Flashpoint (TV series)
For the Starsky & Hutch zine, see Flashpoint.
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Flashpoint (working titles: Sniper and Critical Incident) |
| Abbreviation(s): | FP |
| Creator: | Mark Ellis, Stephanie Morgenstern |
| Date(s): | July 2008 - December 2012 |
| Medium: | TV |
| Country of Origin: | Canada, U.S. |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Series Overview
Flashpoint focuses on the members of an elite tactical unit, called the Strategic Response Unit (SRU), within a Canadian metropolitan police force (based somewhat on the Toronto Emergency Task Force, as the series is filmed in Toronto). The SRU resolve extreme situations that regular officers may not be equipped to handle, including hostage situations, bomb threats, and heavily armed criminals. Even though they use high-tech equipment (explosives, tasers, submachine guns, assault and sniper rifles), the SRU operators use intuition and judgment to resolve a situation.
The team includes Gregory Parker, the team sergeant and head negotiator (played by Enrico Colantoni from Veronica Mars); Ed Lane, the team leader and sniper (played by 6 Degrees of Canada fan favorite Hugh Dillon); Jules Callahan (Amy Jo Johnson), the only female team member and the second lead sniper; Lewis Young (Mark Taylor), a less-lethal weapons operator and former gang member; Mike "Spike" Scarlatti, demolitions and tactical tech expert; Kevin "Wordy" Wordsmith (Michael Cram), CQB expert and less-lethal weapons; and Sam Braddock (David Paetku), the cocky newbie from the Canadian Forces who has just joined the team at the beginning of the series as a sniper.
Flashpoint is extremely unusual for shows filmed in Canada in that it does not pretend to be set in a U.S. city. It is also the first series since due South to be produced in Canada by Canadians for both American and Canadian TV.
Flashpoint Fandom
Thanks to the two main leads of the series having fan followings of their own already (Colantoni and Dillon), Flashpoint started out with a lot of fan interest right out of the gate. With so much testosterone floating around on the series, not to mention gear porn, slash is an obviously heavy component of the fandom. Ed and Greg are of an age, so they are an obvious pairing, and some of the other team members are seen together and are quite close in the series canon.
However, Jules is enormously popular and a rare female character who can hold her own with the men, so het or gen is equally obvious, not to mention threesomes that include Jules. Series canon has intimated that Jules and Sam have a growing attraction, which is popular with fans of those two characters.
Because the series was a surprise hit as a summer replacement, CBS is holding back the last few episodes to make it a mid-season replacement in early 2009. This has left fans some room to speculate on where things were heading after the last episode (109) was aired on CBS in early fall.
Flashpoint Fanfiction
Flashpoint stories in the Yuletide Treasure archive: http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/fandom_flashpoint.html