TV Guide Canada

‘Flashpoint’ Says Goodbye

By Greg David
2012-09-19

Show Co-Creator Reflects On Five Seasons

Five seasons. Seventy-five episodes. Over the course of that time co-creators and co-executive producers Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern have entertained Canadian viewers with the adventures and lives of the members of Toronto’s Strategic Response Unit. Now it’s all coming to an end.

No more flirting between Sam (David Paetkau) and Jules (Amy Jo Johnson), it’s the end of Spike (Sergio Di Zio) and his expertise with technology, the final nail in the coffin for Ed (Hugh Dillon) and Greg (Enrico Colantoni) trading snarky barbs on the way to a hostage taking.

But there are still 13 episodes before we close the book on Flashpoint completely. TV Guide Canada got Ellis on the phone to discuss what fans can expect to see out of the Gemini Award winner, some surprising guest stars, his favourite character, the legacy the series leaves behind, and what he’s up to next.

TV Guide Canada: I’m sad to see Flashpoint end, but I’m thrilled you guys all get to go out on your own terms. What was the process that went on between you and the producers and CTV? I’m sure the network would have loved for you to continue the show.
Mark Ellis: Yeah, I think CTV would have been happy to keep things going, and there is a part of ourselves that would have been happy to keep going as well. Speaking personally, Stephanie and I had a feeling at the back of our minds that five was going to be a good number, and as we approached the end of Season 4 and started to build storylines into the finale, we were already starting to think ahead to the places those characters might end up.

We put the idea out there to Bill and Anne-Marie, and I think that all four of us made the decision together that we’d told the stories that we wanted to tell, that we were still putting out scripts and episodes that were consistent and strong, and that it might not be so easy to get to a Season 6, and 75 episodes is a heck of a good run. So we made the call to go out on a high. We shared the news with the cast and crew and network and I think everyone found their own kind of peace with it.

TVG: Just to clarify, CBS’s decision not to continue with Flashpoint didn’t have any impact on this decision, did it?
ME: Absolutely not.

TVG: What was the goal of Season 5? Did you want to wrap up storylines completely?
ME: This season we wanted to get back to the original themes that inspired the series, which has always been about the human cost of heroism and throughout the seasons we’ve looked at how the job of being a cop is reflective in each year. In the first season we looked at that human cost, we looked at what it meant to be on a team. We’ve explored family both on the job and off. And this season we came back full circle to deal with post-traumatic stress, and also with something that I think all cops feel: a sense of legacy. We think about those who made the world safe before us, and we think about the children we’re making the world safer for by being a cop. That was an interesting angle for Stephanie and I and our writers to sink our teeth into because we knew we were leaving the legacy of the show behind.

We knew where we wanted to go this season with Sam and Jules, we knew we wanted to throw Ed back into the fire of post-traumatic stress response and going through those familiar feelings of sacrifice and guilt. We wanted to pay forward Parker’s decision to stay with the team. That’s part of the build-up to our finale.

The finale is a two-part finale and it reflects on the journey and the tough decisions that every team member has had to make over the course of the five seasons. They’re each tested in their own ways. And although the team is moving forward by the finale, it’s not without some sacrifice too.

TVG: Would you be open to a TV movie that revisits any or all of these characters?
ME: I would love to do a TV movie one day, although I do feel in some ways that the series finale is a TV movie. It has an epic feel to it.

TVG: Maybe a TV movie about the kids of the characters…
ME: Actually, Parker and Ed’s sons play very prominently in this season. Parker’s son Dean has come back into his life. He’s been living with him for a couple of years and has inherited his father’s sense of intuition and empathy and he sees his father through glasses that are perhaps rose-coloured. When Dean comes to him and tells him that he wants to become a cop, it’s a serious business and the two really wrestle with Dean’s ambition.

And Ed’s son Clark has a very different view of his dad. He does not idealize his father’s job and in many ways he resents it because his father has been abscent. And as Clark and Dean become friends, we see the two of them struggle with each other’s interpretation of the job and who their fathers are.

TVG: Any guest stars dropping by this season that you can talk about?
ME: We’ve got some great actors coming in. Ty Olsson is in the premiere, Shawn Doyle has a great turn, Sebastian Pigot … Suleka Mathew is fantastic in a very special episode that focuses on Hugh’s character, Ed. And then we have a very special cameo very late in the season … Lloyd Robertson pops up.

TVG: Out of all of the characters, is there one that has been fun to see evolve over five seasons?
ME: Yes, Spike has been a joy to watch. Sergio Di Zio is probably one of the most humble, most talented actors I know. He’s a thinker, he’s a great human being, he’s warm and open and works hard. He still takes acting classes even 70 episodes deep into a series. From our point of view as writers, we’ve been able to get to know him and the extraordinary range that he has. A character that started out as being a bit of a tech guy and can lay some expositional pipe has become part of the heart of the whole show and when we wrote his response to the death of his friend in the second season he gave one of the best performances I have ever seen. All of the writers then began battling over who was going to write episodes for him.

Writing for Enrico is great, and Hugh and I have been very close with respect to his character as well.

TVG: Can you talk about the final image of the series finale that viewers will be left with?
ME: The final images of them are in the station, in the debriefing room. It’s quiet and reflective and it looks back, as well as forward.

TVG: What’s next for you guys?
ME: We’ve just been taking some time off and recharging our batteries and opening our eyes to the world. We have several ideas in our heads and we have been talking to CTV about collaborating again. But we also have a development deal that hasn’t gone public yet with another network to develop a new series. We’re writing a pilot and a bible for a new adventure drama.

TVG: A Canadian network, or an American one?
ME: Canadian. We’re committed to making television here.

Flashpoint returns Thursday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.

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