by todd » Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:34 amAs part of my recent Season 12 tour, I watched "Who Says Cops Don't Cry" tonight.
This was a better episode than the high-potential but uneven "A Lion in the Streets", but was not without flaws.
The most interesting (and realistic) character in this one was Ben Dawson, the older brother of the leader of the 4-person gang committing check cashing place robberies around the country. Ben is clearly exasperated with his no-good sibling, Lloyd, and reluctantly patches up a bullet wound in his leg, sustained during the last robbery. Ben is constantly torn between helping his troubled brother (who trots out the usual "This was my last job" excuse) and steering clear of the whole thing.
Complicating matters is the fact that the last job resulted in two deaths -- one of a police officer just about to join Five-O, and the other a young woman who was part of the gang.
Sharon Farrell played Lori Wilson, the widow of the killed officer, and also an HPD cop herself. Lori spends much of the episode attempting to track down the killers. Oddly, she never brings Five-O in to help when she gets leads, presumably because she is grieving and wants to kill the men who killed her husband.
William Smith (Kimo), in his second episode, does a much better job in the dramatic scenes with Lori than he did in "A Lion", where his acting was quite poor. Kimo's character was used well here, as he essentially suffered the same tragedy (cop whose spouse was murdered).
The three bad guys were written fairly well, and Lloyd's two henchmen were menacing and scary, which was a far cry from the comically inept henchmen working for mob boss Alika in "A Lion". Lloyd himself was clearly a sociopath, shown near the beginning of the episode to have little care for the fact that two people died during the last robbery, including the woman in his gang who was apparently in love with him.
It was disappointing to see Lloyd arrested at the end, while his two henchmen were killed. I was hoping Lloyd would be killed, but he was left alive in order to provide the (rather predictable) dramatic scene where Lori has a chance to kill him, but instead chooses to make him drop his weapon and allow Duke to arrest him.
Sharon Farrell's performance was mostly good, though she's strangely smiling during the shootout in the first scene. As mentioned in Mike's review, we were shown a gratuitous shot of Sharon Farrell's nice legs as she undressed in her house (shown from an angle where we can only see up to her thighs), and she curiously left her high heels on during the undressing routine. Clearly the heels stayed on in order to make her legs appear more shapely for the camera. Jack Lord directed this episode, so it's very possible that this "peep show" scene was his idea!
There were a few problems with this episode.
The actor playing Lori's husband was awful, and seemed to have trouble saying his few lines. This was problematic, as it was tough to take them seriously as a couple while the actor was constantly stumbling through his sentences. He appeared to be a Hawaii local, so that probably had something to do with it. Five-O had a habit of hiring local actors with little prior experience.
McGarrett inexplicably had to "go to California to testify" in an unnamed case. It is not clear why this was written into the plot, as he returned not long after leaving, and in fact made a phone call back to the Five-O office from a pay phone in "San Francisco" (conveniently indoors, meaning Jack Lord never left Hawaii). This "trip" was referred to several times during the episode, and was pointlessly distracting. Perhaps this was written in order to give the temporary to spotlight to Kimo (still a new character to the show), but it would have been much better if they removed this nonsense "trip" and let McGarrett direct things, as usual.
Lori displayed a shocking lack of curiosity after being introduced to Lloyd via his brother Ben, who believed her to be the dead woman's estranged sister. When it became clear that Lloyd was being evasive, Lori simply walked out, "hid" in plain sight, and then panicked when she noticed Lloyd's limp (indicative that he was the one shot in the leg during the robbery). When Lori noticed the limp, she seemed shocked -- as if had previously believed that Lloyd was innocent!
As Mike mentioned in his review, it was also far fetched when Lori found a discarded shopping bag from the Island Market in Lloyd's trash, and deduced that was his next target.
Overall, this was still the best episode of Season 12.
I might skip watching some of the subsequent Season 12 episodes, because I remember them being really terrible.
by ringfire211 » Fri Jun 02, 2017 12:08 pm
we were shown a gratuitous shot of Sharon Farrell's nice legs as she undressed in her house (shown from an angle where we can only see up to her thighs), and she curiously left her high heels on during the undressing routine. Clearly the heels stayed on in order to make her legs appear more shapely for the camera. Jack Lord directed this episode, so it's very possible that this "peep show" scene was his idea!
Yes indeed! Sharon had some spectacular gams!! Having her keep her high heels on definitely helped.
I agree that Kimo and Lori worked well here because both suffered a similar loss so they were in a way "kindred spirits" (if just for one episode).
I don't recall the "actor" who played Kevin, Lori's husband, to be particular bad or good. I don't recall him stumbling over his lines either but maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention. If it was really obvious I'm sure I would have spotted it. Ultimately he was only there to be killed and to kick off the story so I suppose he served his purpose.
The ending was of course predictable. You knew Lori would find her husband's killer and try to kill him and of course McGarrett would talk her out of it. That's par for the course in stories like these. And by season 12 you knew they weren't going to try something edgy or different. That ship had sailed. Besides, the good guys weren't allowed to kill bad guys in cold blood back in the day. I suppose they could have come up with a scenario where she killed him in self defense but they decided to go down the standard "moral high ground" ending.
In 1982 MAGNUM PI had the classic episode 2-parter "Did You See the Sun Rise?" where the hero (Magnum) kills the KGB villain (played by Bo Svenson) in cold blood in the climax, with a freeze frame when he fires the fatal shot. That was considered controversial at the time time because a hero wasn't allowed to kill in cold blood. A hero was supposed to be "nice" at all times. It was especially powerful because it was Magnum, a pretty laid back and easy going guy. Not a rabid law enforcer like McGarrett or Kojak.
by John Chergi » Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:14 pm
Todd and Ringfire, I think A Lion In The Streets and Who Says Cops Don't Cry are the best episodes of Season 12. I thought the shooting at the check cashing place was cumbersome. There were different angles as Lori and the robbers were shooting each other. Lloyd was one of my least favorite characters in the series. I wish he got blown away at the end. Ben was in a difficult position with Lloyd as his criminal younger brother. Family and blood loyalty is strong in most families. I think having Lori as a member of HFO was a smart move and progressive as more women were joining the police force in late 70's. I think most of the Classic HFO fans would agree Season 12 was the worst of the series. McG and the Governor were wearing down with advancing age and many regulars Chin Ho, Danno etc were gone. It would be interesting if they could have spun off Kimo and Lori in a new HFO series after HFO but Magnum was ready to go. JC