Flashpoint: A personal view of Shockwave.

There is a plot line running through season 4 of the TV show "Flashpoint", concerning the character of Spike (Sergio Di Zio), and his fathers illness.
Spike is a bomb disposal expert, and his father never liked his career choice. The father is now dying, and his dying wish is for his son to give up the dangerous job. Spike is continually torn between upholding the wish and his honor to himself. He worked hard to get where he is, and doesn't want to throw it all away.

Now, this story line brings up all manner of emotions for me. My father recently went through a similar life-threatening illness.

I'm fortunate that my father never asked me to stop doing what I'm doing, or had anything bad to say about my career choice.
However, the moments when Spike is with him, brings home to me what it was like to see my Father like that.

Real emotion. Raw emotion. That's what I get from watching this. It is (In my opinion anyway) perfectly written, perfectly directed - and most importantly, perfectly acted by Mr. Di Zio.

Spikes inability to do anything to help his father mirrors exactly what I myself felt.
The scenes are never the focus of the show, never important to the overall plot. But they are important to me.

The most recent episode (Shockwave) had a certain resonance with me. Sorry to get all personal all of a sudden, but my Father was hundreds of miles away, so I only spent a short time with him, and the feeling when I wasn't with him, I would have given anything to be back there. So when Spike was trapped, I was so caught up in the moment of the episode, I think i went through every emotion right there with Spike.

So, to the writers, directors, producers, showrunners - and most importantly of all, Sergio. I thank you. This is what proper story telling is all about.

Flashpoint DVD Episode Arrangement

Due to the way Flashpoint was aired in the US, the season box sets are different to the Canadian versions. While they will eventually release all the episodes, there is still some confusion over which episodes appear on which set.

Episode name	Canadian	US	UK
	Season 1	Season 1	Season 1
Scorpio	Episode 1	Episode 1	Episode 1
First in Line	Episode 2	Episode 2	Episode 2
Element of Surprise	Episode 3	Episode 3	Episode 3
Asking for Flowers	Episode 4	Episode 4	Episode 4
Who's George	Episode 5	Episode 5	Episode 5
Attention Shoppers	Episode 6	Episode 6	Episode 6
He Knows His Brother	Episode 7	Episode 7	Episode 7
Never Kissed A Girl	Episode 8	Episode 8	Episode 8
Planets Aligned	Episode 9	Episode 9	Episode 9
Eagle Two	Episode 10	Episode 10	Episode 10
Backwards Day	Episode 11	Episode 11	Episode 11
Haunting the Barn	Episode 12	Episode 12	Episode 12
Between Heartbeats	Episode 13	Episode 13	Episode 13
	Season 2	Season 2
Business as usual	Episode 1	Episode 1
The Fortress	Episode 2	Episode 2
Clean Hands	Episode 3	Episode 3
Aisle 13	Episode 4	Episode 4
The Perfect Family	Episode 5	Episode 5
Remote Control	Episode 6	Episode 6
Perfect Storm	Episode 7	Episode 7
Last Dance	Episode 8	Episode 8
Exit Wounds	Episode 9	Episode 9
		Season 3
One Wrong Move	Episode 10	Episode 1
Never Let You Down	Episode 11	Episode 2
Just A Man	Episode 12	Episode 7
Custody	Episode 13	Episode 4
Coming To You Live	Episode 14	Episode 5
The Farm	Episode 15	Episode 3
You Think You Know Someone	Episode 16	Episode 10
The Good Citizen	Episode 17	Episode 9
Behind the Blue Line	Episode 18	Episode 6
	Season 3
Unconditional Love	Episode 1	Episode 8
Severed Ties	Episode 2	Episode 11
Follow the Leader	Episode 3	Episode 12
Whatever It Takes	Episode 4	Episode 13
The Other Lane	Episode 5	Episode 14
Jumping At Shadows	Episode 6	Episode 15
Acceptable Risk	Episode 7	Episode 16
		Season 4
Collateral Damage	Episode 8	Episode 1
Thicker Than Blood	Episode 9	Episode 2
Terror	Episode 10	Episode 3
No Promises	Episode 11	Episode 4
I'd Do Anything	Episode 12	Episode 5
Fault Lines	Episode 13	Episode 6
	Season 4
Personal Effects	Episode 1	Episode 7
Good Cop	Episode 2	Episode 8
Run Jamie Run	Episode 3	Episode 9
Through a Glass Darkly	Episode 4	Episode 10
The Better Man	Episode 5	Episode 11
A Day in the Life	Episode 6	Episode 12
Shockwave	Episode 7	Episode 13
		Season 5
The War Within	Episode 8	Episode 8
Cost of Doing Business	Episode 9	Episode 2
Wild Card	Episode 10	Episode 3
New Life	Episode 11	Episode 4
Grounded	Episode 12	Episode 1
Call to Arms	Episode 13	Episode 5
Team Player	Episode 14	Episode 9
Day Game	Episode 15	Episode 6
Blue on Blue	Episode 16	Episode 7
Priority of Life	Episode 17	Episode 10
Slow Burn	Episode 18	Episode 11
	Season 5
Broken Peace	Episode 1
No Kind Of Life	Episode 2
Run To Me	Episode 3
Eyes In	Episode 4
Sons Of The Father	Episode 5
A World Of Their Own	Episode 6
Below The Surface	Episode 7
Forget Oblivion	Episode 8
We Take Care Of Our Own	Episode 9
Lawmen	Episode 10
Fit For Duty	Episode 11
Keep The Peace (Part 1)	Episode 12
Keep The Peace (Part 2)	Episode 13

Christmas Movies...

