Hawaii Five-O (the original series)

[AnamorphicWidescreen]

I'm almost finished with S06 of HFO. Excellent series, and IMHO there have been no bad episodes in any of these seasons. I don't know if the strong momentum will continue until the end, but so far I'm extremely impressed by the quality of the writing, acting, and production in this show. Well-done.

Some especially notable S06 episodes:

"The $10,000 nickel": A skilled thief steals an extremely valuable nickel,

[Show spoiler]and soon after it gets put into a vending machine. The story-line involving the thief trying to track down the coin & the authorities trying to track down the thief is complex & compelling.

"Secret Witness": An bystander witnesses a "hit", and is pursued by the killer.

[Show spoiler]The witness gets away, but leaves behind a clue that leads the killer to him & his family. As it turns out, the killing was ordered by a big-shot mobster that is known to McGarret & co.

This was an especially well-done & suspenseful episode.

Notable guest stars in this episode are Mark Lenard (Sarek in Star Trek: TOS), and Cindy Williams (American Graffiti, Laverne & Shirley).

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by AnamorphicWidescreen

I'm almost finished with S06 of HFO. Excellent series, and IMHO there have been no bad episodes in any of these seasons. I don't know if the show will continue this momentum until the end, but so far I'm extremely impressed by the quality of the writing, acting, and production in this show. Well-done.

I think it's around the ninth or tenth season where some episodes start to get repetitive, but it's with the penultimate, eleventh season where things start to go a bit downhill. However, in the show's defence, even it's bad episodes were better than some episodes in similar series.

[OceanBlue]

This past weekend, watched the second season episode "Which Way Did They Go?". To sum it up in a few words...it was a five-star classic, one of my favourite episodes.

It was that good, a well-written episode/story. Even though there were a couple of things which, even after thinking through the whole episode, I still couldn't fathom it out. It was full of details and was at times a mystery.

One scene in particular was strong stuff. It wasn't shown, but it was implied

[Show spoiler](what happened to the bank manager's wife at their home on the coast).

It was handled just right with the aftermath (McGarrett speaking to her husband). It could have come across as fake and unsympathetic, but it wasn't. The acting was done just right.

Among the guest stars was veteran actor William Windom. It seemed like at this point in his career, he was mostly playing bad guys, compared to the second half of the eighties onwards (when he had the recurring guest-star role of Dr. Seth Hazlett on another long-running detective (sort-of detective) series Murder, She Wrote (which also lasted twelve seasons like Hawaii Five-O).

I won't go into too much detail about this episode (and if I did, I would put it in spoiler tags. You need to see this episode yourself. One of the best episodes this season (and two top-notch episodes in a row, following "The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild!"). The ending was clever, and it made you think back to something Windom's character did earlier in the episode.

Also worth mentioning, was actor Harry Endo's guest-star appearance (in "Which Way Did They Go?" he played either a bank manager or a security expert). In the next episode after this, he would debut as forensics expert Che Fong. He would play the part all the way through to someway through the tenth season (the character just disappeared with no explanation. Which was disappointing, considering he played an important part in some of Hawaii Five-O's most successful seasons (referring to the line-up of recurring guest-stars who played characters who worked with the Five-O team, including Doc, Glenn Cannon's character (can't remember his name) and Jonathan Kaye).

[OceanBlue]

Last night's episode from the second season, "Killer Bee", was a low-key story with a heavy-hitting ending which pushed the episode up to being one of my favourites so far in the series. I didn't see the ending coming (like with an episode of Midnight Caller I watched recently). Towards the end, I could remember where the ending was set

[Show spoiler](at the hospital where the real culprit was working), but not how it ended.

The episode already had a weird vibe to it, a weird feel, with the visual shots etc.

The previous episode "Run, Johnny, Run" wasn't as good (Christopher Walken guest-starred in it), but "Killer Bee" saw the show back on form.

Haven't forgotten about the episode "Blind Tiger". I'll post a mini-review soon (the episode inbetween "Blind Tiger" and "Run, Johnny, Run", called "Bored, She Hung Herself" was apparently never shown in syndication after it's original airing in the States, and hasn't been included in any physical media release of the original Hawaii Five-O).

[OceanBlue]

Watched the episode "Blind Tiger" in the past week. On the whole I thought it was very good, and better than "Run, Johnny, Run".

[Show spoiler]Even though the culprit was revealed early on (intentionally by the show's makers?),

it was still an interesting, tense story. One of the things I liked was the use of camera angles, light, shadow and darkness (the highlight being

[Show spoiler]the confrontation and fight scene in one of the hospital's treatment rooms where the nurse who was helping McGarrett with his recovery (he had been blinded by a bomb explosion in his car outside the Iolani Palace in the episode's teaser) were all of a sudden confronted by the bomber.

