sa国际传媒's cross-border cop smash Flashpoint is about to go out with a bang with an explosive two-part finale sending the elite team of Toronto officers racing to stop a serial bomber from taking the entire city hostage.
Flashpoint star Enrico Colan-toni said it's a thrilling end to the made-in-sa国际传媒 procedural, which airs Part 1 of a tense finale on Thursday. Part 2 airs Dec. 13.
Expectations are big for the conclusion, with Colantoni admitting that even he wondered how writers could adequately wrap up one of the country's top cop shows. Its nail-biting life-or-death crises have been a weekly tradition for five seasons.
"The expectation was always: How are they going to close it? How are they going to end it? And when you're used to doing a show that's operating at nine [out of 10] and 10 out of 10, you wonder what they will do. And they did [it]," Colantoni said from the set last June, where hallways were filled with "for sale" items including discarded wardrobe and a mishmash of props.
"For the first time, my character really has to go outside of his comfort zone. ... There's no room for peace in these last two episodes, there's no room for calm, there's no room for stepping back. There's only being ahead of the situation and really living in the solution of it and [thinking] 'How are we going do this?' Because it's so outrageous and so crazy."
The two-part finale begins with the team discovering a sophisticated bomb hidden amid the computer servers of a 9-1-1 communications centre. From there, they learn more explosives have been stashed in other public buildings and that a deranged bomber is intent on inflicting widespread carnage.
In order to contain the threat, Team 1 joins forces with firefighters, paramedics and the military, resulting in a high-octane tribute to all emergency responders, said writer and co-creator Stephanie Morgenstern.
"I think we've managed to balance the sense of crisis and tragedy that we were looking for because the stakes are big," said Morgenstern, who launched the series with writer and co-creator Mark Ellis in July 2008.
"But at the same time, [there's] a sense of life-affirming forward motion of the future of Team 1, that things are not completely coming to an end now, that there is a sense of a legacy for the team as well."
She said pains were taken to address ongoing storylines for Colantoni's team leader Sgt. Greg Parker, Hugh Dillon's sharpshooter Ed Lane, Amy Jo Johnson's negotiator Jules Callaghan, David Paetkau's sniper Sam Braddock and Sergio Di Zio's explosives expert Spike Scarlatti.
"We knew where we wanted to take Sam and Jules and I think that's going to be satisfying for Sam and Jules fans," she said.
"We knew where we wanted to take Parker and Ed and the others. I think [it was about satisfying] our own sense of: 'What gift can we give them to send them off into the future?' I think it was more of that rather than, 'Let's make sure we deal with this and then this and then this.' "
There's no question that Flashpoint has made its mark on the Canadian TV industry, proving to skeptics that homegrown fare could be populist, acclaimed and internationally successful all at the same time.
The slick show debuted four years ago on CTV and CBS, drawing 1.13 million viewers in sa国际传媒 and 8.72 million viewers in the United States.
It was the first Canadian series since Due South to air in network prime time on both sides of the border, paving the way for a wave of other Canadian series to also strike U.S. deals.
Although CBS eventually dropped Flashpoint (it was subsequently picked up by the U.S. specialty channel ION Television), the show found a home in more than 100 territories worldwide, including Germany, France and the Netherlands.
"As creators and writers, it's been fantastic that the show has gone beyond its borders and was in the States and the rest of the world but for us the biggest brass ring was always to get Canadians to watch a Canadian show," said Ellis.
"Of course we've watched them over the years but I feel that we were embraced in a way that was really beyond our dreams."
The show was still riding high in sa国际传媒 when executive producers Anne Marie La Traverse and Bill Mustos announced earlier this year they were calling it quits. Mustos said they wanted to end the series on a high, adding later that he believed the show had reached its "apex."
Colantoni said it was the right time to end things. Nevertheless, he choked back tears as he discussed his final days on set.
"It's been such a rewarding ride because I get to honour real heroes," said Colantoni, his voice cracking with emotion. "The real guys who do this don't get half the credit they deserve, they're vilified way too much."
