Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Third Season

Five-0 fans, cop show fans in general, and fans of classic television will thoroughly enjoy HAWAII FIVE-0: The Third Season, which I just received on DVD.
This is the season where the show really hit its stride. Virtually every episode in this season is a winner: solid, suspense-filled, action-packed mysteries with gorgeous scenery, great musical scores, a supremely talented cast and a nice group of guest stars, including Martin Sheen, John Vernon, Vera Miles, Pernell Roberts, Anne Archer, Eric Braeden, Gary Collins, Diana Muldaur, Hume Cronyn, Monte Markham, Sorrell Booke, Tim O' Connor and many more, including the return of Khigh Dhiegh as arch-villain Wo Fat, who appears in not 1 but 2 thrilling espionage adventures.

These episodes appear to be complete based on their 50-minute or more run times, despite CBS DVD's now-standard disclaimer that says "some episodes may be edited from the original network versions". No music appears to be altered, either.
Every single episode from season 3 is included, and as a bonus the episodic promos are featured for most of them. THese promos have not been shown in syndication and probably haven't been seen since their inclusion during the original network run.
The episodes appear to all be digitally remastered as with the previous seasons and have never looked more vibrant, along with animated menus, 6 discs each with 4 episodes and disc art, and a nice summary of each episode on the 3 slim cases housing the discs.

Stories include Wo Fat's attempt to steal counterfeit currency plates (a 2-part adventure); a baseball hero's son is on the run after witnessing a murder (another 2-parter); Kono getting caught by kidnapers while saving a young child, McGarrett's ex-fiancee is framed for murder; Dan runs the show after McGarrett is injured in a bomb blast; Dan is out for vengeance when his girlfriend is brutally murdered, thieves execute a clever diamond heist; a professional assassin falls in love with his intended victim and fakes her death from his boss; and a wily thief taunts McGarrett with Monopoly clues about his heists. Plus many other fantastic episodes. This season is where the show really hit its stride and became the slick, popular crime adventure everyone remembers.

Worth every penny!

Nothing lasts 12 years without having something going for it. In the case of Hawaii Five-O, it easy to dismiss it as a typically television crime drama that got lucky by finding its audience and keeping it. The same could be said for Law and Order. Except, in television years, luck usually runs out after two or three years. Gimmicks get old, the formula is figured out, and sharks are jumped so often they don't even complain.

But shows that last five years, much less 12, have to have something besides luck, gimmicks, and great scheduling. Hawaii Five-O had a number of things going for it. First of all, let's be honest. The setting was, and still is so lush and exotic that it is easily intoxicating. Hawaii is beautiful, and most people either live there or want to live there. Filming on location has always been a blessing when it's been done, and probably no more so than on this series.

Next, Jack Lord, playing Five-O chief Steve McGarrett, was one of a long line of no-nonsense law enforcement figures. The strength, integrity, and dedication of these kinds of characters cannot be overstated, and these characters will always have lots of fans rooting them on, not unlike Law and Order's Jack McCoy.

Finally, watching shows like this is always a treat because you see so many stars that were either big stars enjoying a working Hawaiian vacation, or lots of up and coming stars before they got their big break. Hawaii Five-O was a natural draw for both categories, and it's fun to watch them and remember when.

It's also fun to remember when you could look forward to hearing one of the best and most recognizable theme songs in television history. Not a small thing when you add it with the other factors. Hawaii Five-O had a lot going for it then, and it has a lot going for it now.

Hawaii Five-O is one of my five favorite TV dramas of all time, the others being Star Trek the original series(is there any other?), Hill Street Blues, the original Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. Five-O has always been sadly underrated; TV Guide didn't rank it in its top 50 shows of all time(a list that included Friends and The Oprah Winfrey Show, but neglected to include Star Trek or Homicide...either I have no taste or, well...), and some reviewers at other sources describe it as a standard '70's police drama. Five-O was anything but standard, in fact it had its own individual style, a combination of a slambang opening credits sequence(which begins with the visual motif of a threatening tidal wave and is set to the most exciting theme music ever), of gritty performances, outstanding music that was no small factor in setting the mood of the show, exemplary pacing, atmosphere(especially the bona fide Hawaiian scenery, alternating between lush vistas and seedy urban backdrops) and rock solid writing, which included some very ingenious and even bizarre storylines that ran the gamut from pulse-pounding international espionage to moving human drama. Five-O was a very quirky show, featuring a diverse cast of recurring character actors who represented all facets of Hawaiian life, and frequently investing as much time and emotion in the travails of the guest characters as on McGarrett and company. A fine example of this is the episode The Grandstand Play, in which the presentation of Five-O's investigation into the murder of a socialite at a ballpark is continually interrupted in order to focus on the life of the young man who witnessed the crime, a mentally challenged teen and son of a famous ballplayer, thus creating a special kind of empathy with this fully realized character. Another frequent charge against the show, that McGarrett and his detectives were mere automatons, is totally baseless. Jack Lord, in particular, was expert at portraying all kinds of emotion, incredulity, indignation, disgust, anger, contempt, compassion, abject despair, although he was rarely overwrought, usually a strain in his voice or a pained twitch in his features was enough(watch the ending of Trouble in Mind) and in effect he functioned as the show's conscience, its moral barometer. McGarrett was a good cop who made no apologies for this, part idealist, part cynic, concerned about the environment, with a love for the islands and their people, a man who allowed the cases to get to him, but not to the point where they affected how he did his job. Viewers today might find that cheesy, but I think it's refreshing, and there is a huge difference between the straightlaced but very human McGarrett and the by the numbers to the point of being downright stiff Joe Friday. Finally, some people who compare Five-O to modern cop shows decry the lack of elaborate plotting, the "twists" if you will, but Five-O has twists, it just doesn't inundate the viewer with them the way contemporary shows do(my beloved Law & Order included), which makes for a more direct, perhaps more realistic, often more satisfying watching experience.

The first two seasons of Hawaii Five-O are excellent and well worth owning, but this is the year where it really comes together. The show is more consistently great this season, with more classic episodes than the previous years and fewer weak ones. My personal favorites include the gut-wrenching Trouble in Mind and To Kill Or Be Killed, the haunting Force of Waves and Paniolo, and the ingenious caper episodes Over Fifty? Steal and Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart. This season also includes a couple of great two-part episodes, F.O.B. Honolulu in which foreign agents, including the ubiquitous Wo Fat, bargain for plates that would allow them to create counterfeit twenty dollar bills, and the already mentioned The Grandstand Play, one of Five-O's most unique human dramas. I'm not wild about the episodes The Last Eden, Beautiful Screamer or Dear Enemy, but a mere three episodes out of twenty-four that I would classify as mediocre add up to odds I'll take any day of the week.

It's true that the extras are skimpy on these sets, but I'm not much of an extras person, I'm happy just having the episodes, especially when they're remastered to this degree. The picture quality is sharp, fantastic, the scenery is lovelier than ever...for the best evidence of this, check out the episode Paniolo, much of which takes place in the green mountains of Maui. Breathtaking!

People new to the series might consider starting with this season since it represents Five-O at its best, then going backwards and watching the first two, but really, all of the seasons so far are worth seeing, as are the next several. They can't release these things fast enough for me.