I was more involved in the conversations between the nurse (played by Marion Ross, a few years before sitcom Happy Days started in the States) and McGarrett, than the search for the bomber. Also liked

[Show spoiler]the progress with McGarrett's recovery regarding the loss and recovery of his eyesight.

The hospital seen in this episode was used a lot on the show during it's long run.

McGarrett's orange dressing down was a bit of an eyesore (that's a trivial nitpick though).

[OceanBlue]

A phrase I see on here from time to time is "taking one for the team". That may apply to me, as I'm thinking about getting the German DVD release of the tenth season, to see if the episodes are remastered (haven't been able to find anything out about the German release). Honestly, I can't see a German Blu-ray release of all twelve seasons happening (or anywhere else).

[OceanBlue]

In the past week, have watched two further second season episodes, "The One with the Gun" and "Cry, Lie". Won't be commenting much on the former, as the very good start aside, the rest of the episode wasn't very spectacular (it opens with a crooked card game).

But the latter episode, I loved. One of the best episodes of the season so far. It centred around Five-O member Chin-Ho Kelly. Guest stars included Martin Sheen (I think in the same season in the States, he guest-starred in an episode of Medical Center). Another guest star I recognised, but I wouldn't know what his name was (I remember him from only one other television credit, playing the Ewing family's lawyer Harve Smithfield in the original Dallas TV series).

Thought the episode was very well written, very intricate and detailed. Maybe things loosened in the last five or ten minutes and it wasn't as clever (with the exception of

[Show spoiler]how Five-O caught Martin Sheen's character in a clever trap). I remembered the shootout at the construction site with two "mystery" gunmen chasing after Sheen's character (I could remember the two gunmen in fact being two members of the Five-O team).

The trouble was, for a long while through "Cry, Lie", I couldn't fathom out who Sheen's character was. From when I first saw the episode (when UK channel Granada Plus repeated the first few seasons of Hawaii Five-O), I had in my head Sheen's character was some media mogul (a newspaper boss for example). However, by episode's end it appeared

[Show spoiler]he was something to do with drugs and wanted to take over as the new drug dealer or drug lord (the current one was an older man (the older man I also couldn't fathom out who he was. One of my favourite scenes was Danny's conversation with him towards the end, trapping the older man by saying his phone line would be tapped).

The end of the episode before the end credits started, considering

[Show spoiler]Chin-Ho's job and career were on the line, seemed on the one hand out of place, but it's tone also seemed to fit (Chin's relief at getting back to work and his interactions with his family (it could have been a spin-off sitcom).

The chemistry between each of the main characters by this point (towards the end of the season) was firmly in place. They easily gel well together, mixing the seriousness and humour. When I first saw the first three seasons of Hawaii Five-O, I thought the show wasn't top-notch and hitting the ground running until the third season. Re-watching the first two seasons, I can see that it was happening earlier than that.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

A phrase I see on here from time to time is "taking one for the team". That may apply to me, as I'm thinking about getting the German DVD release of the tenth season, to see if the episodes are remastered (haven't been able to find anything out about the German release). Honestly, I can't see a German Blu-ray release of all twelve seasons happening (or anywhere else).

Following on from the above, quoted post, decided to order a copy of the German release of the original show's tenth season. I'm wondering if UK label Mediumrare only licensed the eighth season (what kind of sales were they expecting, as they have no website and social media pages where they can advertise their new releases?).

[OceanBlue]

Have watched in the past week, a season three two-parter from the second half of the season, "F.O.B. Honolulu". The only two-part story which I've been disappointed by so far, was from the second season ("Three Dead Cows at Makapuu", which felt padded out and just dragged). This two-parter (there is another one to come, which closes out the third season) was a slightly difficult one to judge with it's quality (it definitely wasn't awful, it wasn't brilliant (there was too much walking going on, with a lot of the episode taking place at a hotel round a swimming pool), yet the story kept your interest, and the ending (which I partly remembered from the last time I watched it) was memorable and open-ended

[Show spoiler](McGarrett's nemesis Wo Fat being shot, with (I think) an all-points-bulletin given out by McGarrett for Wo Fat).

Aside from Khigh Dhiegh returning as Wo Fat, veteran actor Joseph Sirola also returned (as Jonathan Kaye, who clearly doesn't get on with McGarrett, and vice-versa). Sirola I think returned again in the fifth season (for the last time).

