A L O H A!
What a jazzy Hawaii sky.
Eighth notes? NO, SIXTEENTHS!
"Shoulder the sky, my lad,
and drink your ale."
A. E. Housman
and drink your ale."
A. E. Housman
"The brain is wider than the sky. "
Emily Dickinson
“An inexhaustible good nature
is one of the most precious gifts of heaven,
spreading itself like oil
over the troubled sea of thought,
and keeping the mind smooth and equable
in the roughest weather.”
Washington Irving
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Hawaii 5-O has been a clear success for CBS this season and WILL be returning in the Fall.
As A local I'm thrilled that the show is actually good.
And what a season finale!
Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen the show yet,
read no further.
First of all I gotta say that the camera-work makes our island and our town look GREAT.
The writers do make our relatively safe home seem dangerous - but that is the price you pay
for hosting such a show. The original cast did, after all, save our islands from super evil
criminals every week.
I was happy to see one of my favorite new hang outs featured in the NEXT to last show;
The Downbeat Diner was a great location to bust into and make an arrest. The place has a bar,
and All American food like breakfast and burgers, plus a front row seat on the urban circus
that IS Honolulu's famous Hotel Street.
What I especially appreciate is that I can get my burger
made with Big Island (Hawaii) grass-fed beef, and my friends can get ANYTHING in the place
made full-on VEGAN!
Masi Oka will be coroner on the show next season as a regular cast member. But just when we
thought that lovely Kelly Hu had cinched a recurring role, she got BLOWN UP REAL GOOD
in the opening moments of the finale!
Didn't see that coming.
And now that we are really getting fond of the characters and loving their team,
it looks like 5-O is coming apart at the seams.
The normally boring, plot device
that is the trusted Governor
(who formed the 5-O team)
turns out to be in bed with the super criminals
that Steve McGarrett relentlessly hunts!
I had wondered if Jean Smart would be back in that previously placid role next season.
(Hawaii did replace our female gov
with a male in the last election.)
Well Steve answered that question definitively
with a gunshot to the gubernatorial chest!
I know politicians are unpopular as a caste right now,
but what a shocker.
Shocking and (dare I say it?) satisfying.
"Take THAT you lying scum bag!"
So Steve ends the season charged with murder.
Kono (played by Grace Park)
is picked out of a line-up.
Danny (Scott Caan) seems headed back to the East Coast with his formerly estranged
wife and lil` daughter ( cute local Teilor Grubbs);
Yummy Daniel Dae Kim
finds himself back on the HPD police force
with a promotion
and the job of arresting his friends!
Not too shabby, writers.
Threaten the thing we love,
and make us know how much we love it!
I can hardly wait for next season.
We all know that this popular show
will be back next season,
and not just to send McGarrett to prison.
But HOW will this audacious show wrap up all this amazing tumult?!
Who will play Hawaii's new TV governor,
Arnold Schwarzenegger?
How will Steve and Kono be cleared?
Will Danny's X-wife really leave her
millionaire developer?
This show has shown a willingness
to dare amazing plot lines.
What will they do next?!
Rumor has it that big time stars
are lining up to play guest shots
just like on the original show.
Diddy may even be back.
So be there- ALOHA!
Do stop by 'comments' cloudia
BONUS POINTS:
Obscure show paved way for Hawaii police dramas
By Lee CatalunaPOSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 21, 2010
That the reboot of "Hawaii Five-0" is doing so well at a time when scripted network dramas are desperate to come up with salable ideas says a lot about the durability of the cops-in-paradise genre.
But long before "Five-0" and "Magnum, P.I." showed up, a formulaic little drama called "Hawaiian Eye" plowed a path that all of the Hawaii-based TV shows would later follow.
Off the air for nearly 50 years and too obscure to be captured on some meticulously restored DVD set, "Hawaiian Eye" is hardly revered or even remembered by fans of Hawaii-based TV shows, probably because so little of it was actually shot in Hawaii.
