ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 6:36 am
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 3:28 am
ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 5:40 am
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 3:49 am
I hadn't seen the last two seasons of Hawaii Five-O since it went off the air 40 years ago. Thankfully freevee is now running them.
I have previously seen the last episode "Death to Wo Fat" in the abbreviated TV package that airs on H & I network, so I am all caught up now after watching
the next to last (18th) episode, "The Moroville Covenant".
I was hoping "The Moroville Covenant" would disprove Ivan's poor opinion of season 12 but no go.
As well Mike Quigley's fiveohomepage.com gave it no stars.
However I was floored to find in the end credits that the frumpy bag of bones 'Eva' character was played by one time sexpot Diane McBain of Surfside 6 fame
who wasn't even 40 when this was filmed.
The make up guy must be a master at his craft to make Diane look like something the dog dragged in.
As well the Hawaiian Eye, Hawaii Five-O and Magnum PI veteran Paul Burke guest stars, he was also the lead on the overlooked gem 12 O'Clock High.
Paul Burke was the star from the 2nd season on of Naked City, one of the finest written series of all time, it's "Sweet Prince of Delancey Street" episode
is on TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time list.
His love interest co-star on that series was - the often confused with Lois Nettleton - Nancy Malone.
In later years she was best known for marrying Bob Hope's daughter Linda.
This Friday April 5th is the 44th anniversary of "Death to Wo Fat", it aired at 9 PM on a Thursday.
That last episode seems to me to be a take off on 1930's movie staple Fu Manchu, and on that level with it's lowered expectations it works.
It's supposed to be tongue in cheek.
After all,the cartoonish Wo Fat from the very start was an update of Fu.
While this episode isn't worthy to be the send off of a beloved series, I can live with it's silly elements and how it builds to a denouement
that any ten year old kid in a 1930's cinema would recognize. And no doubt one the writers of this episode were harkening back to.
"The Moroville Covenant" is an absolute dog of an episode. A sure cure for insomnia. Just dull as dishwater. Bottom 2 of the entire series (the other being either S12's "The Kahuna" or S10's "Tread the King's Shadow"). But you're right about Diane McBain - never in a million years would I have guessed that she wasn't even 40 yet. I thought she was in her 50s or older for sure! I sure was repulsed by her. The make-up guy must have earned his paycheck there.
"Woe to Wo Fat" is a better episode than I originally thought. It's comic-book alright but in that realm it works pretty well. At least it's not dull like the preceding "Morbid-ville Covenant". The Morton Stevens score helps and the Robin's Nest locale is a major plus.
Ivan,
I'm glad we concur on "Woe to Wo Fat". I respect Mike's outstanding site fiveohomepage.com but I think he might have gotten so overwhelmed by the 12th season's too often banal treatment
of our Hawaii Five-O that he, like us, didn't at first consider any of the last episode's possible merits.
Plus it had lovely Patricia Crowley, who I fell in love with watching the mid 1960's "Please Don't Eat the Daisies", she then causing all of my friends to wonder why none of the moms in the neighborhood
didn't look like her.
I would also note regarding the 12th season, I grew to like Duke and quite appreciated big guy "Truck"(Moe Kealoha) and "James Carew"(William Smith) and underused "Lori" (Sharon Farrell").
If the scripts had been better and the budget not slashed they could have been a good support act for Jack Lord.
Actually I think Mr. Mike gives the series finale a pretty fair shake. He gives it 2 stars which I think is "good" by season 12 standards. I concur with that rating. I couldn't give it anything higher than that. If you look at most of the other episodes that season they're all either 1 star or bombs. So 2 stars is pretty good. He really only rates the first 2 episodes of the season pretty high (with 3 stars!) though I personally think he's being a bit generous, especially with "A Lion in the Streets" which I just never cared for (with the exception of Ross Martin as Tony Alika who's always fun to watch).
Actually my favorite of the season is the vigilante episode with Robert Reed "Though the Heavens Fall", though I know Mr. Mike hates it and gives it a bomb rating.
