Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Quickie Reminder - Canadians, Watch CBC's The Hour Tomorrow!

Canadians should keep their eyes tuned to CBC's The Hour hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos tomorrow - Hugh Dillon will be a featured guest! CBC is also good about posting clips fairly close to after the show airs (usually by the next morning) so fans can try to check out the official site to see if it will play in their country!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: Flashpoint wins 3 Directors Guild of Canada Awards!

Flashpoint may have only won 3 out of 8 Gemini Awards earlier this week, but they had a much better success ratio at the Directors Guild of Canada Awards handed out just hours ago! They won 3 out of the 5 they were nominated for! We'll use the same star system we used for the Gemini Awards. If you see a gold star(), Flashpoint won. If you see a blue star (), Flashpoint was nominated but did not win. The full list of winners is posted here.


TEAM TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA

Flashpoint - Eps. 111 - "Haunting the Barn"
David Frazee (Director), Derek Rappaport (Production Manager), Ross Leslie (Assistant Production Manager), Felix Gray (1st Assistant Director), Karl Irvine (2nd Assistant Director), Raj Singh (3rd Assistant Director), Dominika Jurek (Trainee Assistant Director), Michael Burgess (Production Assistant), Raymond Duff (Production Assistant), Shelly Pearson (Production Accountant), Karen Sharp (1st Assistant Accountant), Alex Kontsalakis (1st Assistant Accountant), Andreas Hass (Trainee Assistant Accountant), John Dondertman (Production Designer), Rory Cheyne (Art Director), Jody Clement (1st Assistant Art Director), Jeff Smith (2nd Assistant Art Director), Randy Morgan (Location Manager), James Wilson (Assistant Location Manager), Sean Cengiz (Locations PA), Mike Lee (Picture Editor), Paul Whitehead (1st Assistant Picture Editor), David McCallum (Supervising Sound Editor), Janice Ierulli (Dialogue Editor), Mark Shnuriwsky (Sound Effects Editor), Sue Conley (ADR Editor), Gren-Erich Zwicker (1st Assistant Sound Editor), Matt Hussey (1st Assistant Sound Editor).


DIRECTION - TELEVISION SERIES

Flashpoint - Eps. 106 - "Attention Shoppers"

Holly Dale (Director)


SOUND EDITING - TELEVISION SERIES


Flashpoint - Eps. 201 - "Eagle Two"

Jane Tattersall (Supervising Sound Editor), Janice Ierulli (Dialogue Editor), Mark Shnuriwsky (Sound Effects Editor), Sue Conley (ADR Editor), Gren-Erich Zwicker (Assistant Sound Editor), Matt Hussey (Assistant Sound Editor).


PRODUCTION DESIGN - TELEVISION SERIES

John Dondertman for Flashpoint - Eps. 109 - "Planets Aligned"

PICTURE EDITING - TELEVISION SERIES

Mike Lee for Flashpoint - Eps. 111 - "Haunting the Barn"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Gemini Awards Presentations 1 & 2 - Flashpoint Checklist!

We're going to keep you up to date Badgers and Doves! If you see a gold star (), that means Flashpoint won! If you see a blue star () then that means Flashpoint was nominated didn't win this award. We'll post the stars next to the winners. We will remind our readers that not all of the awards are being awarded today. For those keeping count, Flashpoint is nominated 19 times over 12 awards, and today 8 of those awards were given out. So far, they have won 3 of them! I want to send out a very special, personal, congratulations to Tatiana Maslany - you sure did the Queen City proud! The rest of the awards will be handed out on November 14th. And, this Saturday, the Directors Guild of Canada has their awards ceremony, of which Flashpoint is nominated for 5. Go Flashpoint!

