The Steve McGarrett Story – summarizing the run-up to #100 tonight

We continue our story from here

Wow, a hundred days ago we started our count-down and tonight we reach Episode 100. As far as I could see it is going to be a ‘What if ‘story. From what I’ve read, I’m guessing something like: What if John McGarrrett was still alive. What if Chin’s Uncle never stole the money and Chin was still at HPD and a Captain. What if Kono did not hurt her knee and was still a surfer. What if Danny was not divorced and living happily in Hawaii, driving his own car and sporting a Aloha-shirt and a smile.

It sounds like it is going to be a good fun episode with lots of drama, but I struggle to see how a scenario like that can give us any answers in our real story of Steve McGarrett as it is today. But maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Looks like the go-to thing for the big events in Hawaii Five-0, is some McG torture. And from the sounds of it, also a favourite with the fangirls. Seems some like our main man, Steve to be suffering a lot. 😕 Maybe some repressed S&M fantacies there? 😛

(I have this weird feeling, that if they are going to kill WoFat tonight, that it will be the beginning of the end, and that we can start the count down for the last 18 episodes of Hawaii Five-0)

Is Hawaii Five-0, the best series on TV today? I really think it had the potential to be just that. I think the cast members were well-chosen – pretty people who are known, but not too famous. They have all done their fair share of work in the past and all were a good fit for their roles. Although I can’t imagine anybody else in this role, the realist in me, still wonder if it might not have been easier on everyone, if they chose somebody that were more keen on doing a TV show (so far away from LA), for the part of Danny. Just maybe.

Who could go wrong with the pretty backdrop of Hawaii as another main “cast member” of a show. Add to that a wonderful stunt team, creating all the wonderful action scenes, while protecting the main cast against injuries. And week after week for 99 episodes, up until now, the writers came up with some very interesting cases to keep us entertained with. I am constantly amazed at all the different stories and new angles they produce. It is all a recipe for great success and by reaching the 100th Episode, with a following of millions of fans around the globe, they proved just that. They are good!

But what about the greatness? For me personally greatness could have been achieved if they kept on building on that exceptionally great Pilot episode (for me one of the greatest ones ever) that they filmed in March 2010. Maybe it could have been great if they adding to the good procedurals that were created every week, great solid believable arcs for the main characters (especially Steve’s Story). Not stories that become the whole show, but just ones that were consistently there, visibly running along and unfolding new avenues for character development. There are glimpses of stories there, some good, some bad, but just too haphazardly shown to create anything exceptional with it.

We have a wonderful baddie in WoFat, started with a corrupt Governor, mysteries around Steve’s parents, spies like Jenna who betrayed them, “problem” brothers & sisters, ex-wife’s and in-law’s etc. It is /was all there waiting for greatness, but never efficiently explored. There was the wonderful concept of the Champbox, just never fully utilised for greatness. After re-watching every single one of the 99 episodes (more than once) in the last 4 months, the lack of depth to the heart of the story, that was promised to us in the Pilot, stood out for me as the missing link.

I guess my question is, ‘What If, Steve’s story was told better over the years?’ Would that have made the difference between being good and being one of the greats?

I know the producers have a lot of people and factors to consider and take into account when they created this story and it all makes their job much more difficult than we could ever imagine. There is the Network who insists on creating procedurals, with minimum backstory (with their own good reasons). There is the problem of shooting so far away from LA, where the pool of support cast can be found easily. Lots of great guest stars are willing to go for a weeks holiday or so to Hawaii, but not many will put other projects on hold, just to shoot a few episodes per year as a regular character.

Then there are/were problems with the main cast. Alex being injured a couple of times and getting dependant on painkillers (during a big part of S2). Grace wanting to start a family and needing time off for that (at the beginning of S4). And Scott reducing his time in Hawaii, as far as we can see, being only available for shooting every second week (For entire S4 and S5). This is as far as we can gather from bts pictures, pictures from LA and also from his screen time, actually working with the team.

To write and do a production around all these issues, can be difficult……

Things that count in the favour of the series include, loyal fans of both the show and some of the actors – in our case purely watching the show because of Alex. Wonderful events like SOTB, creating a wonderful opportunity for both the fans and the actors to enjoy the uniqueness of Hawaii and the show. The willingness, if the actors to be available for promoting the show, some using social media to interact with fans as well. (Although this has also proven as being one of the problem areas)

It is definitely a wonderful occasion for any show to reach 100 episodes and that is also why we wanted to do or own tribute for it, by running with Steve’s story every day for the last 3 months. Although I voiced a lot of things that bothered me, there is one thing that keep us here – Alex with his talent as a great actor and his gorgeousness in general – physically and as a person. Even with everything we might find to complain about in regards to the show (everybody have their own preferences of what they like), Hawaii Five-0 and Alex still keeps us here and thoroughly entertained. And we’ll enjoy it for what it is……..

Who would say no to this?!

 

Here’s to 100!!

 

To be continued here

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