What I knew Going In: “Book’em Danno!” Du-du dudu du duuu, Du-du dudu duuuuuuuu
I’ll admit I wasn’t even aware this was a thing until very recently. I knew of the old series of Five-0 but never watched it, I was too young. The theme tune, however, has been ingrained into me from god knows where for a good period of my life. The fact there was a new iteration of the show somehow shot straight past me and in fact the blame for me now delving into the new and updated series falls squarely onto the shoulders of my new girlfriend. Had she not introduced me to the series from her own love of it I would most likely have passed it by without a second thought, and what a mistake that would have been!
All the old characters from the original are back in new forms, apparently. As I said I haven’t actually seen the original but I was pretty sure the character of Danny was in it as someone had to be “bookin’em” and I took the educated guess that McGarrett was a revived character too. On my google search to confirm this I found that all of the team were in fact characters from the original series! Sure, some may have undergone sex-changes in what was likely an attempt to break from the male dominated late 1960’s setting of the original but they’re all there right down to the series antagonist! This makes the whole thing seem like more of a remake than the re-imagining I assumed, the faithfulness of which I obviously cannot begin to speculate.
Ex-marine Steve McGarrett is tasked with leading the newly established Governor’s Task Force and brings on police officer Daniel Williams (affectionately known as Danno, thanks to his daughter) as his partner after they have a stand-off in Steve’s dead father’s garage. No really, that’s the extent of how they know each other…
Not a lot of explanation goes into why McGarrett keeps Danny around after the events of the pilot episode but whatever his reasons the viewer is glad of it! Steve’s gung-ho navy seal and Danny’s ‘by the book’ police officer make the perfect buddy cops. Steve will do whatever it takes, such as dangling a suspect off a building or using a grenade to open a locked door, whereas Danny is left to despair as he tries to stick to the moral code of his police training. Neither is afraid to call the other out on the shortcomings of their individual approaches either and this is where their relationship hits screen gold. On more than one occasion I remarked that I could easily watch a full 40 minute episode of just the two of them bouncing off each other.
Filling out the rest of the team we have Chin Ho Kelly, an ex-cop with a corruption charge falsely (this is expanded upon later) pinned on him, and Kono Kalakaua, Chin’s cousin fresh out of the academy and thrown right in at the deep end. Again, Kono’s inclusion in the team is not really explained past her initial usefulness in the pilot but I guess with all the free reign Steve has been given he can just pick whoever the hell he wants. All of this uncertainty becomes irrelevant once the show gets into its stride though as the team works well together and the show itself is thoroughly enjoyable with its jazzed up theme tune and just past believable tech. It’s not quite CSI:NY levels of unbelievable, mind you, but placing a mobile phone onto the touchscreen desk and having it read the internal memory…really? Plus, going back to the theme tune, it’s one of those that doesn’t half climb into your brain and burrow into the furthest recesses. I have annoyed at least three people by whistling the tune as I wrote this review and that doesn’t include my own urges to gouge out the part of my brain responsible for playing it on repeat and slowly turning it up louder as I’m trying hard to concentrate.
On a small tangent, I would just like to make the observation that Chin really does love his shotgun! While McGarrett may sometimes show up with an assault rifle the majority of the time the team relies on small arms when forced into gunfights. Not Chin Ho Kelly though, oh no he is bringing his shotgun whether it is called for or not! Raiding a drug den? Shotgun! Saving a hostage? Shotgun!! Sneaking into a warehouse full of gang members to take them by surprise… Shotgun? It got to the point eventually when seeing him in the odd gunfight without the shotgun became strange to me. But hey, Chin is a badass so he plays by his own rules and so far it seems to be working for him…
The ending to the series was fantastic, a definite cherry on top of the cake that was the series as a whole. Within the course of 40 minutes all the threads that had been left dangling in front of the audience (and a couple you didn’t even realise were relevant) were pulled together effortlessly. The cliffhanger we are left with did not feel forced as many season endings seem to and you are left feeling that this is not a situation the characters can just resolve within the first few minutes of season 2.
All in all watching season 1 was a very enjoyable experience and I find myself raring to go for the second season and, as luck would have it, the first disc is already here waiting for me. I will be bumping the other seasons up onto my high priority list, if not only because I am told by my dear other half that I “Have to see the shark episode!”
PS. Since liking Hawaii Five-0 on Facebook I have had suggestions to join multiple groups proclaiming Steve and Danny as the perfect couple/soulmates. I couldn’t agree more guys! 😀
600 Plus and Counting 