Presentation 1:

Best Achievement in Main Title Design:

Alain Provost, Aileen McBride, Michel Mercier, Theresa Warburton
2008 Beijing Olympics

Boyne Stergulc
2009 National Aboriginal Achievement Awards

Kim Jackson, Ron Gervais, Mike McDougall
Flashpoint

Flashpoint Main Title Sequence

Kevin Micallef, Brant Forrest, Don Gauthier, Glen Wyand
Grossology
Grossology Main Title Sequence

Shane Kinnear, Kevin Chandoo, Brent Whitmore
Murdoch Mysteries
Murdoch Mysteries Main Title Sequence

Best Original Music Score for a Program or Series:


Jody Colero, Lily Frost, Trevor Yuile
Being Erica
Dr. Tom

Mark Korven
The Border
Floral Tribute

James Gelfand
Crusoe
The Return

Ari Posner, Amin Bhatia
Flashpoint
Planets Aligned


Robert Carli
Murdoch Mysteries
Werewolves

Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series:


Gareth C. Scales
Flashpoint
Element of Surprise

Teresa Hannigan, C.C.E.
Flashpoint
Scorpio


Jonathan Baltrusaitis
In a World Created By a Drunken God

Arthur Tarnowski
The Last Templar

Wendy Hallam Martin
The Tudors
Episode 207

Best Sound in a Dramatic Series:

Russell Walker, Eric Apps, Stefan Fraticelli, Herwig Gayer, Alastair Gray, Rich Harkness, Ian Rodness
The Border
Going Dark

David McCallum, Mike Baskerville, Sue Conley, Steve Hammond, Janice Ierulli, Mark Shnuriwsky, Paul Williamson
Flashpoint

Who's George?


Sid Lieberman, Richard Calistan, Steve Foster, Robert Hegedus, Kevin Howard, Ron Osiowy, Paul Shubat
Heartland
Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Jane Tattersall, Daniel Birch, Yuri Gorbachow, Martin Lee, Kirk Lynds, Andy Malcolm, David McCallum, Dale Sheldrake
The Tudors

Presentation 2:


Best Achievement in Casting:

Stephanie Gorin
Being Erica
Dr. Tom

Stephanie Gorin
The Border
Going Dark

Marissa Richmond
Flashpoint
Scorpio

Susan Forrest, Sharon Forrest, Jim Heber
Less Than Kind
The Daters

Marsha Chesley
The Line
Episode 107


Best Performance by an Actress in a Guest Role, Dramatic Series:

Anna Silk
Being Erica
Everything She Wants

Daisy Beaumont
The Border
Floral Tribute

Kristin Booth
Flashpoint
Backwards Day

Tatiana Maslany
Flashpoint
Planets Aligned

Sarah Gadon
Flashpoint
Attention Shoppers



Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role, Dramatic Series:


Damir Andrei
Being Erica
The Secret of Now

Ron Lea
Flashpoint
Haunting the Barn

Nicholas Campbell
Flashpoint
Who's George?

Mpho Koaho
Flashpoint
Never Kissed A Girl

Henry Czerny
Flashpoint
First In Line


Natalie Dormer
The Tudors
Episode 210


Best Writing in a Dramatic Series:


Mark Ellis, Stephanie Morgenstern
Flashpoint
Haunting the Barn


Lori Spring
Murdoch Mysteries
I, Murdoch

Floyd Kane
Soul
Fathers and Daughters

Brad Wright
Stargate Atlantis
The Shrine

Michael Hirst
The Tudors
Episode 205

Monday, October 5, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: CBS Greenlights Some More Episodes, and We're Close to a Major Release Day!

CBS Orders 13 New Episode of Flashpoint!

Great news for our Badgers and Doves south of the border! Just hours ago, CBS announced that they have picked up 13 more episodes of Flashpoint! On another note, as many critics predicted, CBS's Three Rivers was a ratings disappointment last Sunday only scoring 9.17 million viewers (third place in the timeslot) and a fourth-place demographic share of 2.0/ 5 among adults 18-49. It's only a matter of time before it is canceled, and who knows what it could be replaced with. It could be Flashpoint, or any one of two series on CBS's backburner: a Jerry Bruckheimer medical drama called Miami Trauma, or The Bridge. As always, we will keep you posted the moment we hear the episodes are coming back to CBS!

October 13th is Flashpoint Day!

Ok, not officially, but we might as well give that day a name! In both the US and Canada, Season 1 Boxsets are due to hit the shelves. And, Hugh Dillon's album is also set to be released! His album Works Well With Others has an awesome shot of him looking sharp in a coffee house, and will feature 14 original tracks including our favorite episode ending song from Flashpoint, Lost at Sea. Fans can also check out a music video ahead of time for the first track on the album Friends of Mine.

And Happy Birthday Amy Jo Johnson!

