by John Chergi » Wed Jul 06, 2016 6:17 pm
I recently watched East Wind, Ill Wind Season 10 HFO. Had seen pieces of that episode over the years. What a brilliant episode! The photography and direction 5 stars and a brilliant plot. The lady's fake drowning was well-done and the underwater scuba diver drowning the good Samaritan helping a nice twist. The perfect crime but there's a witness. A mute lady who was with the exiled leader. The young woman had suffered from torture and other atrocities by the country's secret police. Who can she turn to? Who can she trust? The case looks like an open and shut case of accidental drowning. McG decides to investigate the case further when the exiled leader's widow believes her husband was murdered. He was in Hawaii to give a speech on the country's atrocities and human rights violations. This would cause embarrassment to that country and he would have to be silenced.
East Wind, Ill Wind shows Classic Hawaii Five O was steaming ahead even in Year 10. It is an incredibly intelligent and detailed episode with many twists and turns. It's probably the best of the Season 10 episodes with Up The Rebels. I give East Wind, Ill Wind 5 1/2 stars out of 6.
by ringfire211 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 6:52 pmI agree that "East Wind, Ill Wind" is a good season 10 episode. I actually like it more now than I once did.
My top 3 from season 10 would be:
1. Tsunami - dir. Harvey Laidman
2. Deep Cover - dir. Steven H. Stern
3. A Death in the Family - dir. Don WeisHonorable mentions: Angel in Blue, Up the Rebels
by Matt » Mon Aug 29, 2016 2:40 pmOn a more technical issue, does anyone know if the Season 10 episodes have been remastered for the complete series box set? The prints were famously awful on the original DVD release, and a clean up for the big box set might tempt me to bu it.
by Mr. Mike » Mon Aug 29, 2016 8:13 pmThe answer to your question is Yes. As per Jeff's review of the box set (this is the one issued in 2013):
The discs all feature colored disc art (different from the individual season sets' discs) but the content (menus, episodes, etc.) is exactly the same as the original releases. The exception to this are the season 10 discs, which feature the same menus but have pristine new episode transfers, matching the quality of the other remastered seasons
by Matt » Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:12 pmThanks Mike - sorry I missed the review.
by todd » Thu Sep 08, 2016 1:36 amThe show should have ended after season 10.
The final two seasons were pretty bad, and honestly most of the episodes were worse than even the most ridiculous of New H50 episodes.
I felt original Five-O was best in seasons 4-7.
by ringfire211 » Thu Sep 08, 2016 10:33 pmtodd wrote:The final two seasons were pretty bad, and honestly most of the episodes were worse than even the most ridiculous of New H50 episodes.
I couldn't disagree more strongly with this statement. It's just the opposite - even the weakest episodes of the old show were better than the "best" episodes of Five-Zero. Fact is that the new show simply isn't any good, no matter how hard it tries. Whereas even the weaker seasons of the old show were still good. I mean if you were to transport me back to the 1979-1980 season I'd still be watching Five-O. Why? Because what are my alternatives at that time? CHARLIE'S ANGELS? HART TO HART? LOVE BOAT? DALLAS? CHiPs? DUKES OF HAZZARD? No, thanks! I'll stick with something a bit more grown up. The old show simply had a winning formula that it followed, so even when the episodes got repetitive or a bit stale later in its run it was still following the same old formula. It's like an old pair of shoes. They're not what they used to be but they're still comfortable. Whereas the new show, 6 seasons in, still hasn't found its groove or figured out what it wants to be. That's the basic difference between the 2 shows.
by John Chergi » Fri Sep 09, 2016 3:08 amRingfire
Must agree that Seasons 10-12 Classic HFO had some good episodes and a few in my Top 50 of the Series. East Wind, Ill Wind, Death In The Family, Number One With A Bullet, A Lion In The Streets, Up The Rebels to name a few. It's amazing the intelligent episodes of Classic HFO written and produced without the high-tech computers and gadgetry of 2016. Steve's brilliant mind, old fashioned detective work, and the wizardry of Che in the Crime Lab solved plenty of episodes. Proud to be still watching Classic HFO 36 years later.
