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Hawaii Five-0

I took an hour off this evening to watch the new Hawaii Five-0. Its fun but they are trying way too hard to be Hawaiian and the dialog sounds like its written by someone who vacations in Hawaii for a week once a year. Kukui high school? Is their mascot a giant nut? "You speak da bird, huh, but you look haole to me." Who talks like that? Instead of trying to work in as much pseudo-pidgin as possible they should hire a local writer and teach the lead actors to at least pronounce major street names properly. Lead actor Alex O'Loughlin, whose character is born and raised in Hawaii, can't pronounce Kalakaua. I'm also amused by how many people in the show refer to him as haole. I haven't been called haole as much in the past 15 years as this guy does in an average day.

Finally, why do they keep mentioning 110 degree temperature? When does it get to 110 anywhere in Hawaii? They should hire a local consultant (Ryan Ozawa?) to tell them when they are being inaccurate or just plain awkward.

Regardless of its flaws, its a fun show. I hope it does well and brings a healthy chunk of change to our economy.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on September 29, 2010 at 2:22am

Warning: Minor Ep 2 Spoilers

Agreed, episode 2 sucked. Though at least they finally got one place name right (Kahana Valley). Still the way they name it just.. sounds wrong. Kinda like if I were to say "Waikiki Beach" everytime I mentioned it.. 5 times in 2 sentences.. and emphasized it repeatedly - rather than just referring to town or Waikiki, etc. Also I'm glad that Hawaii Five-0 has told me to never wear a tie again. I'm not sure exactly what it is.. they just painfully emphasize these things to the point where it sounds ridiculous. Part of the lousy screenwriting I suppose.

Their lame approach to some magical 'skeleton key' (a bunch of RAM lit with blue LEDs) that disabled our island's infrastructure was ridiculous though I suppose forgiveable relative to the nonsensical approach television takes with technology (Can you tell I hate Numb3rs?). I really enjoyed the horrible Serbian accent (I guess Serbia is the new Russia when it comes to cheesey bad guys?). "You should have done better job!". Ugh. Oh and when Grace Park pissed him off and he smacked her and she fell over sitting in the chair she was tied? Wow, that's brilliant. I've never seen that.. ever.

Listening to Grace Park speak pidgin uhh.. excuse me.. 'bird' is just too painful. Either get them coaches, hire some local actors for the 'local' parts or just don't do it.

Even 'local' issues aside, it's a dull formulaic plot that never places any characters in real peril and the good guys always win (though they may have to 'crack a few heads' to do it). The only question is which cliches will kick in to save the day. I assume the "writers" are using the spin-wheel/dartboard approach.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Eden on September 29, 2010 at 2:34am

I take back my previous comment. This series sounds so bad it'll probably last 10 years.

Permalink Reply by Johnson Choi on September 29, 2010 at 5:07am

Do you think we can get an opinion from people never live in Hawaii how they rate the show?

My father has 10 children. We had attempted to write a story about our family. In the end I had to abort the whole idea. The reason is getting the story right not offending anyone proof to be impossible. If I cannot get my other 9 brothers and sisters to agree on a family story about our father. Imagine how difficult to get 1.4 million people in Hawaii to agree on a story like Hawaii Five-O?

We may look at it from another angles i.e. if Hawaii Five-O could project a positive image about our great State in the eyes of people never been to or never live in Hawaii. Give this thought a try, may be we will be less critical.

Permalink Reply by Paul Graydon on September 29, 2010 at 6:33am

Part of the problem is the media companies are running scared of doing anything innovative right now. Pushing out a new Hawaii 5-0 is an easy way to fill a TV slot pulling on nostalgia to get the bums on seats in the first place. Beyond that they don't want writers to take risks, or push the envelope in any direction. Advertisers don't like it and won't risk placing their product near by.
TV shows like Lost shouldn't be such miraculous events in the industry. There are enough smart people out there writing but they entail such a large gamble for money why bother?

For what it's worth I'm not a fan of team-written shows in general. One or two writers with a vision can write something amazing. Stick 10-15 people around a table and all you end up with is a vague series of compromises for at least a couple of series until they start to get their feet grounded and all pointing in the right direction.

Hawaii Five-0

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