Everyone on the WGTS and Moon Chase staff would like to wish Flashpoint star Amy Jo Johnson a very happy 39th birthday! We've all grown up with her since her Power Rangers days and she holds a special place in all of our hearts. We're happy to see her playing such a strong character on Flashpoint! In honor of this, we thought we'd share a few of our favorite Amy Jo moments from other TV shows!


Recent Canada AM Appearance!
Amy Jo does an interview in character for Power Rangers!
Showing off her Karate skills!
Singing as 60's icon Nansi Nevins in the TV Movie - Sweetwater: A True Rock Story
Singing in Felicity!


And on another note - the next two weeks are busy for me, so there will be no new news posts. I will keep up with the episode summaries on Fridays, but if there is something breaking, your best best is to follow WGTS on Twitter where I will post links when I can!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Flashpoint in a Flash: Season 3 Episode 2: Never Let You Down

It’s a new day for the SRU, and there’s a new member on the team. Can the team solve a different crisis while still grieving over the loss of one of their own? Find out below – and for those of you wondering about the latest addition to the cast, we have briefly profiled her at the end of our summary! Click the jump below to read!



We begin in medias res with the following “cold open”! We see a young woman running through the woods, and Ed speeding in his SUV looking for a red Nebraska. Spike has a locator device, which picks up the car, which speeds up behind the woman. The driver catches up to her… and REWIND! 3 hours earlier… We are taken to an independent donut shop known as the “Dip and Sip”. Some hands pick up some pretty fancy pastries, which the young woman whipped up without her boss’s knowledge. She serves a man in a red shirt, and another woman in the shop. She is Zoe Granger, and she aspires to go to school and open up her own restaurant some day. Amongst the chatter with another waitress and the customers, another man walks in. He is Jeff, Zoe’s ex-boyfriend, and he wants to meet her, but she isn’t interested and refuses (even after he shows her a necklace)! He grabs her face and elbow hard. The other waitress threatens to call the police, and he lets her go, says they are not done, and leaves. A customer comes to her aid, but Zoe walks away and stops the other waitress from dialing the police. After, she pours another coffee for the male customer, Dale, but he says it is alright, pays her, and leaves. He seems like a warm man…

Meanwhile at the SRU, a memorial plaque has been put up in the men’s locker room, in memory of Lewis. Outside of Jules’ locker room, her sign is changed from Jules to Women. She looks at the sign, and turns away quickly, in sadness.

Zoe walks home, bit thinks she is being followed. She runs inside her apartment building, and rushes inside her apartment. She is relieved that it was only her neighbour following her, and goes to her washroom to wash out a stain in her shirt. She hears a knock at her door, and looks out the peephole. She opens it, looking a little sad. We are taken to the neighbour’s apartment just as Zoe begins screaming, and the neighbour calls the police. We hear a gunshot, and the neighbour’s dog begins barking.

Back at the SRU, Greg tries to pull the somber team together and plans for a day of light work and patrol. He introduces the newest member of the SRU, Leah Kearns. She bravely stands up and addresses the team, and empathizes with the group saying that she served with a firefighting unit that also lost one of theirs. She offers to lend an ear if they want to talk about it, but Jules cuts her off and says “We’re good”. The alarm goes off, and Jules says to Greg “Time and a place”. They arrive at Zoe’s apartment building, and catch up on the situation from the officers on site. Ed and Greg begin organizing the team. Ed moves into the building with Wordy and Spike, Jules tries to dig up some info on the people involved, and Leah works with Sam. Ed knocks down the door, makes his way to the washroom and pulls away the shower curtain, only to realize that they are gone. ROLL OPENING!

