The Steve McGarrett Story – No # 158 (Epi 7:15)

 

I have really been struggling to find anything (good or bad) to say about this episode. Other than usual, this time I even kind of looked through what others had to say and complain or comment about, just trying to get something to say or respond to.

And then going through some old posts of ours, I came across these words from Alex, and I agree fully with him. Any story, however dark it might be, needs a mix of humour to make it more human.

There’s a lot of serious stuff that we do in the show. A lot of crime solving, a lot of bad people in it. You’ve got to have humour around the edges, to lighten it up. Otherwise it’s too much, it’s too intense. It’s too, you know….. And I enjoy being part of that too.

– Alex O’Loughlin, Press day interviews for Belgium TV, Sept 2011

But it made me wonder, are they trying to add too much humour? Is it just around the edges or are they trying too hard? Or is the balance just right for this type of show?

At first while watching this episode, I had the feeling of the Hawaii Five-0 from Season 1 and 2. And then BOOM, I realised the two stories are not related and we have this split episode thing from Season 6 again. 😦 And things got distracted and rushed. But regardless of anything I am saying from here on, I actually enjoyed this episode. And I apologize in advance that this post maybe got a little more philosophical and critical than the usual fun. And it looks like in the end I had a lot to say …….

So many of the episodes lately, felt like filler episodes. And once again it felt as if it was just made to fit around the schedules of all the main cast members, rather that just a crime story playing out normally for itself and entertaining us.

Just some random thoughts while I watched and read ……

• I have seen many complaints about Grover and the kids and the pancake scene being useless. My question is, was it more useless than many of the other opening scenes on every episode? Don’t we normally have a scene, with nothing related to the actual crime, that introduces it? And some of them are pretty lengthy as well.

Koala Smartass: Question remains, are they always too long and useless, or was it just this time? Would you not rather have something about the team and the ohana being used, than just some random people?

• I have said it a few times before, but I think the writers either are too lazy to think how solving the crimes should play out, or they think we are bored with following the story of solving the crimes. For many episodes in the past few seasons it is as if they rush through the stories, leaving us disconnected from it.

Koala Smartass: Think I have said this before, but this is not Columbo you know? And we live in an era of fast food and lack of focus on just one thing. People do not want to concentrate. Who have to  be able to tweet without losing half of the story, you know. You are a bit old-school by asking for substance.

• Maybe I am just stupid, but I want to be drawn into the story of these once off characters and care about what happens. I wanted to care about Alana and her love for her dad. Don’t tell me somebody who was sheriff all her life, just suddenly turn that bad. Show us what happened and why she felt that it was her only option to kill the girl to protect her dad. What if there was more to the family? The story could have had so many more layers than just a middle aged woman we lead a good life, but in a moment defends her dad. To her he must have been as a good man, regardless of what he did as a 19-year-old soldier 72 years ago. Did she always know who he really was? Where is the full picture?

Koala Smartass: Maybe you just expect too much?

• Over the past 4 seasons since Scott Caan started on a reduced filming schedule, most of the time people complained and say they want to have an explanation given in every episodes of why Danny is not there. Sometimes there were actual things they could use and many times no excuse at all. But then the writers started writing weird excuses as part of the show …. But really this time they really came up with one of the worst excuses ever – Steve leaving Danny to solve Kamekona’s labour dispute, after they just said that it was not their jurisdiction? Well, most of the excuses this season have just been utterly ridiculous. Danny is loading the car, Danny is tired and will go fetch the kids and go home now, Danny went away with Melissa for a quickie after he came back from ‘loading the car’ in Mexico. (Well maybe at least that last one did randomly mentioned the existence of the ever missing girlfriend, Melissa, again)

In my opinion – if Scott is not there, just don’t mention Danny. They do not try to explain why, when any of the other actors or characters are not around or missing during the investigations. Why explain his absence?

And please, before anybody jump on their high horses and say I hate Scott Caan – I don’t. It is his choice and maybe his fans should support him for that.

