Hawaii Five-O: Any Fans?

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Double Exposure

Not so good in my opinion.

Meg Foster does a good job and I enjoyed seeing Danno's private life and making the moves on the ladies.

The Hyatt makes an appearance the way I remember it as a child. Even down to the narrow hallways and the cheezy 70s/80s wallpaper.

I thought the bad guy Mr. Weston was comically over-the-top (although not intentionally?).

McGarrett with an Uzi. Cool but silly but an exiting helicopter chase.

MPI: Seth Sakai, Danny Kamekona

I know that Mr. Mike is a big fan of this one and quite a number of Five-O fans too! Some would place it in their top 5 for the season. I personally don't rank it as high myself. I mean I do like it (don't love it) but it's not exactly a classic by any stretch in my book. I don't mind the romance between Danno and Meg Foster (it's kinda cute) but I think the power struggle between the 2 main gangsters is the real showcase in this one. I know you didn't care for Thayer David's portrayal of Weston. Personally I really dig the guy. He's got to be the most bizarre and ghastly looking character in the entire series! I actually found him more creepy than over-the-top as you did. I don't know if you've ever seen the Clint Eastwood spy flick THE EIGER SANCTION (1975) - the mountain climbing movie! Thayer David was equally creepy and ghastly looking in that one as Clint's reclusive albino CIA boss. I actually think they based his Weston character off of that bizarre character. Also, Seth Sakai (a local stock actor who typically had smaller roles) is equally memorable in an expanded role as the rival mob moss Vince who's "back from the dead". His bald dome (for the first time in the series!) and his large loop earring and the way he eats his bowl of fruit in a very aggressive manner ( ) are all highlights!! I also really like the opening inside Diamond Head crater where the guy gets chased down and then run over by the car outside of the Diamond Head tunnel in a pretty spectacular fashion!

So while the story isn't all that original (rival gangsters, romance, trying to knock off a witness) it's the 2 main gangsters that are the highlight in this one! I guess the way they are conceived makes them feel like comic book gangsters, larger than life. But somehow it works! They have these strange quirks that makes them memorable. Also, the music score by Bruce Broughton is another highlight. I know Mr. Mike really digs it! I think it's his favorite from Broughton. Here are some samples: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/ST-2004/Track%2031.mp3 and http://www.fiveohomepage.com/ST-2004/Track%2035.mp3.

The Hyatt I believe was brand new at the time this episode was filmed. Must have just been built that year or the year prior. I know it wasn't there in the early 70s when you looked at the shoreline of Waikiki. I think it was built in the mid-70s. I stayed there in 2018 and it still looked the same as in this episode.

By the way, you said "Let Death Do Us Part" was okay but this one not so good? Shall I get my hammer, rope, and sticks of bamboo ready?

[T.Q.]

By the way, you said "Let Death Do Us Part" was okay but this one not so good? Shall I get my hammer, rope, and sticks of bamboo ready?

I explained I temper my little write-ups.

I originally wrote "very weak". Then changed it to "weak". Then thought, well if Ivan likes it I better just write "okay".

I thought Let Death Do Us Part was a stinky episode. "Okay" can mean basically stinky but some okay stuff in it.

Double Exposure was the better episode by far.

Torture dealing with you sometimes. So nit-picky!

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

By the way, you said "Let Death Do Us Part" was okay but this one not so good? Shall I get my hammer, rope, and sticks of bamboo ready?

I explained I temper my little write-ups.

I originally wrote "very weak". Then changed it to "weak". Then thought, well if Ivan likes it I better just write "okay".

I thought Let Death Do Us Part was a stinky episode. "Okay" can mean basically stinky but some okay stuff in it.

Double Exposure was the better episode by far.

Torture dealing with you sometimes. So nit-picky!

Well, one you called "okay" and the other "not so good". To me "okay" means better than "not so good".

Did you like that pizza? It was okay.
Did you like that steak? Eh, not so good.

See the difference?

[T.Q.]

Well, one you called "okay" and the other "not so good". To me "okay" means better than "not so good".

Did you like that pizza? It was okay.
Did you like that steak? Eh, not so good.

See the difference?

I will no longer try to avoid controversy.

If I think an episode sucks I will say it sucks.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Well, one you called "okay" and the other "not so good". To me "okay" means better than "not so good".

Did you like that pizza? It was okay.
Did you like that steak? Eh, not so good.

See the difference?

I will no longer try to avoid controversy.

If I think an episode sucks I will say it sucks.

There you go. Bingo!

But be careful...

[T.Q.]

Yes, My Deadly Daughter

Sucked...

Just kidding. It was OKAY.

Slowish episode and not very exciting.

