by Mr. Mike » Sat Oct 22, 2016 8:43 pm
http://www.fiveohomepage.com/2010-log7.htm#5
by todd » Mon Oct 24, 2016 10:00 amHaven't watched this yet, but I see that it's another episode about gun control.
I skimmed your review (didn't want to read it in full so as to not give away anything before watching), and saw the description of the gun control debate between McGarrett and Danno.
I know you didn't like this, and maybe I won't when I actually see it, but at first glance I'm happy that's in the episode. At least it seems to present both sides.
Classic Five-O had two gun control episodes ("Diary of a Gun" and "Use a Gun, Go to Hell"), neither of which were good, regardless of where you stand on the gun control issue.
I respected Classic Five-O for usually avoiding taking sides on political issues. For example, while the villain in "Mother's Deadly Helper" was clearly a right-wing fanatic, they made sure to skewer the left-wing as well, presenting lefty talk show host Freddy Dryden as an insufferable jerk who McGarrett hated. McGarrett also stated at one point that extremists from both sides were equally dangerous and troublesome.
I even noticed that the show took a shot at Hawaii's lack of death penalty in "The Case Against McGarrett". Despite being an uninspired follow-up to the excellent "V for Vashon" episode trio, it did include Vashon saying something like, "What consequence? I already have life in prison. What are they going to give me? More life?"
I generally didn't get the idea that Classic Five-O was a left-wing show or a right-wing show, but more of just a police procedural which didn't try to take sides. The gun episodes were the exception, and those didn't sit well with me.
by Mr. Mike » Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:03 pmLOL, looks like much of the reaction at the CBS Facebook Five-Zero page to the last episode rivals my own!
https://www.facebook.com/HawaiiFive0CBS/
by todd » Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:37 pmJust watched this tonight.
I didn't hate it as much as Mike did.
As mentioned in my previous post, I appreciated the "gun debate" presenting both sides.
I agree that a gun control episode wasn't really a good premise for Five-0, especially given how this show basically glorifies extensive gun battles.
In general, shows like this should stay away from current events "issues", as it's rarely a good look.
The whole scene at the beginning with the bulldozer was rather pointless, and it seemed the producers just wanted something flashy to grab people's attention. The entire goal of this was to kill the social media gun maven, so that could have been accomplished in a lot simpler of a manner than staging a crazy robbery of a gun store and then selling the stolen gun to the gun maven!
It's not even clear why the villain stormed the Hawaii Supreme Court and risked being stopped by security. He could have accomplished the same thing (getting on TV while holding hostages) by taking hostages in a much less secure location! At first I thought he was going there to kill pro-gun judges, but that wasn't the case. He just wanted hostages! Odd.
Mike said that he "puked" when the images were shown of the villain and his son in happier times. I actually though this was effectively done. As a father of a son only a few years younger than the villain's son in the flashbacks, I was able to relate. Every grieving parent of a tragedy that befell their child flashes back to the days when the child was young and carefree, and I can only imagine how painful that must be..
I did find it a bit anti-climactic that the villain simply walked out and gave himself up after a rousing speech by Danno on the phone. That's really all it took to stop this rampage?
Regarding the Adam story with connecting the girl with her dad, it was a bit predictable, but at least not much time was spent on it. I actually thought the emotional moment at the end, despite being predictable, was also done fairly well, so this one didn't bother me.
I hate much more when Five-O spends a whole lot of time in an episode setting up emotional crisis for characters we don't know or care about, such as McGarrett's aunt, Danno's mom, McGarrett's sister, Jerry's sister, etc.
This one with Adam and the former cellmate went fairly quickly.
I agree with Mike's assessment that the Chin story regarding the drug dealing family of Gabriel's daughter is slow and frustrating to watch. They give it about 3 (meaningless) minutes per episode, and it never goes anywhere. How about just tabling the whole thing until you're ready to flesh out the climax of that story?
Does anyone know what's up with Masi Oka and his absences, explained by the "Doctors Without Borders" crap? First he's leaving, then he's gone, then he's back, then he's gone again. Is Masi working on something else right now?
In general, Danno has been kinda unlikable this season. Anyone else getting that? And I'm not even sure if it's being done on purpose.
by todd » Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:44 pmBTW, as an aside, I believe the social media gun maven they presented was a fictional version of Dan Bilzerian.
Here is a story about him in GQ Magazine, where I am briefly mentioned: http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/th ... -bilzerian
by Mr. Mike » Sat Oct 29, 2016 9:16 amSomeone else didn't like the Oct. 21st gun-related episode:
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/erik-soderstrom/2016/10/27/hawaii-five-0-blames-gun-nuts-mass-shootings `