REVIEW: ‘Hawaii: Five-0 (2010): The Complete Series’ on DVD
Image courtesy of CBS / Provided by official site.
When the Hawaii: Five-0 theme song comes on, doesn’t a chill run up and down the spine? Keeping Morton Stevens’ instrumental work for the reimagined series was the smartest move the producers made. Other choices, not so much.
The original series ran for 12 years, from 1968 to 1980, and was highly influential in the police-procedural TV genre. The remake found success on CBS, running for a decade, from 2010 to 2020, and now that the revamped version has hung up the guns one last time, the network has decided to release Hawaii: Five-0 (2010): The Complete Series on DVD.
Each and every episode is included on this mega-set, allowing viewers the chance to relive the adventures of Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), Danny Williams (Scott Caan), Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park) and Kamekona (Taylor Wily). It should be noted that only O’Loughlin, Caan and Wily made it to the bitter end, while Kim and Park jumped ship after seven seasons.
The premise for the show, which is quickly put into action in the pilot episode, involves a police task force that answers to the governor of Hawaii. Headed by McGarrett, a Naval officer turned police official, the team has no rules to follow and almost no consequences to their actions. So … yes, the show feels a bit dated.
Ostensibly this task force is meant to stop the bad guys who look to the islands of Hawaii with capitalistic dollar signs in their eyes, and that means there’s a lot of over-the-top violence, drug smuggling and gang warfare. Plus, given the location, audiences can expect plenty of sunsets dripping into the azure horizon, quick edits of surfers catching a wave and sweeping drone shots of the lush countryside.
The show is hyper-masculine, kind of like a buddy-copy movie, and the acting is intermittently successful. O’Loughlin doesn’t have the requisite charisma to hold the viewer’s attention. Caan has several humorous moments, but Park struggles with the believability of her role. Kim is definitely the best of the bunch, no doubt because he’s a seasoned veteran to the environment thanks to his many years on Lost.
It’s a small miracle that Hawaii Five-0 made it 10 years. That might speak to the accessibility of the series, which is highly watchable thanks to its “bad-guy-a-week” structure, or it might be due to the paucity of quality entertainment on network television. It became a default show for viewers looking to enjoy somewhat mindless action sequences and, of course, the best part of the series: that Hawaiian landscape. No matter how contrived the plots or unremarkable the characters, Hawaii Five-0 could not lessen the wondrous impact of that beautiful state and its island environment.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Hawaii Five-0 (2010): The Complete Series is now available on DVD from CBS. Special features, including music videos and documentaries about the series’ impact, can be found on an extra disc. Click here for more information.