Lee Mei betraying her father. Then Lee Mei striking a deal Varna and betraying her boyfriend Jerry was fun.

Confrontation at the end with gangster Chang Liu and Lee Mei was a bit cheesy.

They're overusing the swoop in via helicopter.

MPI: Clyde Kusatsu, Kwan Hi Lim, Irene Yah-Ling Sun (Mitsu), Remi Abellira (Moki)

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Yes, My Deadly Daughter

Sucked...

Just kidding. It was OKAY.

Slowish episode and not very exciting.

Lee Mei betraying her father. Then Lee Mei striking a deal Varna and betraying her boyfriend Jerry was fun.

Confrontation at the end with gangster Chang Liu and Lee Mei was a bit cheesy.

They're overusing the swoop in via helicopter.

MPI: Clyde Kusatsu, Kwan Hi Lim, Irene Yah-Ling Sun (Mitsu), Remi Abellira (Moki)

Just OKAY?

I'm sure I like this one more than you did but at the same time I feel it could have been a bit more suspenseful and exciting, what with such a cold-hearted double-crossing daughter/girlfriend. I feel this chick should have been scarier than she was. The rival Chinese gangs stuff I didn't care for. Also the first time I saw it I totally didn't recognize Clyde Kusatsu. I was always used to seeing him older. I remembered him best as Principal Shimata on FAMILY MATTERS, with whom Urkel would engage in the Japanese language.

Don't worry. This run of "okay" episodes is over. The next 3 are SUPERB! In fact better than anything in season 8.

[Mr. Mike]

To quote from my review of Double Exposure (http://fiveohomepage.com/5-0log9.htm#200):

This episode is directed by Sutton Roley, and like the other ones he did for the show, both later this season -- S09E15, "Elegy In A Rain Forest," and S09E17, "A Capitol Crime" -- this show is just a bit off the wall. This was done intentionally, according to the late Seth Sakai, to whom I spoke at the 1999 Five-O Reunion. Roley told Sakai that the plot of the show was clichéd and ridiculous, so they made its two villains [Kauoli (Sakai) and Weston (Thayer David)] as wacky as possible to compensate.

[At the end of the show] McGarrett suddenly appears out of nowhere in a helicopter and peppers the ground below with an Uzi-like machine gun, narrowly missing the good guys. As well, Danno, who threw his gun on the ground, suddenly pulls another one out of his pocket -- and, in fact, if you look at this scene very carefully, you will see before he gets this gun, he has another gun in his right hand!

Although ridiculous, the stunts with McGarrett (or Jack Lord's double) hanging on to the helicopter while shooting at the car containing Kauoli, Sherick and Okima below are pretty spectacular. At one point, McG shoots in front of the pilot out the other side of the copter! As someone at IMDb points out, when McGarrett causes the escaping car to explode as it flies up and over a cliff, it has changed from a dark red Lincoln Mark IV with a sunroof to a bright red Ford Thunderbird with no sunroof. Some of this sequence is re-used in the Jack Lord production M Station Hawaii, which was filmed between the show's 11th and 12th seasons, according to IMDb, but not screened until 1980.

Considering how wacky much of the rest of the episode is, I don't know if we can excuse this ending. The big question is -- did McGarrett know what was going to happen with the takedown of Kauoli and was his helicopter attack planned ahead of time? Maybe … but not enough for me to raise the rating to four from three and a half.

Still, there are a lot of good things about this episode: the direction, acting, photography, editing and music where Broughton uses low brass and harp(s) in particular, are all outstanding. The show has also been criticized for its violence, but if you compare the casualty list to other episodes, there are others which are worse.

[T.Q.]

Target - A Cop

Super okay episode.

No, it was very good.

A bit ripped from previous episode about revenge cop killings but well done.

All-in-all well excecated from opening scene and molotov cocktail in the dumpster and the alley shooting to the set-up at granny's house to the ending scene which I liked a lot when McGarrett saw the wheelchair tracks and blammo.

And Simon was in it. No, not that Simon. The other Simon. Played a good junkie. I like when he thought he was just selling a guitar.

Kinda felt pity for demented messed up Nathan Purdy. Oh well, got what he deserved.

MPI: Gerald McRaney, Seth Sakai, Wallace W. Landford

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

To quote from my review of Double Exposure (http://fiveohomepage.com/5-0log9.htm#200):

This episode is directed by Sutton Roley, and like the other ones he did for the show, both later this season -- S09E15, "Elegy In A Rain Forest," and S09E17, "A Capitol Crime" -- this show is just a bit off the wall. This was done intentionally, according to the late Seth Sakai, to whom I spoke at the 1999 Five-O Reunion. Roley told Sakai that the plot of the show was clichéd and ridiculous, so they made its two villains [Kauoli (Sakai) and Weston (Thayer David)] as wacky as possible to compensate.

