I gave up on the show after the first season. It was so over the top in so many ways I just said screw it. But I’ve been running out of stuff to watch an I was getting desperate. To give you an example of just how bad it is, I’ve been watching and pretty much liking everything on the CW with the exception of Top Model. I still haven’t gotten to the point of watching reality shows. Not that they don’t have their attraction. I used to watch a few make over shows with the ex and sort of enjoyed them, but still not my first choice.
Anyway, I recently got through season 2 and am about half way through season 3 and for something that at its root is a cop procedural, it has a lot of things to recommend it. First the action is pretty much unparallelled in this genre. Sure it’s often forced, but I can only imagine what the budget for the show must be.
Second, I’ve been impressed with some of the guest stars. Two that I recall off hand are Ed Asner and Carol Burnett. For EA they even had flash backs to what looked like the original HF0 series.
Finally, I’ve been impressed with some of the pseudo-tech they use in the show. For example one I just saw was vascular mapping for identification which turns out not to be completely bogus.
Another one was doing computer generated facial reconstructions. Every other show I’ve seen uses laborious manual reconstructions with clay. I’m sure some other show has done it, but this was the first time I’d seen it. There are probably other examples, but that’s the first that comes to mind.
I’m sure there are other points I could mention like the scenery and some of the character interactions like between Steve and Danno, but there are many others that tend to fall pretty flat. It also has some quirky characters like Kamekano(?) but those are probably a matter of taste.
Anyway, this is a pretty popular show so I thought it deserved a thread.
Yeah… that’s nice. Watch the original Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980), available on DVD, which is a great show that you don’t have to make up excuses for watching.
Alex O’Loughlin aka Steve McGarrett has the worst tattoos of anyone on TV - blurry blobs of glop that appear to be faded beyond recognition - yet he seems to always want to show them off to show he is a manly-man.
But a fun show to watch - great scenery and some interesting stories and decent action. I didn’t think this show would do well, but I am pleasantly surprised at how well it is done. I would even say it is better than the original series - no easy feat to accomplish.
What is the point of the woman and her ex-gangster boyfriend running around Asia trying to stay one step ahead of some over-arching criminal enterprise who wants them dead? How does that weekly look-in make any particular sense?
I’ve been a little lost on that myself since I’ve been keeping up on the latest episodes as well as trying to watch previous seasons. Midway through season 3, he’s not on the run yet. He’s in the process of trying to take businesses that were previously a front for the Yakuza in Hawaii legit and his brother, who has just done time on the mainland has just returned on the scene. I imagine this is where things start to wrong though.
I started watching it for the scenery (Hawaii not O’Loughlin) but the relationships are what make it entertaining. It’s a running joke in our house trying to figure out how much the tech provider paid for each episode.
Oh look, they’re using the tabletop screen projected on the wall again, look at that graceful image movement.
‘computer generated facial reconstructions’ - Bones and the various NCIS versions also come to mind.
deltasigma, I was wondering which version of the programme you were talking about initially - the modern version or the '70s version. Haven’t seen many of the old stuff lately, but I find the modern stuff enjoyable when I’m not trying to stretch my brain too much.
TV is like a mental laxative or emetic for me. There are very few shows that really stick unless they really resonate with me for some reason and the ones that do tend to be the bizarre ones.
I just caught a rerun for the first time, and the Chairman of Iron Chef America’s Kitchen Stadium was running some kind of criminal gang out of North Korea, so the bald guy from Lost organized a Spy Game type of unauthorized military assault. It was like one of those dreams you have when you’re sick.
Oooo, I just saw that a few days ago. Yeah, totally over the top. But the scene where Terry O’Quinn’s character meets up with his old Vietnam buddy and they go out to inspect Tangerine, which turns out to be a defunct helicopter was classic - as was some of the repartee.
This is just one of those shows that can jump the shark but do it with enough style that you really don’t mind.
It’s like they need to cut Grace Park from the cast, but just can’ figure out how to do it. The show is OK (formulaic cop drama like dozens of others), and I probably wouldn’t watch it if it weren’t for the cool scenery. The story line with Grace Park might be enough to make me give up if they don’t just end it soon.
Oh, and the bickering back and forth between Steve and Dan-o is cringe-worthy. I’m embarrassed for those guys that the writers make them perform those antics each week. Especially the Scott Caan character. Yuk.