Where did it all go wrong?

[mach440]

Well somebody's gotta start the first Five-Zero thread so I guess I'll give it a shot.

I remember back in the early 2000s, learning from Mr. Mike's fantastic website about all the years of failed projects and aborted attempts to revive/re-launch/reboot the classic Hawaii Five-O, until that night in September 2010 when the new version finally went live.

I was pretty excited and hoping for the best, and the pilot episode was definitely a winner in my opinion. It seemed to show the appropriate 'reverence' for the original (i.e., cleverly using the phrase "Book 'em"; explaining the origin of the name "Danno"; the subtle lurking presence of THE Mercury Marquis in Steve's dad's garage), while also obviously updating and creating new characteristics for a 2010 audience. The production values and effects were dynamite, and the cast was attractive and ready for action.

But somewhere along the way during the 9 years since that auspicious premiere, well, it's pretty obvious that the show has had some real high points but sadly lots and lots of craters as well, and not just the Kilauea kind.

Was it the stupid "carguments"? Was it the over-used and inappropriate gore and mayhem? I'm not sure if there was a single point when Five-Zero "jumped the shark" (although the words "McGarrett's Mom" certainly come rushing to mind) but in fact, like Mr. Mike and others seemingly have done, I've actually sworn it off a few times and stopped watching (although still recorded), but must admit somehow I keep getting sucked partially back in by the periodic better-than-usual episodes.

So I guess if anybody's interested, feel free to chime in about whether one particular thing turned you off, or just the overall vibe, or is it still "must-see-TV" for you? As for myself, the only thing for sure is that once they moved to Friday nights, it didn't take long before I found myself transitioning from occasionally leaving the TV on afterwards to check out this "New York cop show", to where I'm at now, a full-blown Blue Bloods fanatic. Nowadays I don't really worry too much if I happen to miss some or all of this week's Five-Zero, as long as I'm in my comfy chair tuned to CBS by 10pm every Friday night for the latest episode in the Reagan family saga!

[Todd]

I agree with a lot of what you said.

They have definitely had a lot of stupid episodes in there. There's been some good ones, some okay ones, and some stupid ones. More stupid ones than there should be, and a lot of stupid mistakes which shouldn't be happening in a big budget production show.

Some of their missteps were mind-boggling.

The restaurant fiasco was one. It seemed like literally nobody liked it. The restaurant was originally conceived as an "out" for Danno -- to give him a satisfying end to his storyline if Scott Caan chose not to return. Once Scott returned, they could have easily dropped the whole idea until he either left the show in a future season, or the show was about to be cancelled.

Instead, they foolishly went ahead with the frustrating and tedious ongoing story of the trials and tribulations with trying to open a restaurant. I know they watch social media. I know they had to be aware everyone hated it. So why go on and on and on and on with a storyline everyone detests? Finally they got the message and put the storyline to a merciful end, but far, far too late.

Here are some other things they do which I really dislike:

- Emotional storylines about new characters (friends, relatives of the main characters) that we're supposed to care about, but simply can't because these are new characters

- Offscreen deaths of major villains (they have done this several times in the past few seasons, and it's so anti-climactic)

- Long "Ohana" segments at the end of certain episodes. One per year is too many!

- General time-wasting with nonsense, and then not having enough time to flesh out the main storyline. Notice the best episodes are the ones where they don't do that (such as Season 9, Episode 17).