[At the end of the show] McGarrett suddenly appears out of nowhere in a helicopter and peppers the ground below with an Uzi-like machine gun, narrowly missing the good guys. As well, Danno, who threw his gun on the ground, suddenly pulls another one out of his pocket -- and, in fact, if you look at this scene very carefully, you will see before he gets this gun, he has another gun in his right hand!

Although ridiculous, the stunts with McGarrett (or Jack Lord's double) hanging on to the helicopter while shooting at the car containing Kauoli, Sherick and Okima below are pretty spectacular. At one point, McG shoots in front of the pilot out the other side of the copter! As someone at IMDb points out, when McGarrett causes the escaping car to explode as it flies up and over a cliff, it has changed from a dark red Lincoln Mark IV with a sunroof to a bright red Ford Thunderbird with no sunroof. Some of this sequence is re-used in the Jack Lord production M Station Hawaii, which was filmed between the show's 11th and 12th seasons, according to IMDb, but not screened until 1980.

Considering how wacky much of the rest of the episode is, I don't know if we can excuse this ending. The big question is -- did McGarrett know what was going to happen with the takedown of Kauoli and was his helicopter attack planned ahead of time? Maybe … but not enough for me to raise the rating to four from three and a half.

Still, there are a lot of good things about this episode: the direction, acting, photography, editing and music where Broughton uses low brass and harp(s) in particular, are all outstanding. The show has also been criticized for its violence, but if you compare the casualty list to other episodes, there are others which are worse.

Yes, it does seem like Sutton Roley specialized in directing crazy and bizarre characters. His 3 episodes have them. This one has the 2 bizarre gangsters, "Elegy in a Rainforest" has William Watson playing the babbling psycho, and "A Capitol Crime" has the 2 crazies played by Sharon Farrell and Dick Davalos.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Target - A Cop

Super okay episode.

No, it was very good.

A bit ripped from previous episode about revenge cop killings but well done.

All-in-all well excecated from opening scene and molotov cocktail in the dumpster and the alley shooting to the set-up at granny's house to the ending scene which I liked a lot when McGarrett saw the wheelchair tracks and blammo.

And Simon was in it. No, not that Simon. The other Simon. Played a good junkie. I like when he thought he was just selling a guitar.

Kinda felt pity for demented messed up Nathan Purdy. Oh well, got what he deserved.

MPI: Gerald McRaney, Seth Sakai, Wallace W. Landford

SUPERB episode! I remember this one from way back when! I used to call it the "Wheelchair Killer". It took a long time before I finally saw it again many years later on the telly. Don Stroud is great as always at playing these types of baddies. He feels a bit sympathetic at the start, playing basketball, but you lose all sympathy for him pretty quick when you realize that he's a cold-blooded cop killer. Also you learn that he has a cop's bullet in his back, which caused his condition. So you know that he didn't get that bullet in his back for being a model citizen. He got blasted away at the end and no amount of disability produces any sympathy for this scumbag. All pau, as McGarrett says. Today you'd get all kinds of sympathy for this guy - "oh, but he's a victim, he's disabled, he couldn't make a new start for himself". I gotta say that ending in the parking garage was pretty tense, with McG and Danno posing as HPD officers and Stroud lurking about in his wheelchair. It's one of those rare cases where Five-O really has no clue about the killer right to very end, until the moment McG spots the wheel marks. The scene outside granny's window was pretty creepy!

Gerald McSimon does play a good strung-out junkie! He was pretty skinny back in the day and was perfect for this part. Also there's Raye Birk as Stroud's parole officer. I remember him best as the school principal on THE WONDER YEARS and as Papshmeer in the NAKED GUN movies! The handicapped killer premise is somewhat similar to "Hookman" (the better episode of the two) but this one is still an excellent and gripping episode! I guess this one can be called "Chairman".

[T.Q.]

The Bells Toll at Noon

Rich Little does a good job as a distraught justice seeking 'bad' guy.

Gets a chance to get some of his impressions in the episode throughout. What else would Rich Little do?

I enjoyed the connection to the movies that 'the boys' figured out.

Are we to assume from the final scene that Johnny Kling lost his marbles? Or just an eccentric?

All-in-all entertaining episode. RIP Makamae.

MPI: Don Knight, Kwan Hi Lim, Jimmy Borges

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

The Bells Toll at Noon

Rich Little does a good job as a distraught justice seeking 'bad' guy.

Gets a chance to get some of his impressions in the episode throughout. What else would Rich Little do?

