Over the last several days, I have binge watched the two-part episodes and those that are two hours long. It offers an interesting cross-section of the series. I skipped "Cocoon" and the Vashon trilogy in this binge. The shows I watched:
Season 1: "Once Upon A Time"
Season 2: "Three Dead Cows At Makapu'u"
Season 3: "F.O.B. Honolulu" and "The Grandstand Play"
Season 4: "The Ninety-Second War"
Season 8: "Murder Eyes--Only"
Season 9: "Nine Dragons"
Season 11: "Number One With A Bullet" and "The Year Of The Horse"
Season 12: "A Lion In The Streets"
It's interesting to watch McGarrett taking things so personally throughout the shows and to say he takes his job seriously is an understatement. This seemed to be the one constant from start to finish.
Truth is everything to McGarrett and he was hell bent to root it out, no matter the costs. The personal price he paid is higher in some episodes than others. As well, he showed compassion to several characters throughout this particular grouping. An interesting contrast is how he treated others in later seasons compared to how he treated his sister with tough love in Season 1.
McGarrett also had no time for peoples' games. The best example: dealing with Jonathan Kaye in "Three Dead Cows" and "F.O.B. Honolulu." It's interesting that Joseph Sirola portrayed Kaye in both these episodes. The chemistry between the pair was tense and perhaps some of the best interactions between the characters. McGarrett repeats himself in this aspect in "Number One With A Bullet" dealing with gangsters Tony Alika and Allie Francis and his disdain for General Oban and Luke Sandover in "The Year Of The Horse". Never mind Alika's reappearance in "A Lion In The Streets". McGarrett still has no patience for the kumu head. The bottom line: McGarrett doesn't like it when the bad guys run roughshod over innocent people and that seems to be a theme throughout.
These episodes, at times, were worse than NBC's "Law & Order" with the episodes starting in one place but wind up with endings that may not be foreseen at the beginning after multiple twists and turns.
Another constant was McGarrett working alone. The team who backed him was either trimmed or non-existent. Danno showed up in them the most, except for the second part of "Once Upon A Time" (McGarrett was solo in LA) and not at all in "A Lion". (In my opinion, Danno had the patience of a saint at McGarrett's outburst in "Once Upon A Time" by the way.) Danno helped out in "Ninety-Second War" for just a bit and accompanied McGarrett to Singapore in "The Year Of The Horse". Chin Ho had an even less presence and Kono even less than Chin's. Duke was almost an afterthought at times, except in "A Lion" where his presence was almost needed under bad circumstances. Ben didn't show up at all because the seasons where he was present there were no two-parters (the Vashon trilogy occurred on Ben's watch, though). Finally, Kimo and Truck showed sporadically in "A Lion".
Wo Fat was up to no good in four of the episodes and two aired back-to-back (sort of). "The Year Of The Horse" ended S11 and "A Lion In The Streets" kicked off S12.
These two-parters/two-hour episodes proved to be a nice slice of the series. That's my take, anyway. Everyone's mileage may differ.
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