Jules starts to type out the log, but Greg switches things around and puts Spike in the truck, and sends Jules and Leah to go interview Zoe’s neighbor. They have a hard time as they have to talk over a barking dog. The neighbour can’t quite identify the car, so Jules and Leah take her back to the truck, but leave the dog in the apartment. Jules puts out her palm to shush the dog, and he whines (excellent acting by the dog). Ed, Wordy, and Sam search Zoe’s apartment for clues, and Sam finds a bullet casing that matches a box of bullets in her room. The gun was hers?! In the truck, Spike is dealing with a neighbour who is absolutely clueless about cars. As Jules and Leah also help look in her apartment, Leah is a little confused with no photos of her family to go on. Jules tells her that maybe she is isolated or estranged, and Leah responds saying this explains why she is with a badass boyfriend. Jules says she is perceptive, and Leah says she has been there. This is intriguing. I hope we get to hear more of Leah’s interesting past. Leah finds a pay stub, and Jules starts to warm to her. Ed thinks that the handgun was kept by her in self-defense. Spike has determined the car, and Greg gives an order to put out an APB. Jules calls the donut shop to find out some more information about Jeff. Zoe always went back to him because of his loving words. But he would always hurt her. The SRU tracks down Jeff’s address and heads to his place. They break in, pin him down, but they don’t find Zoe. Jeff really doesn’t know, and he suggests they go after Dale. He hangs out at the donut shop 24/7 and Jeff remembers being confronted by Dale, who told him not to lay a finger on her and that she deserved better. Jules calls the donut shop again, but the other waitress doesn’t suspect anything. Spike works his magic and finds Dale’s address in a database. The SRU heads there, only to find that his ex-wife, Judith, is the only person there. Wordy and Ed look around the house, and find a little girl’s room, and Jules and Leah find a picture of her. Jules thinks Zoe bears a resemblance to the little girl, and Greg asks Judith about their daughter. She says she thinks they are here because they think he murdered her. And we are taken to a commercial break!

Somewhere in the woods, Dale parks his car, and takes Zoe out of his trunk. He pulls her towards a trailer. Greg asks Judith if she recognizes a picture of Zoe, and she says no. She tells them that Dale is living as a recluse in a trailer just west of the city, and that Zoe looks just like their daughter. In the trailer, Dale has a red dress with butterflies waiting for Zoe to wear. The dress, Dale’s shirt, and the car, are all eerily very close shades of red. As Dale describes to Zoe how he was watching her, she gets freaked out, especially because he is calling her his daughter’s name, Wendy. While chopping onions, he tears up and Zoe uses this opportunity to escape. He runs after her. The SRU heads towards the woods, and Dale chases her in his car. We are now where the episode began, he has caught up with her and is chasing her on foot. Commercials!

The SRU arrives at the trailer and searches inside. Sam finds a lot of pictures of Zoe in his closet, and Ed puts together the team’s search strategy in the woods. Greg is still with Judith and tries to put some more pieces of Wendy’s disappearance together. She told him that Dale was so mentally disturbed that she put him in rehab, but it didn’t help. Dale has managed to get Zoe back in his car, and he has become delusional thinking that Zoe really is Wendy, and that they are meant to be together.

Spike has some sort of locator device with a mini-satellite dish to listen for the car. He hears a car approaching, and though he cannot tell the make or color of it, he can definitely hear that it is an old car! Wordy thinks that they are heading back to the trailer, and they run to it. They spot the car, only for Dale to reverse and change his route, and the chase continues! Greg gets more details about Dale’s rehab stay from Judith. She thinks Dale killed Wendy. Greg makes a phone call. Ed is in an SUV with Leah, and they approach Dale’s car at the same time as Spike and Wordy, but they have taken off on foot, again. They start to search, ten feet apart. Greg talks to a detective about Wendy’s disappearance, and that Judith thinks Dale is responsible. However, the detective doesn’t agree. Spike hears Zoe’s screaming on his device, and guides the SRU towards them. Dale and Zoe are backed up right against the edge of a cliff. Commercials!

The SRU confront Dale and Zoe and they are now just millimeters away from the cliff’s edge! Greg talks to Judith and says that the only reason she is blaming Dale is because it is an answer (and it isn’t the right one). He counsels her about how she can help him when they return. The team updates Greg with the status of Dale and Zoe. Greg assigns Jules the role of negotiator, Ed as the sniper, and Sam and Leah start getting set up so they can be tethered to the cliff. Jules tries to get them away from the edge, but Dale won’t listen, and he is holding Zoe back. Zoe manages to break away and moves forward away from the cliff, but Dale pins her on the ground and refuses to let go. Dale steps backwards off the cliff, and Leah and Sam grab him. But he is holding onto Zoe’s leg, and she is barely hanging on the edge of the cliff. Jules is grabbing her as best that she can, and delivers a very moving speech to him. I can’t do this any justice, so I’m just going to type this out:

“Is this what you call keeping someone safe, Dale? Listen to me. I am sorry that Wendy has disappeared from your life. I cannot even imagine what you have been through. But I do know what it is like to lose somebody who had absolutely no business dying…and to have not had a chance to say goodbye; and be disgusted with people for just walking down the street like the world’s the same place. That if you had just done something different… they still might be here. So you can keep on struggling and get both of yourselves killed, and that will be your fault. Or you can let go and let yourselves live. What would Wendy want you to do?”