I enjoyed the connection to the movies that 'the boys' figured out.

Are we to assume from the final scene that Johnny Kling lost his marbles? Or just an eccentric?

All-in-all entertaining episode. RIP Makamae.

MPI: Don Knight, Kwan Hi Lim, Jimmy Borges

Another fantastic episode! I'd put it about on par with "Target-A Cop" or maybe even a slight fraction higher. It's definitely my #2 of the season! Directed by Jack Lord with great style, it's easily his best episode out of all that he directed. Rich Little does an excellent job as the master of impressions vigilante, who's got a few screws loose. He's definitely a sympathetic "bad guy" and let's face it - the guys he knocks off are scumbags. The ways in which he knocks off the baddies is VERY creative, recreating deaths from his favorite movies! I love the first death on the church steps, with the bells tolling and accompanied by an excellent Morton Stevens score. I actually visited this location on my last trip to the islands. It's the Central Union Church at 1660 S. Beretania St. and the apartment building and roof where Rich Little was perched is right there across the street. It's the Punahou Circle Apartments.

I think the finale is open to interpretation. You could say he's just a weird eccentric. But based on the shocked reaction from McGarrett I would say he probably lost his marbles. I like old 40s noir films so I really loved that whole aspect of the story and I'm a huge fan of Rich Little's impressions (presidents and other celebrities), especially his stuff from the 70s and 80s. He's an icon! So this episode was absolutely right up my alley!

Get ready for another crackerjack episode!!

[T.Q.]

Man in a Steel Frame

Good amount of negative feedback for this episode on IMDb which surprised me.

I thought it was great.

All stuff I like.

The frameup was good. Hallucinogens, leaving the watch, cutting the phone and car radio.

Was great that the boys all chipped in for McGarrett's bail.

It was nice seeing more flashbacks into Steve's personal life which doesn't happen too much.

MPI: Island Hoppers pier, Kimo Kahoano, Danny Kamekona, Elissa Dulce Hoopai, Michael Hasegawa

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Man in a Steel Frame

Good amount of negative feedback for this episode on IMDb which surprised me.

I thought it was great.

All stuff I like.

The frameup was good. Hallucinogens, leaving the watch, cutting the phone and car radio.

Was great that the boys all chipped in for McGarrett's bail.

It was nice seeing more flashbacks into Steve's personal life which doesn't happen too much.

MPI: Island Hoppers pier, Kimo Kahoano, Danny Kamekona, Elissa Dulce Hoopai, Michael Hasegawa

Yeah, I can't understand any negative feedback on this episode. It's extremely tight and suspenseful! Like McGarrett says, you really feel like someone just put you in a vice and is tightening the screws. Jack Lord does a stellar job in this one too, just like in the season opener "Nine Dragons". He really gets put through the ringer and oh man, that finale! I can't believe you didn't mention the finale where McG goes ballistic on "the most interesting man in the world" and whoops the tar out of him in the surf, almost drowning the bastard! That's a white-knuckle scene if I ever saw one! Never seen McG this enraged! Makes me pump my fist and go "YEAH!!!" every time I see it.

I recall some criticisms about the "bad effects" done to conceal the face of the killer. Basically it looks like his eyes, nose, and mouth are sealed with some kind of sealant. At first it looks like he's wearing a stocking over his head when he's inside in the shadows but then outside in broad daylight when he's fidgeting with McG's Mercury you can clearly see his face sealed with some kind of sealant. So some have criticized this as a lousy way to mask the killer or to make him unrecognizable. But personally I find this VERY effective. It makes him creepy, almost a boogeyman. Yes in reality no killer would be sealing his face like this because obviously he wouldn't be able to see anything. But we have to remember that we're seeing this through McG's recollection of events, through his fragmented memory of events. So in McGarrett's memory this killer is basically a man without a face. That's why I think it works extremely well and is pretty creepy too. In reality the guy probably had no mask and his face wasn't concealed because he knocked McG out immediately and would not be recognized. Or maybe the guy did wear a mask or a stocking, just in case. Bottom line is that McG has no clue what this guy looked like. So he doesn't have a face. Love it! There's also a very good and suspenseful Don Ray score.

Anyway, these last 3 episodes have been excellent and I have a hard time ranking them. They are all equally great in their own special way and are highlights of the season. There is one more episode coming up that I *might* place just a tad higher than these 3. But you'll get to it.

MPI connection: You missed the killer, the man without a face. That's Jonathan Goldsmith and he's better known these days as the "most interesting man in the world" (with a gray beard of course) in the Dos Equis beer commercials. "Stay thirsty, my friends". "He once had an uncomfortable moment. Just to see what it feels like."