[OceanBlue]

The strong start to the fourth season continues. Watched in the past week, the episode "Wednesday, Ladies Free". I'm torn with what to mark this episode (it depends on my frame of mind, and how I think about the scene just before the end where McGarrett reveals to

[Show spoiler]Monte Markham's private detective character that he knows that he killed his wife (who was previously thought to be the Strangler's third victim).

In hindsight, I just can't get my head around why

[Show spoiler]Monte Markham's private detective character had so much hatred for the Strangler (for the majority of the episode, because we thought they had killed his wife), when he killed his wife himself (apparently it was in the heat of the moment).

It just doesn't make much sense. And yet, this episode, that aside, was so well written. It was complex and full of details. I'm not surprised, based on it being co-written by Paul Playdon, who wrote a few episodes for the original Mission: Impossible TV series (some of those being mindbenders themselves, having complex plots).

The episode was also well shot, including some nice on-location scenes at the Iolani Palace (where Five-O's headquarters are), showing McGarrett and Danno on the balcony outside McGarrett's office. This didn't happen very often on the show (usually it was shot of the balcony from McGarrett's office on a studio set).

It was clever how Five-O figured out how the Strangler found their victims. Something else in the episode which needs to be praised, is the teaser before the title sequence. It had the look and feel of a giallo (of what I've seen of it, it reminded me of Blood and Black Lace).

So far in this season, there is definitely a change in tone, with more of a gritty and darker tone. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the show at this point with the new decade of the seventies established, doesn't have as much of that sixties look and feel. In some ways I prefer it.

[OceanBlue]

Recently, I started watching Hawaii Five-O's third season, and on the whole it's back to the quality of the second season before the dip in quality just before the end of that season:

"...And a Time to Die" saw McGarrett's nemesis Wo Fat return

[Show spoiler](he'll be back in the third season in a two-parter).

How the doctor was being blackmailed, it reminded me of the plot of an episode from another show (where the doctor was operating on someone who the villains wanted dead). Something else I liked in the season premiere was guest star Gerald S. O'Loughlin's character

[Show spoiler](he and McGarrett really didn't get on at first, but I liked the mutual respect they had at the episode's end. I can't remember if the character appeared again in a later episode).

"Trouble in Mind" had a slightly shorter runtime, and I wondered if this was because of possible music edits or substitutions. It had a music theme involving drugs. It's best going into this episode cold, not reading too much about the plot. But the episodic promo didn't give too much away (one thing I like about the episodic promos on some of the older series is that the clips aren't always shown in chronological order (where they appear in the episode, which throws you off a bit (which can be a good thing). That wasn't the case however with the next episode... As a whole, this was a very good episode with a sad ending

[Show spoiler]which you knew was coming (liked the twist with who was addicted to the drugs).

"The Second Shot" had one of my favourite television actors guest star, Eric Braeden. However, this episode was spoilt by the episodic promo, which gave virtually everything away. Yes, I should have watched the episode on it's own without the episodic promo, or watched it after the episode (but hindsight is an easy thing). At times I thought "The Second Shot" was a bit straight-forward. There wasn't much detail in the plot. But at least it had a very witty end line.

The most recent episode I've watched from the third season has been "Time and Memories". This was a much better episode in my opinion. Whoever did the editing, mixing the past with the present, and not showing the flashbacks in chronological order deserves praise. The story was written well, and I loved how Five-O figured it out (well it was McGarrett who figured it out, but Danno was there when the culprit realised they had been caught). One of the highlights for me was the flashback scene at the Pearl Harbour memorial with McGarrett and his ex-girlfriend.

[OceanBlue]

Watched last night, the third season episode "The Ransom". Like with the latest episodes of FBI and FBI: Most Wanted that I watched this past Saturday night, this was an example of an episode having a synopsis which didn't sound like it would be a good one, but in the end it became one of my favourite episodes so far this season (sometimes when you read a synopsis, you don't have much hope for the episode being any good (example being it could be a dull).

Initially, I wasn't holding out much hope for it, a standard set-up (a businessman's young son was kidnapped at night). I could remember what happened at the water park

[Show spoiler](after the failed ransom drop-off at the water park, Kono was kidnapped himself)

from when UK channel Granada Plus repeated the early seasons of the show a long time ago.

[Show spoiler]Around about the scenes at the water park,

things picked up and the episode got better as it went on. Loved the last ten minutes or so (the bit where

[Show spoiler]they thought the failed ransom drop-off was going to happen again (the head of the kidnappers using what happened the first time to their advantage), McGarrett's 'crossover' tactic with the instructions of where the ransom money was to be dropped off, and McGarrett improvising what to do at the place where Kono was being held captive.

This episode (unusally for a non multi-episode story (ie. a two or three-parter) didn't have an episodic promo (the second episode in the second season set didn't have one either).