Following on from my Christmas Song musings, I started thinking about what makes the perfect Christmas movie.
Is it the need to take our main character to the very depths of despair, then have him rise up at the end, having possibly seen the error of his previous ways?
Is it the heart-melting scene near the end when the family is reunited, and love blossoms once more?
Is it the final shot of the snow falling while someone sings a Christmas Song?

If you're nodding along to all of these, and thinking of your own favourite Christmas film, I offer you a few words to break your spirit.

I've just described Die Hard!

Christmas Songs....

It's December, which means one thing. Well alright, it means many things. But one of those many and too numerous things to mention here is: Christmas Songs!

You know them, and either love them or hate them. Everywhere you go in December, they follow you.

Supermarkets and shops have them blasting out. The radio plays one every 20 minutes. People whistle and hum them...

But, and here comes my rant of the week, some of these songs aren't – to my way of thinking anyway – real Christmas songs!

I've thought this way for a number of years, but never really voiced it until now. This morning, my favourite radio station played “Stay” by East-17 as a Christmas song.

I had to put pen to paper (or at least, finger to keyboard) and write a letter to the DJ (or at least, send a tweet).

Adding some sleigh bells to a song (and some thick coats and fake snow in the video) does not a Christmas Song make.

This lead to a slightly heated debate between me and the DJ about the validity of Christmas Songs. Basically, she argued, it was Number 1 at Christmas time, therefore is a Christmas song...

Using these rules we also have applications for Mr. Blobby and Bob the Builder.

And Mad World must be the most depressing Christmas Song!

Oh and let us not forget Rage Against the Machine and the Theme to Grange Hil (No seriously, listen to the bass line of Killing in the Name and tell me that's not a rip off of the Grange Hill theme tune! I can actually SEE the sausage on a fork whenever I hear the song!)

To me, Christmas doesn't start until the Coca-cola lorry has been sighted, and the following songs have had at least 2 plays on the radio: Slade, Wizzard and Shakin' Stevens.

I shall end this by saying despite being a HUGE fan of S-Club, Never Had a Dream Come True isn't a Christmas Song either!

The 2012-2013 New Season of TV shows - Part 2

So, following on from my recent list of forthcoming pilots for the new TV season, (See here for more details) I thought I might run through a few of the ones I've seen and offer my verdict.
Now, to begin with I'l just emphasise that any I haven't watched/reviewed, doesn't mean I think they're rubbish. Simply that I haven't watched them. Life's too short to watch things I don't enjoy, then blog about how rubbish it is.

Sitcom:
I'll admit right away, we haven't watched any of the new shows in this category...

Drama:

Chicago Fire: The first episode was good, but not overly inspiring. To be perfectly honest, I'm not caring for any of the characters. And as far as i can tell the basic storyline of each episode will be "building is set on fire. Team rush to put it out." There is only so many things that they can set on fire in Chicago. We'll give it a couple more episodes to see if I'm wrong.

Elementary: I wanted to hate this. I wanted to come on here and rant in FULL CAPS (because that shows passion, and emphasis, you know) about how the "damn Americans" have screwed over a classic British character. But I can't, because - for reasons I can't figure out - it works! The show actually works! Jonny Lee Miller is good (he's no Benedict Cucumberpatch, but he's good). A female Watson is good. Just as long as the Powers That Be can keep ANY love interest away from the pairing then I can see this show running.

Last Resort: I think possibly my favourite new show so far. I'm really enjoying it (even if (and I'll admit this now) some of the politics are a little deep.) Great cast, and characters that I am starting to care about. Not sure how long the premise will actually hold up for though; there is only so many times the Captain can bluff Washington before they realise he's bluffing and he's forced to kill Americans (Which I'm thinking is a road the show creators don't want to go down).

Made in Jersey: I love Janet Montgomery, and I'll admit she was the only reason I wanted to watch this, but I had to turn it off after the first episode. It just wasn't working for me as a show (And it seems, nor for a lot of other people...)

Horror, Supernatural and Sci-Fi:

666 Park Avenue: Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams are great. The main couple, not so great, but the show has a lot of promise. It's on the keep list for now, and we're hoping it'll turn into this years American Horror Story.

Arrow: This far exceeded my expectations of it, which is great! I was worried it would be Smallvillish, which while I've only seen 1 episode (and it still may turn that way), it doesn't appear to be headed in that direction. The plot arc was neatly laid out; the main characters motivations explained, and the hero given form. 

