Catching Up: Hawaii Five-O

As new television episodes continue to be sparse, I feel it’s fitting to offer a short write-up on those shows that I abandoned in terms of weekly reviews for the site but kept up with throughout the season, at whatever pace.

After a strong pilot, my interest waned in the successive episodes and I stopped covering this show after episode three and, like with “The Good Guys,” have only stayed on to recap it every week for TV Tango’s Rapid Recaps & TV Web-bits From Last Week. The difference is that this show is a bona-fide hit, and it is considerably better than FOX’s recently-cancelled entry. The best part by far is Scott Caan, who just snagged a surprising but well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nod from the Golden Globes. I’ve read elsewhere that one of the show’s biggest successes, at least for network CBS, is finding a fitting role for star Alex O’Loughlin, who meandered on both “Moonlight” and “Three Rivers” despite turning in his best work before any of that during season six of FX’s “The Shield.” In any case, he’s a good anchor for the show, and it’s fun to have the wisecracking, constantly complaining Caan by his side. Fans of “Lost” and “Battlestar Galactica” will likely be disappointed by the lack of much to do for formerly beloved stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, but I guess they contribute to the scenery on the show. That’s one place in which this show does not lack for anything – its use of Hawaii locales is simply terrific. And its action scenes ain’t bad either, especially when O’Loughlin’s Steve is behind the wheel and Caan’s Danno is sitting terrified in the passenger seat. The individually themed episodes are occasionally effective, like the death of Kono’s surfer mentor, whereas everything involved Steve’s family hasn’t been oh so strong yet. I also have a memory of a particularly silly scene in the most recent episode – in which Steve and Kono were after James Marsters, the man who murdered Steve’s father – where Kono rolled out of the back of Steve’s truck as his designated sniper and did a hilarious little turn on the ground as if someone who was watching wouldn’t have spotted her when she bailed from the truck. But for the most part, this show does well enough, and it’s passingly entertaining if nothing else. While I have yet to catch up with “NCIS” and “NCIS: Los Angeles,” both of which I left behind after their season premieres, this is my token procedural of the week, and it’s fun enough.