Watching Hawaii Five-0 (CBS)

There is no new show I’ve been looking forward to checking out more than the CBS re-boot of Hawaii Five-0, and it’s not because I’m looking forward to the modern-day re-working of the ultra-catchy theme song (although I am). It’s not because after six seasons of LOST I’ll pretty much watch Daniel Dae Kim clip his toe nails on television (although I will). And it’s not because here and there I’ve caught magazine photos of Alex O’Loughlin with his shirt off.

No, the reason I’ve been looking forward to the re-launch of Hawaii Five-0 is simply because I have been inundated with images of the super-sexy cast on every bus, billboard, bench and Slurpee cup that has passed my eyes since late July, ocean water splashing up against their heaving torsos and steely eyed glares.  How could I not be primed?

I have never seen a single episode of the original Jack Lord Hawaii Five-0, so the fact that I was this close to marking the days to the premiere off my calendar means the CBS marketing team in charge of this show deserves a solid round of applause.  I’m not one to be easily suckered in.

My only concern with all of the indistinguishable procedural crime dramas already clogging up CBS’s primetime schedule was that Hawaii Five-0 would end up being nothing more than CSI: Pukalani. Happily, that was not the case.  If the pilot’s follow-up episode is half as good, ABC’s Castle has some new serious competition for Mondays at 10.

O’Loughlin plays Commander Steve McGarrett, an honored Naval officer transporting a sinister terrorist with an even more sinister Irish accent through South Korea when his cell phone rings. On the other end is the terrorist’s brother, one Victor Hess, who’s currently holding a gun to McGarrett’s father at their family home in Hawaii. The negotiation is simple: brother’s life for father’s life.

McGarrett’s father is briefly handed the phone and desperately apologizes to his son for having lied to him, about what we (and Steve) are left to wonder.  McGarrett and his men are then immediately ambushed in one of those rousing TV action sequences -  heavy gunfire, helicopters, and exploding armored vehicles flipping over - the level of which we only ever get to see in television pilots and season finales.

After McGarrett is forced to kill his prisoner, Hess lives up to his end of the bargain, and before the first notes of that theme song we all know and love commence, we’ve got a vendetta, a potential season-long mystery, and a solid intro for our main character.

McGarrett promptly returns home and is met by the Governor of Hawaii (Jean Smart) who invites him to head up her special task force. She makes him an offer: pursue the criminals she wants captured and she’ll afford McGarrett whatever resources he needs to find and take down Hess. McGarrett sternly refuses. We can imagine how long that will last.

Scott Caan plays Detective Danny “Danno” Williams, who has re-located to the Island to be near his daughter from a failed marriage.  Williams is smart-ass and by-the-book, while McGarrett is a no-nonsense rule-breaker.  There’s a love connection written all over this.  Let’s get these two kids together.

The “cute meet” finally happens after McGarrett sneaks into the taped-off crime scene of his father’s house and locates a mystery key along with a tape recording from his father indicating that the key “has all the answers.”  Williams, in charge of the scene, catches him and orders him out, so McGarrett simply calls the Governor, accepts the position as head of her task force and immediately takes the crime scene’s charge right out of Williams’s hands.

The reluctant pairing of competing hot heads is now in place.  Let the investigation begin.

Daniel Dae Kim is introduced as McGarrett’s high school buddy and former police detective, Chin Ho Kelly, whose hard-wiring into the island allows him to open doors and get McGarrett and Williams to resources even the Governor can’t access.  Throw in Kelly’s cousin, a tough surfer chick named Kona Kalakaua (Grace Park) who looks good in a bikini as well as her undies (the bikin in Park’s first scene, the undies in her second), and you’ve got yourself a well-balanced, solidly-acted action/adventure A-Team that should  be able to stand up against the winds of challenge for at least five or six television seasons.

From there, it’s not exactly new territory.  A blonde in a bikni, a third-string bad guy with dreads and nose ring, a little human trafficking, a physical altercation between our two leads that quickly melts into a grudging respect, and a final shootout on a Chinese friehgter where McGarrett takes a few licks but manages to blow Hess away and still find time to work in a “Book ‘em, Danno!”  (that’s a nod to the original version of the show for the TV tykes out there).

Too much time should not be spent analyzing the progression of the story, as repeated analyses might turn up some shaky plot turns, but for the most part the pilot managed a nice balance of character introduction, plot exposition and well-shot action sequences.  An eight million dollar budget probably didn’t hurt.  Throw in some stunning shots of the island’s coastline, palm trees and sunsets, and you’ve got a pretty entertaining Ground Zero.

O’Loughlin has bounced from several failed CBS dramas (Moonlight and last year’s Three Rivers), and he’s got the leading man beats down pat.  Caan does a little too much “hand acting” (once I noticed, it was impossible to ignore), but he doesn’t take the smart-alec angle of his character into obnoxious territory.  Daniel Dae Kim did little more than move along the main plot, but establishing him as a wronged cop thrown off the force for taking money indicates he’ll have arcs of his own in coming weeks.  Grace Park may get the chance to shine as well in future episodes, but here she was pretty much just used as (stunning) eye candy.

Hawaii Five-0 doesn’t have to re-invent the wheel here, but if it continues to look sharp and avoid an excess of cop show clichés, it could turn into a drama viewers find themselves constantly rewinding to watch moments again, rather than blasting throughin order to free up DVR space.  I’ll definitely be back next week, for the theme song if for nothing else.

Tags: Alex O'Loughlin, CBS, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, Hawaii Five-0, Scott Caan