Jules remains strong behind her tears, but Dale breaks down completely and lets go. Both are pulled to safety. “Now the Struggle Has a Name” by the Tragically Hip, starts to play as the SRU look and check in with each other. Judith sits next to Dale, and the two of them are just sad.

Back at SRU HQ, Leah hands the SRU bracelets to help them carry the memory of Lewis with them. They are black, with a gold plate that reads “L. YOUNG BADGE 1902”. The camera zooms onto Lewis’s plaque, which reads “Constable Lewis Young” “Who gave his life to keep the peace” along with his picture and the SRU logo.

Next week’s episode: the SRU is dealing with a massive hostage situation at a prison, which requires them to give up one of their own. And it looks like it might be Ed?! This doesn’t look like it is Coming to You Live, which was the next episode slated to air. EDIT: The next episode is called Just a Man


At this time, you’re probably wondering who the new member of the SRU is? Her name is Leah Kearns, and she is played by the Canadian actress, Olunike Adeliyi! She has not only had roles on the small screen, but has appeared on the silver screen, and on stage as not only an actress, but also a dancer! Visit her IMDB page for more information. For those of you wondering about our logo, we will keep Mark Taylor in it, but once an image of Olunike Adeliyi is released (in uniform), we’ll see if there is some way to add her in!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Flashpoint Brings Back Memories of Toronto for Italian Viewer

A few days ago, we came across this article in Italian. It was written by a blogger who used to live in Toronto, and is now living in Italy. Simona Giaccobi provided some neat insights on the show and Toronto! We have translate the entire post in English! I had some difficulty with a few things and those are enclosed in **.



You must know that I am a couch potato. At one stage I would say I was a fairly serious one. I didn't miss a television series in the winter. Thankfully, there's the summer break...All I watch are my CSI, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer (be patient), Law and Order SVU (I only like this version), Medium (...) and i can't forget to mention the Simpsons, Family Guy and Ellen DeGeneres talk show which is different from Oprah. Virtually all American shows. Usually those left me a lot to be desired, I remember that in Italy I only watched District of Police...

But here's a TV series that has attracted my attention enough. It is made entirely in Toronto, and it is called Flashpoint and it has a certain effect on me since I have lived there, when they say "send an ambulance / bus to Queen Street" or "there's an explosion at Nathan Philip Square. But it turned out to be quite good. And I discovered that the series was launched with the September programs in Italy , **airing just before Survivor which has been getting bad ratings.**

** this part was a little hard to translate - if any of our readers have a better idea of what this sentence is trying to say, please let us know!**

I have seen the hero of the series, Sergeant Parker, who by the way is played by an actor whose name is a little Italian-Canadian, Enrico Colantoni (born in Toronto in 1963 by Gina and Quintino Colantoni) - in a local Italian restaurant on College Street (Little Italy) sitting at a table with a girl. And then one of the first things they told me when I arrived is that many films are shot here in Toronto because New York is too expensive. Moreover, the Financial District (only one there) of Toronto is very similar to the Big Apple. They also say that once you've seen Toronto, NY City no longer has the same effect (**or New York no longer feels any different**). I take exception because I think there is a chasm (**difference**) between Toronto and NY . Throughout. I love New York.

I searched around a few websites and saw that the first episode of Flashpoint that was broadcast on RAI was a flop in Italy. The first set was sent here last summer from CTV and the United States by CBS and recounts the work of the SRU - Strategic Response Unit, a special body headed by Sergeant Parker. Note that Flashpoint is about a team ready to dismantle terrorist cells or to negotiate with kidnappers to identify their point of collapse.

The show is based on the real work of the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force and has the same style of uniforms, same use of technology, and even the same style of how to resolve more complex cases. Tonight, CTV begins the second seasons. (Editors Note: She wrote second, but it was in fact the 3rd season premiere). You too are couch potatoes like me??



There you have it, Flashpoint impressions from an Italian self-confessed couch potato!