J. Sterling

No doubt Hawaii Five -0 was cutting edge when it started in 1968, It is amazing how a group of pacific islands always seemed to have very good weather when the shows were filmed. I have the original 12 season DVD's and watched them all. It seems the show started out at full steam but lost some speed as the seasons went on and by the tenth season, as Chin Ho Kelly remarked and left the series as well, the scripts got stale . Another face I recognize from an earlier film called the Bedford Incident was James MacArthur. The structure of the story telling became predictable from seasons 10 -12 the story always seems to wrap up in the last 15 minutes. Worse off there were some repeat story bases used twice in two separate episodes, this happened 2 or 3 times, the story plot is obvious, when they did this, the copy episodes were too predictable and I lost interest watching them. Mostly the series was good and it has been said due to this series being filmed there, it was a massive boost for the tourist industry in the Hawaiian islands. The one thing I discovered is that Steve McGarrett tried making his man in charge image similar to James Bond. Strangely enough, Jack Lord did have a part as Felix Liter in the 1963 James Bond film, DR.NO. McGarrett's authority within the islands jurisdiction I can understand but the episodes where he leaves the U.S. in pursuit of the villains like he was a secret agent who can work with impunity while stepping on the toes of foreign authority figures. Wo-Fat, the uncanny way he seems to escape capture after a plot fails is the same as a typical James Bond super villain, he ducks out to return another day. In closing it was a cutting edge police drama that holds the record for longevity, no other police drama comes close. Plus the music theme on the titles is well known and unforgettable. Maybe they should have taken into consideration things may drop off and ended the series before season 10 or at least have the last episode where he finally takes Wo-Fat out of the picture permanently. Aloha Hawaii Five 0, you will remain as a part of Classic Television History.