Revolution: It's very stilted at the moment. Very "Let's market this to the Hunger games/Twilight audience"ish, but I'm still enjoying it. Aaron is clearly this years Hurley character - the everyman who can ask the stupid questions that the audience themselves are asking.

Well that's it for now. The ones missing from the list (as I said) I've either not watched, or they haven't aired yet.

Spoilers and me

People often wonder why I am so anti-spoiler. I never used to be, I used to lap spoilers up for everything. For me, part of the fun of watching a TV show, or a film, was reading spoilers and imagining the results, then seeing it on the screen.
But that all changed one day.
Now I'll admit that while I'm anti-spoiler, I am NOT against other people having spoilers. No way. I'm more than happy for people to have spoilers for shows or films. All i ask is that you keep me out of it.

So, the tale of this fateful day that changed me. It was February 1995. The past few months I'd been getting excited for the new Star Trek film to be released: Generations. I was reading magazines and newsgroups about it, lapping up information.
Sure we all knew Kirk and Picard were in it. We knew Kirk was going to die. I think that was the worst kept secret in Hollywood that year.
Then a friend of mine got his hands on a draft copy of the script. He printed it out for me. I was dubious at first. It was one thing to read snippets, but to know the whole thing?
Then it was revealed that it was a fake script. So i read it. The story was pretty good. I gave it to a friend of mine who also read it.
We had made plans to see it on opening night, along with another friend. That night, standing in line, we see the poster for it. The 3rd friend said "Picard?? Is he in it?" We looked at each other. He didn't know ANYTHING, other than the fact it was a Star Trek film.
The film started and within 10 minutes we realised it WAS based on the script we read.
However, the moment Kirk died - the proper death - our unspoiled friend gave out a huge gasp. It was then that i regretted reading, in fact in any of the spoilers.
I wanted that rush he was getting, that emotion.
So it was that I stopped reading up on the big stuff.

A few years later it was announced a new Star Wars film was going into production. At that point I declared I wanted to know NOTHING about it.
I went to watch with zero expectations. ALL I knew about it was it was a prequel story featuring Anakin Skywalker as a young boy.
I think I must have been one of the few who enjoyed the film! It was well worth the hassle.

There were a couple of times when some news had been leaked and my friends wanted to discuss it, but being mature they said "We wanna talk Star Wars!" so I'd leave them to it for a few minutes. I think the main one was when the soundtrack album was released (a week before the movie opened) and it featured perhaps one of the biggest spoilers EVER. One of the tracks is called "Qwi-Gon's funeral".

My philosophy is: I'm going to watch it anyway, why ruin any surprises the writers/director have in store for me?

An open letter to Universal UK

Let me start by saying, I think you are brilliant. Since the announcement was made back in February that you were getting the rights to Flashpoint (All episodes, including the ones which, at that time, hadn't been made yet), I supported you.

I was happy you were treating this show with respect. That you were airing it at a decent time. Even happier once we (we being the fans) realised you were giving us plenty of opportunity to see each episode (3 airings of each episode within 24 hours can't be bad!), and to repeat the run a total of, what is it now, 3 times?

I've had the pleasure and – dare I say it without sounding egotistical – privilege of watching the fan numbers rise on the Producers own Facebook group. Sure not all of those are UK based, but believe me when I say there are a LOT more now than there were before you started showing it.

Alright, I may have been slightly vocal about your episode numbering system and the airing order, but we managed to work around that.

Ultimately though, I was happy. I can appreciate that you didn't want to rush onwards and overdose us with new episodes. You left us on a great cliffhanger with Ed Lane being shot.

But come on now, it's been several months since the last new episode aired and people are getting tetchy over the missing episodes.

Given that some of the episodes we've yet to see have been aired in Canada and the US for over a year now, there are plenty of spoilers out there. You can't blame those who have seen the episodes. They've kept quiet this long, how much longer can they go on being quiet?

I was still loyal though, encouraging people to stay cool. “They'll show them soon..” I would say. Hell, I started a blog entry and updated it twice a week with your schedule. I noticed a gap in the schedules coming up. Could this be it?

Sadly, no. No offence to the Sea Patrol fans, but it seems you're dropping Flashpoint altogether at the end of September.

Which brings me to the point of this. We've been patient, but patience always has to run thin.

On the 16^th of October, the missing episodes will be released on DVD in Canada. Now I'm not suggesting that everyone rushes out to buy this, but what I'm warning is that people will. I know of at least 5 UK viewers who have already pro-ordered. Alright that's just 5 people out of the thousands who watch it. But it could be more.

What I'm worried about is your advertisers. The more people who have to buy it on DVD, the less people who will be targets for your advertisers. And let's face it, you may not care about the viewers – we're not your customers. The advertisers WILL know.

Is it too late for you to show the missing 18 episodes? I don't know. But please bear this in mind when you come to think about what to do with Season 5 (which starts in 2 weeks time in Canada...)