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'Hawaii Five-0': Back story + big bad = big step forward
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Now we're talking. When Zap2it put together its midseason report card on the new shows a couple weeks ago, I wrote this about "Hawaii Five-0": "It's in danger of becoming the show we watch while we're doing other things around the house."
After Monday's (Dec. 13) episode, the show has my full attention again. (Spoilers ahoy for those who haven't watched yet.)
The last episode of 2010 brought back the season's original bad guy, introduced an even badder guy in Wo Fat and -- most important -- started to mine some of the back story for both McGarrett and Chin Ho. "Five-0" isn't suddenly going to turn into "Lost," but after 10 post-pilot episodes of crime-investigation-local color-banter-case closed, some hint of an ongoing story line is very much welcome.
The episode, "Hana 'a'a Makehewa," re-introduced Victor Hesse (James Marsters), who somehow survived being shot by McGarrett and falling into the water at the end of the pilot. He manages to cold-cock Chin Ho and place an explosive collar around his neck, demanding $10 million and safe passage off the island from McGarrett or else boom.
Except he doesn't really care about the money, tossing the cash McGarrett hands him on a fire before trying to take both him and Chin Ho down. The good guy wins, of course (we all know that's not going to change), and Hesse ends up in jail.
It's there that we get our first glimpse of Wo Fat ("Iron Chef America" chairman/"Dancing With the Stars" contestant Mark Dacascos), who's apparently been keeping tabs on the McGarrett family for a while. He's concerned that Steve may be getting a little too close to figuring out the clues in his dad's toolbox.
Wo Fat was McGarrett's arch-nemesis in the original "Five-0," so it was pretty much a given that the new show would find a way to bring the character into the picture. It feels like there's a lot of potential in having him be involved with Steve's dad's investigation -- yet it's also something that doesn't have to take over the story every week. CBS doesn't really want the show to get heavily serialized, but the best procedurals of late have been ones where there's more than just the case of the week to engage viewers.
That the show also found a way to involve Chin Ho's past in the McGarrett story is all the better. He was drummed out of the Honolulu PD for allegedly being dirty, so there's no way that $10 million going missing from a secret evidence locker won't come back to bite Five-0 in the butt somewhere down the road. The show has also made a few nods to Chin Ho's connection to McGarrett's dad in the past, so having their ongoing stories dovetail seems like the right play.
"Five-0" returns Jan. 3, and based on CBS' description of the episode, McGarrett's past will still be in the foreground. We'll be watching.
What did you think of Monday's episode?
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Photo/Video credit: CBS
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I literally forgot to breathe! Alex was amazing! James Marsters was awesome and Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Parks were wonderful. Scott was very calm tonight.
Hawaii 5-0 is one spectacular show! I can't wait until the Jan. 3rd!
Wo Fat!!! Sang Min!! awesome show!
I dont know if this is really considered a question-- It is definitely good TV show us the behaviors of the characters and leave us wanting more or asking questions.. I had some after watching tonight's episode of Hawaii Five O.. So the bad guys-- we knew about Victor being a bad guy Wo fat is we just met him-- but if the bad guys knew what Steve's father was investigating did they kill him for another reason not just because of Victor's brother? Is this money thing going to come back to haunt them later on? Interesting bonding expereince we now have this secret how legal secret i dont know--but secret between them...Was Steve's father investigating the mother's death or is there some yet unknown investigation that Wo fat doesn't want Steve to find out about? In a previous episode Chin thought his father was investigating the mother's death whom Steve thought was an accident-- and learned it wasn't--so did the bad guys know the mother and somehow invovled or could this be another mystory another investgation we don't know about yet? Was there another reason Victor destroyed that money-- or was it just for a surprise factor-- he was very specific when he demanded the ransom millions of dollars... is there something to why Chin knew where to find the money and had the blue prints for the place where the money was kept hidden in house? Maybe this is nothing-- maybe this is just me not thinking about how it is only December and there won't be any NY Mets baseball games for a long time-- but these questions did pop into my head after watching tonight's episode.. We also don't know what happened to that other bad guy who was in jail and then helped Victor--..
I wasn't too impressed by the look of Wo Fat (he looked more like a businessman than a dangerous arch-villian), but knowing now that the character is being played by Mark Dacascos, an actual martial artist, makes me feel better.
Finally this show got interesting with the arrival of Mark Dacascos as Wo Fat. Up to now carrying the show rested single-handedly upon Scott Caan's shoulders. Alex O Loughlin looks like he's doing the viewer a favor by granting you his insufferable presence. James Marsters is a good actor but let's face it, he's pretty washed out compared to his Spike days. Bring on the Cha Cha Chairman, he's definitely the first major eye candy in Hawaii-5o and he can definitely act! He's going to be evil to perfection!
I love the show and really enjoyed last night's episode. I love the underlying story being built into the background of the case-of-the-week. Definitely looking forward to January 3.
First time I've watched it since the first episode and I thought it was really good.
Kept my interest all the way through and I may have to check it out after the holidays since I have that time slot open in my repertoire. LOL
I enjoyed the show, as a viewer who normally watches Castle in that time slot. I got one big laugh thanks to the censors I suppose, when they drove up and Danno said something like, "what is this, a chicken fight?" Has CBS banned the term "cockfight?"
...Rick Porter, thank you! for this news item; it's like you read my mind because, well, it's hard to admit but H5-O was becoming that kind of show to me, that I watched while doing stuff around the house...and last night that changed, OMG, loved the episode but now I'm all concerned about the 10 million dollars thing and Daniel Dae Kim was amazing; well, all of them; I'm particularly impressed also with Alex O'Loughlin physical prowess; does anyone know if he does his own stunts? and even if he doesn't, great stunt work and the editing too...Look forward to Jan3!...
The characters are building on me. That's always a good thing.
I think though, that we need to move character back stories a little faster than they are doing already--except for Danny, it's moving as swiftly as a snail. Even then, it's nothing more than his divorce, his daughter, and his temper.
When I first reviewed this after the pilot, I thought it was a miscast in Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park--I still feel that way at times. And their characters still haven't been fleshed out very much IMO.
About that $10m that the guys stole, I think it's likely to pop up again very soon, and there is going to be a lot of crap going down as a result.
My TV viewing has gone down significantly, so I'm only watching about 7 shows a week. Hawaii Five-0 is one of them. My long time procedural drama addiction has narrowed, which is sad, because they're still good--I just had a hard time watching some of the shows.
Loved it. Loving this show. Looking forward to January.