Hawaii Five-0 – Mo’ guest stars, mo’ problems

It’s been a weird sort of week for me for a lot of reasons no one cares about, like my computer imploding. But one super-weird thing about my week was definitely Hawaii Five-0.

Normally, when I tell people how much I love Hawaii Five-0, I get a lot of incredulous looks and raised eyebrows, and I’m forced to explain that it’s really a great character show that’s only the vaguest of tributes to the original and is nothing like a normal procedural drama, and how great the acting is. It’s one of those subjects that people walk away from discussing with me a half hour later kind of dazed and wishing they’d never brought up in the first place.

But this week, I felt like I was watching a completely different show. The writing was weird, the characters seemed inconsistent, and P. Diddy (Puff Daddy? I can’t keep up with his moniker of the week)… well, let’s just say it’s lucky An was up for a little back and forth she said/she said to sort through this mess of an episode.

An: I said this a few months ago when H5-0 had Nick Lachey, CSI had Bieber, and CSI:NY had Neo (or is it Ne-Yo), but what is up with the fading pop stars? Unfortunately, two months later, CBS allows their ghosts to haunt us again with Puff Daddy.

Julia: But, see, Nick Lachey wasn’t so bad. And he looked like a master thespian compared to … whatever he’s going by these days. I was rooting for him to be secretly awesome but everything he did was so stiff and robotic.

An: I give them an awesome high five for pulling in Keith David as the main guest star. I’m really sorry The Cape didn’t make it. I watched it for him alone. He and Ray Wise should do a remake of ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ together. And I didn’t know Selita Ebanks played Diddy’s wife until I checked IMDb. She actually did a better job of acting than PD, himself.

Julia: I think the worst thing about Puff-whatever was that the show was so centered around him. In the past when Hawaii Five-0 did stunt casting, they were smart enough to have the person in question not the main character of the week. We lost the team interaction which is so integral to making the show great, and when you lose that, it suffers. A lot.  And I don’t know who wrote the episode, but their grasp of the characters seemed kind of off.

An: Awesome McG quote of the week: “Lady, I answer to God and to the governor, neither of which is going to help you now. So, take a seat.”

Julia: See to me, that was the most off moment of the episode. I mean it was a kickass line, don’t get me wrong. but Steve’s done a lot of things and intimidated a lot of people, but bringing God into it isn’t his style. He’s more of a fists (or grenade) meet face sort of dude. I mean that’s the only time I really could put a finger on a concrete moment where I was like “yes, that’s what I mean by off”, but there were a lot of times I felt like the whole thing was written by someone who had seen one episode once and then tried to write the characters while distracted by YouTube videos. (Not that I have any experience with that.)

An: I loved watching Danno pull a Chin Ho on Kono. But, what’s up with Kono pulling a McGarrett on the video pole?

Julia: And that was my redeeming moment of the episode. But also, it was at that moment I went “Hah!”and decided you owed me twenty bucks. Because remember when I argued that Kono was Steve’s protege and just as crazy as him and you called me nuts? I win! I will also accept my winnings in the form of cupcakes.

An: I’m glad they’re carrying over McGarrett’s cast; but, seriously, he goes surfing while in a full arm cast with plastic arm wrapping? What?! I stopped exercising for three years after surgery. I also want to add a high five for Kamekona as McGarrett’s butler.

Julia: He’s Steve McGarrett.  He keeps grenades in the glove compartment. He won’t be stopped by something like a simple broken arm. And I loved that Kamekona bit. He’s a fabulous recurring character and a really great way to tie into the uniqueness of Hawaiian culture without hitting you over the head with it. Seriously, spam, what is that?

An: Is it wrong that I’m drooling over the hotness of MacGarrett carrying a little boy in his arms?

Julia: If that’s wrong, I don’t think anyone here wants to be right.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Apr 20, 2011 @ 19:31 EST5EDT