I also can’t stand it if Alex is not around for a big part of an episode, and we often complain a lot if we do not see much of him in that episode. That is just because we are missing him, because we watch for him. But if Steve’s absence can’t be explained within the flow of the story, I feel they don’t need to bother with some stupid excuse to justify why he is not there. He just is not there ….

Koala Smartass: Yikes, you really have a strong opinion about this, don’t you? Maybe you should have just suggested that the show should have dropped him after Season 3? After all, main cast is main cast and not support cast for random episodes. And fans are invested in characters and want to see and follow the show for the ones they like.

• Although distracting and utterly stupid, I kind of liked how they had this whole story with Kamekona and his workers and everybody from Five-0 coming to him for different reasons, and how his daily life goes by as “snitch” for Five-0. It kind of made a connection with the team in the whole split cases episode.

Koala Smartass: Yes, it is great that the characters of the show have a “normal” daily lives and a personal stories. It helps us to know them all as people and connect with them and see how they connect. Just a pity the fringe characters in the show many times have more story of personal lives than the actual main characters like Steve.

• And the shark fin / big game hunter story – why did we not see arrests for the restaurant owners who sell the soup etc? There were so much more of this story to tell. Definitely important enough issues, that it could have been all on its own as a story.

 

Koala Smartass: Apparently the writers have so many stories they still want to tell, that they have to cram as many as they can into one episode now. #sarcasm

• What concrete evidence did they really have to arrest Alana? Was there any physical evidence linking her to the crime? She might have aided  a criminal (her Nazi dad) to get away. And he might be too old to be able to hit somebody to death and get rid of the body, but is that evidence of her guilt? It could have been anyone.

Koala Smartass: This is the story or “Book’em Danno” – how they get there to the booking of the perp and after that actually convicting the person, with a good case that they have built, does not matter. You should know that by now. This is just kick-ass “Five-0” NOT “Law and Order” or “CSI” after all.

• And is the aging program on a computer really sufficient evidence to arrest somebody for war crimes? I would think more physical evidence and investigation would be necessary for that? Not just the heartbreaking story of an old man who did not even know his persecutor’s real name.

Koala Smartass: Messing with the sentiment in the show again?

• Oy, for me playing  “What a wonderful world” seemed and felt a bit inappropriate. Nobody won and nothing was wonderful.
  1. A man who was stupid as a teen in the army of a very bad man, did some atrocious things, which his young impressionable mind thought was part of the job – and he should account for that. He tried to do retribution for that for 72 years, but without a proper trial and a conviction and punishment, that will always fail.
  2. His daughter who seemed to have been a law-abiding and general good citizen up until now, paid for her father’s sins, and became a murderer.
  3. And a young woman carried her grandfather’s burden for so many years and went searching for his tormentor. What did she gain by trying to confront or shoot Tomas herself?  Was she any better for trying to be a vigilante and without a trial, kill this man? She, not only lost her own life, but also gained nothing. Would that really have meant anything to her grandfather had he still been alive, that she found this man, just for her to lose her own life over this?
  4. Poor Bill not only lost some of the few friends he had in his very secluded life, but he also had to learn that they were bad people.

Nope show, that is not a wonderful world. No matter what sentiment of justice you want to carry.

Koala Smartass: Society have rules for a reason. Trying to take the law into your own hands is never a good idea. I hope that that was what the show actually tried to say, and not that finding such a war criminal after so many years, at such a high cost, made the world a wonderful place.

Just as a last thought, I want to mention how much I loved the last scene between Steve and Bill. It was heartbreaking stuff, and Alex and Max Gail played it perfectly. Such a pity that this type of subtle display of great acting (or just being your character), rarely get any praise from the producers, while praise for overacting for playing it large in some obvious scenes by others, are shouted all over social media.

Just know this Alex, we see you!

And hopefully some producers will soon see you and your dedication to your craft, and cast you in great projects in the near future.

And that was Steve’s  story for:

Hawaii Five-0 – Episode 7:15

Ka Pa’ani Nui (Big Game)

Or maybe it was “Itzhak’s Choice”

Written by: Helen Shang

Directed by: Bryan Spicer

 

To be continued  …….