But that one just entertains me more than any other from the season (though I struggle to even give that one a solid 3 stars, maybe a weak 3 stars). "The Flight of the Jewels" is another entertaining heist caper (with Jeff Daniels and Kwan Hi Lim at his villainous best). And I also find "Image of Fear" oddly engaging and suspenseful - I keep remembering the dead bird in the cage that moments later is alive and well and chirping away. It's a solid "gaslighting" episode, even though the end reveal that the young brat kid is behind it all is kind of laughable.
Those are my 3 favorites of the season. "Use a Gun, Go to Hell" would get an honorable mention too, though it's basically a rehash of season 7's "Diary of a Gun".
How about you? Any stick out to you from the final season? How about season 11? I don't think you mentioned any from that season. "The Skyline Killer" is a clear winner for me there - the last truly GREAT Five-O episode. Even better than anything from season 10. Did you see a general decline over the last 3 seasons or was it about the same for you? I know at least 1 or 2 people who actually find season 11 superior (maybe edgier?) than season 10. I kinda agree with that a bit though I'm not sure I find it superior overall. But both are superior over season 12. No doubt about that.
Ivan,
I was going to re-watch Magnum PI from the beginning but then the network offering it was suddenly gone.
I believe you mentioned Hawaii Five-O was free on feevee, so I hurried there and was elated to see it had all the episodes, not just seasons 10, 11 and 12, as the various
rerun packages omit episodes, I believe starting in season 8.
So I have been cramming in all the "omitted" episodes, plus when I got to season 10, I was watching 3 episodes a day in case freevee stopped showing the series.
What I am trying to say is I didn't have much time for serious reflection on a given episode, I was reveling in "new" episodes and hoped to soak everything in on the 2nd go around.
Shoot, this is long winded, I'm just saying any opinion I have now could be wrong or very well change after multiple viewings.
I appreciate that about Mr. Mike, he reconsiders and changes his ratings(as you also changed yours) after more viewings. I have never seen a better H50 site than his.
I liked the premise of "Though the Heavens Fall" but felt it needed rewrites, a problem I think plagued the last seasons as a whole because of budget cuts, but that's just my theory,
but it does explain all the the outright dumb moments Mr. Mike has cataloged. All of the writing talent available couldn't suddenly have soured and lost all the old H50 magic.
"The Flight of the Jewels" I actually recalled 40 years on, once I saw it again.
Not bad for a late season entry, and once aware of Kwan Hi Lim the actor I have become quite a fan as I didn't grasp he was also Lt. Tanaka(Magnum PI) until recently.
"Image of Fear", I'm afraid the (seriously miscast actress) rotten kid turning out to be behind everything ruined it for me, it just fell apart.
I liked season 11's "A Long Time Ago" where Danno meets his now gone bad girlfriend from high school, and "The Miracle Man" with the crooked evangelist, but "The Bark and the Bite"
with it's plot device of diamonds in a dog collar was old when the Bowery Boys did it.
Of course its been mentioned before that episode 12 "Number One With A Bullet" is VERY important to the series if only because it explains McGarrett's reasons for becoming a cop, in a
crackerjack scene by actor Jack Lord, his dad having been run down by a hood fleeing a robbery. Just for that one moment its must see for the fan, shame on those jackasses that
make up the various rerun packages for leaving this episode out.
I wish I had jotted down what he said, it really is something every fan should be familiar with. It sounds like it might have been taken from the series "Bible", the book that holds
all the lore plus the reasons that motivate all the characters, reasons that many times are never revealed to the audience but are supposed to be expressed to them through
the screenplays, which I always thought was a bit of a writers conceit thing. It's odd but I have never heard of any series "Bible" being made available to the fans, you'd
think it would be a nice little revenue stream, say for Star Trek, when published in book forrm.
Ivan, you mentioned a 'general decline' over the last 3 seasons and I agree, also about "The Skyline Killer" being great, it's on my top 20 list.
I have a question for you, as my brain is befogged with all these episodes I have been cramming in, in a short time.
Which episode was it did you think would have been a worthy series ender, it ended with Jack Lord way up high on a building overlooking the city?
I recalled agreeing with you, and I want to watch it again as a fitting goodbye after season 12.