This post is going to be shorter than usual, just because we already kinda riffled through it in previous posts.
That, and there’s an infinite number of possibilities you could go with for your baddie(s).
Fortunately for the show, “bad guys” are not every time really “bad”. For the sake of argument I am calling them “bad guys”, but most of the time they are really being “grey guys”.
Even though the teaser of almost every Flashpoint episode up to 1×09 has had someone holding someone else at gunpoint, “bad guys” on the show are pretty diverse.
They range from real bad guys (1×03, 1×06, 1×09), to good guys cornered into doing a bad thing to save themselves (1×05, 1×08), others (1×02, 1×04, 1×07), or just plain crazy/brainwashed people (1×01, 1×09).
For a more detailed bad guy/episode breakdown, please refer to this previous post.
“Bad guys” seem to love playing with guns in every Flashpoint episode; guns being real easy to obtain.
How many bomb threats have we had, versus how many hostage situations?
It could be an interesting twist to subtract guns and hostages from the equation completely, and have the “bad guy” use other kinds of weapon. Whether a virtual one, a psychological one, or just a baseball bat.
Also, change the situation surrounding the baddie.
Change the number, change their back story, change what is driving this mad man to kill his ex-lover. Did he/she cheat on him with a(nother) woman? Did he/she win the lottery but didn’t give him a cent? Or perhaps he/she decided to have a sudden sex-change?
Whatever the reason, the audience needs to be involved in the story.
Create on the audience a “Stockholm syndrome” so that they will not want to see the baddie hurt. Or on the contrary, make him real evil.
Make the audience emotionally involved and attached to the character.
In a bad way, in a good way, or both.
Now that was quicker than I imagined.
Anyway, next time, we’ll talk about the SRU itself… Or should I say TPS?
