Metascore
51 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 15
  2. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Reviewed by: Misha Davenport
    63
    Though the characters on this show, premiering Friday on CBS, are relatable and watchable, the slow pace might prove to be too much of a cultural divide for an American audience used to the quick cuts and immediate resolve seen on American cop shows.
  2. It's more nuanced than the average cop drama, and for that reason, more intriguing.
  3. It has an appealing modesty that survives its bouts of aesthetic overexcitement--the occasionally lurching camera, hammering soundtrack, the sentimental pop song laid over the last couple of minutes as the principals silently end a long, hard day.
  4. 50
    The best part of this show is the acting, which is generally excellent - particularly that of Hugh Dillon as Ed Lane, the conscience-riddled sharpshooter. Too bad the writing isn't as on-target as Lane's high-powered automatic.
  5. 50
    Flashpoint works through the distress and damage it lays out here, it gets points for beginning with the difficulty, not with the triumph. Now, if it can just figure a way beyond the scary perp clichés.
  6. 50
    If you can ignore stuff like the impossibly clean subways and the fact that the cops call one another ''constable'' with straight faces, Flashpoint is actually rather formulaic.
  7. Flashpoint lingers when it ought to speed up. It is a show about crisis that refuses to make you anxious.
  8. Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    It's understandable why CBS would take its own low-risk shot with "Flashpoint" as summer filler. Yet as viewing experiences go, the series itself possesses so little flash, finally, that it's difficult to see the point.
  9. 50
    It goes through the motions quite competently and respectably. But it is nonetheless merely re-creating crime-series moves we've all seen many times before, with only the faintest afterimage of originality.
  10. To be sure, Flashpoint is a perfectly competent police procedural right down to its convincing weaponry and tactics. However, based on the pilot, it isn't particularly fresh or inventive.
  11. Reviewed by: Verne Gay
    50
    The first half is tautly produced, before there's a dramatic--and dramatically dull--downshift that'll get you ready for beddy-bye.
  12. The Flashpoint pilot is competent, but very retro (there's an extended sequence of the team driving to a crisis point with their sirens blaring, the sort of thing that went out 15 years ago) and fairly dull.
  13. It's not terrible, not great, just sort of so-so.
  14. Reviewed by: Adam Markovitz
    42
    It's nice to have fresh scripted material on the summer TV menu, but after an hour of dull wisecracks and predictable plotting, reheated "Law & Order" leftovers start looking pretty tasty. [11 Jul 2008, p.66]]
  15. If it had something truly new or provocative to say about such matters, the essential redundancy of Flashpoint could be overlooked--but it doesn't, and so it can't. These good guys are too good for their own good. And ours.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 25
  3. Negative: 3 out of 25
  1. cyrust.
    10
    Very good, a very well done point of view of police.
  2. snowcat
    10
    I love this show -- it is exciting, compelling, emotional, funny, and the acting is excellent. I hope it makes the next season, however i find not too many people have heard of it. Full Review »
  3. 10
    I stopped watching this series Because by manipulating the feelings of viewers Turn the facts Makes the correct error In the series who wishes to father and mother of the child re- What was the role of the rescue unit The destruction of the whole family Is this the role of this series to change people's view That the police were responsible for destruction rather than protection My message to the product Look for a professional writer My family and I do not want to see the police as criminals Full Review »