by ringfire211 » Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:56 amThat's just it, John. Old fashioned detective work, hitting the streets, using the old powers of observation and deduction. That's what made the show enjoyable. So even with a weak episode you could still count on these things. That's what made it work. No magical all-knowing computers, no stupid carguments, no bizarre convoluted plots or soap opera asides. Just old-fashioned police work. So give me McGarrett investigating dog-nappers or doing jury duty over any of the stuff that we see on the new show.
by Mr. Mike » Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:48 amCan you imagine what would happen if the new show had an episode where McGarrett was called for jury duty?
If the other members of the jury weren't voting the same way McGarrett was, he would thrust them face-down into the toilet in the jury room and flush it until they changed their minds!
by ringfire211 » Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:17 pmI can totally see him doing that to the other jurors. Might be entertaining, come to think of it. Might compel me to tune in actually.
by todd » Mon Sep 12, 2016 5:47 pmSeason 10 had some good ones. It wasn't bad.
However, seasons 11 and 12 (especially 12) just weren't very good. There were a few decent ones here and there, but the series was honestly pretty bad at that point.
As great as Jack Lord was at playing McGarrett, he wrestled too much creative control for himself, thus resulting in the series quickly declining at that point.
Season 12 without Danno was especially disappointing to me.
I am one of the younger classic Five-O fans. I was only 8 years old when the last episode broadcast, and I was 3 1/2 years from being born when the pilot first aired.
I didn't watch the show until I was an adult in my early 20s, catching it in late night reruns.
This gave me a different perspective than many of you who watched it on a once-per-week basis over a 12-year period.
I got to "binge" on Five-O more, and could quickly see the marked degradation of the show starting from season 11.
by ringfire211 » Tue Sep 13, 2016 6:51 pmI'm even younger than you, todd. I was born AFTER the show finished its run so I definitely never got a chance to view it during its primetime run. In fact I was born exactly a month before MAGNUM, PI aired its pilot episode in late 1980. My immersion in this show was all thanks to years and years of reruns. What was especially cool is that they used to show these episodes back-to-back in the morning hours so I got a chance to catch 2 episodes every day instead of just 1. This of course made the 12 seasons quicker to get through. I sure miss those carefree younger days. But there's just something about the show that even when you're watching one of the later seasons (yes, even season 12) you still find yourself enjoying it. As I said, it's like an old pair of shoes. It's comfy and familiar. No one is going to argue that season 12 was by any means a great season (William Smith in some of his scenes was downright atrocious as Kimo, something I've mentioned in another thread here) but you still had the Five-O team solving crimes the old-fashioned way and Jack Lord was the glue that kept it all together. Plus the beauty of Hawaii was still a draw. Same thing with the music scores, something that can't be said about the new show.
by North » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:19 pmRingfire, perhaps the generation gap is affecting peoples opinion of the last seasons. what I mean is that for youngsters like you you only have experience of watching an already classic show but older fans are affected by how the show fit in its day. The earlier seasons of H5O were a big deal at the time as the show was new and had a modern hip new feel and energy to it. The middle seasons the show traded new energy for a solid formula and quality writing of well developed characters. The last seasons however were showing their age and the show had a "yesterday" feel to it at that time, the stars were old and tired from many years of hard long hours but most importantly the style of the show was out of date. The best example of this is the show you mentioned, Magnum, for whatever you think of it today at that time it was cutting edge with much deeper development of the characters personal life, ensemble cast versus the old star system etc.
By the late 70's H5O was an old over the hill show, no insult intended, how many shows last 12 years?
by ringfire211 » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:42 pmNorth, well yeah that makes sense of course. But I'd still take the latter seasons over whatever else was dished out at the time. Let's face it - the late 70s was definitely not a creative peak for television. Not even close!