ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 6:08 pm
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 4:11 am
Pahonu noted the last two seasons aren't that great but I'm on season 10 now and that isn't exactly going gangbusters either. Something just seems to be missing from the series, it doesn't snap,
I keep waiting for those terrific moments that occurred right before suddenly fading to the shot of ocean waves, then a commercial.
You hit it square on the head, Dobie, when you mentioned those commercial breaks with the ocean wave. That's what really sets season 10 apart from the earlier seasons and that's what immediately got my attention when I was going through season 10 on Netflix some 12 years ago or so. All too often these "commercial waves" come in when nothing particularly shocking or exciting is happening on screen. Too often you find yourself yawning during these "wave" breaks because nothing exciting is happening. It's simply time for a commercial break. This was never the case during the earlier seasons. Sure, there were some exceptions but by and large the "wave" breaks came in during something pretty exciting happening on screen. Something that made you perk up. Season 10 was the first season where this no longer seemed to be the case. That's why most folks agree that season 10 is where the show for the first time seemed to lose some major steam and displayed a pretty big step down in quality. You can definitely feel it. Even though the core 4-man team from season 9 is still there (McGarrett, Danno, Chin, Duke) you can tell that this DOES NOT feel like an extension of season 9. In fact there was a change in producers and writers right at the start of season 10. Robert Janes is probably the #1 new name that you see from here on out that you didn't see before. He wrote like half the episodes this season. Writers like Jerome Coopersmith or directors like Michael O'Herlihy are gone by this point. I don't know if it was the new writers/producers or just the general trend TV took at the time but the show definitely felt different starting with season 10. More laid-back, lack of urgency, not as gripping. Seemed like they were coasting, reusing a lot of plot points from earlier seasons but with none of the excitement or sense of danger. McGarrett began to slow down, started being more preachy and philosophical. Lots of special favors for the governor this season that McGarrett had to handle (often to his dislike), many dealing with various high society or snooty friends of the governor.
I know that different folks have different opinions about when Five-O was at its peak. Generally season 6 is considered to be the show's peak - some of the most disturbing episodes aired during that season ("One Big Happy Family" and "Nightmare in Blue" in particular). Then there was a slight drop in quality starting with season 7. Some feel that the show rebounded with season 8. Personally I feel that season 7 is stronger than season 8 and that season 9 is stronger than season 8 also. But these are minor quibbles. The bottom line is that even if there was some drop in quality it was pretty insignificant. Those seasons still offered some knock-out episodes. Not so with season 10. My favorite from this season is "Tsunami". But that's about it. All the others are watchable in their own right but none of them really grab you in any significant way. There was a clear downward shift with season 10. No doubt about it.
Ivan,
The above was in another thread but your response was so informative and detailed and summed up the later seasons so well I thought it should be here for all of us Hawaii Five-O fans.
One damn fine post! Thank you!
I am up to the 9th episode of season 10 and Chin of late seems to have at most one line, or worse, McGarrett merely tells Duke to "go get Chin and check it out"
without an appearance onscreen. Maybe he was ill at this time? I know from previous mentions in this thread that his character leaves the show in later seasons, were the producers
already easing him out by slashing his screen time? I feel bad about this as he once was a veteran HPD cop in real life and he added a lot to the show and no doubt gave insight on scripts
if they went too far afield from the way the police behave in real life.
On another subject, "One Big Happy Family" from season 6 is one of my favorites so recently I was checking it out on various sites.
I would remind everyone it was a brilliant, chilling look at a family of white trash whose banal and pointless killings of over 150 innocents across America, for literally pocket change,
had escaped the notice of the authorities simply because they were such insignificant, pointless wastes of space that they were practically invisible.
Perhaps the writers were making a larger point on such poverty stricken, poorly educated people being overlooked by society, instead of being helped?
So that in a sense they were striking back at their tormentors?
That would be the case if this were a Stirling Silliphant script for "Route 66", that society had decreed by it's ignoring and dooming of them that they had no value as humans,
so was it surprising this family in turn viewed society at large in the same manner?
Of course I could be way off regarding the writer's intent, but I have been re-watching "Route 66" and those scripts too can have so many layers it is an axiom you have to watch
many of the episodes 2 or 3 times to "get it".
One last thing, at another Hawaii Five-O site a "fan" named Otto commented on this disturbing, horrifying episode thusly:
"That's one sick episode. I love it. I'm laughing just thinking about it."
Okayyyyy. This guy is the kind that snaps and goes on a crime spree and when the neighbors are asked about him, they invariably say "he was a quiet man".
Otto, please don't move to Jersey. I hear Pahonu has many nice things to say about California and the climate is much warmer.