy - meaning whoever looks bad at the time. Talking with people, trying to understand them, what they’re going through and how to help them, even if they’re on the other side of the gun, so that you can resolve the situation without having to shoot your gun, without anyone having to shoot his gun, without anyone ending up dead or armed, that has never been his cue.
But this week things were different, and while that doesn’t mean he turned into an expert who knows how to handle things well, of course not, but it was a welcome change. Even better was that, even though a gun was still involved, there never really was a hostage situation this time : very rapidly the kid ran away, and what the SRU had to deal with was a man hunt. “Finally!”, I screamed, finally things are evolving and we’re not confined yet again within the limits of the hostage situation, as was the case in about every episode so far.
In the end this was another really good episode, with the new kid slowly learning what his job is really all about - saving lives, helping people - and the whole team always doing what they do best : think first, never rush into something that could make things worse, first think of a plan, then execute it. I also liked how the kid had a military background, which made the chase all the more fun.
This show is definitely turning out to be a very solid one.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Flashpoint