But in four seasons on ABC, the show probably did more to plant the balmy idea of Hawaii in the minds of middle-class Midwesterners watching TV on wintry Wednesday nights than any glossy magazine spread.
From a tourism marketing standpoint, the timing of "Hawaiian Eye" couldn't have been more perfect. Premiering in October 1959, only months after statehood and simultaneous with the start of regular jet service, the show capitalized on the Hawaii craze that swept the nation.
The show, about a detective agency based at what was then the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki, followed the adventures of Anthony Eisley and future "Wild, Wild West" star Robert Conrad, punching out bad guys, rescuing beautiful guest stars and doing a lot of smoking.
To local audiences, there was an added treat. Comedic actor, singer and nightclub performer Poncie Ponce got co-star billing (along with Connie Stevens) as the resourceful cab driver Kim Quisado, whose far-flung collection of cousins, uncles and nephews could always be counted on to provide a crucial bit of information from the "street."
Ponce was one of the first Filipino-American actors to get star billing on a network drama.
A few clips of "Hawaiian Eye" are posted on YouTube, including the amazing opening credits that captured Conrad and Eisley surfing off Waikiki. (While Conrad was a natural athlete, Eisley looks a bit shaky on the board, making you wonder how many takes were required to get the shot.) Connie sits safely in a canoe. The scenes are long and slow and sometimes go on for minutes without lines of dialogue while the soundtrack plays.
Besides Ponce, the best part of the show is the most contradictory. While the old "Five-0" is beloved because it's shot on location, "Hawaiian Eye" is hilarious because it was shot on the Warner Bros. lot in Hollywood. Most scenes take place indoors. The set for downtown Honolulu, the scene of an armored truck robbery, looks suspiciously like Gotham City from "Batman."
The show may not have been faithful to Hawaii's scenery, but it got the genre started.
But long before "Five-0" and "Magnum, P.I." showed up, a formulaic little drama called "Hawaiian Eye" plowed a path that all of the Hawaii-based TV shows would later follow.
Off the air for nearly 50 years and too obscure to be captured on some meticulously restored DVD set, "Hawaiian Eye" is hardly revered or even remembered by fans of Hawaii-based TV shows, probably because so little of it was actually shot in Hawaii.
But in four seasons on ABC, the show probably did more to plant the balmy idea of Hawaii in the minds of middle-class Midwesterners watching TV on wintry Wednesday nights than any glossy magazine spread.
From a tourism marketing standpoint, the timing of "Hawaiian Eye" couldn't have been more perfect. Premiering in October 1959, only months after statehood and simultaneous with the start of regular jet service, the show capitalized on the Hawaii craze that swept the nation.
The show, about a detective agency based at what was then the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki, followed the adventures of Anthony Eisley and future "Wild, Wild West" star Robert Conrad, punching out bad guys, rescuing beautiful guest stars and doing a lot of smoking.
To local audiences, there was an added treat. Comedic actor, singer and nightclub performer Poncie Ponce got co-star billing (along with Connie Stevens) as the resourceful cab driver Kim Quisado, whose far-flung collection of cousins, uncles and nephews could always be counted on to provide a crucial bit of information from the "street."
Ponce was one of the first Filipino-American actors to get star billing on a network drama.
A few clips of "Hawaiian Eye" are posted on YouTube, including the amazing opening credits that captured Conrad and Eisley surfing off Waikiki. (While Conrad was a natural athlete, Eisley looks a bit shaky on the board, making you wonder how many takes were required to get the shot.) Connie sits safely in a canoe. The scenes are long and slow and sometimes go on for minutes without lines of dialogue while the soundtrack plays.
Besides Ponce, the best part of the show is the most contradictory. While the old "Five-0" is beloved because it's shot on location, "Hawaiian Eye" is hilarious because it was shot on the Warner Bros. lot in Hollywood. Most scenes take place indoors. The set for downtown Honolulu, the scene of an armored truck robbery, looks suspiciously like Gotham City from "Batman."
The show may not have been faithful to Hawaii's scenery, but it got the genre started.
