So I’ve watched a few episodes of the new Hawaii Five-0.
It’s not bad. It’s not particularly good, and, despite naming all the characters the same names and being set in Hawaii, it’s definitely not the old classic. Nor is it a “smart” reboot a la Battlestar Galactica. It’s … a pretty straightforward modern quasi-edgy cop drama/procedural, with some pretty tropical scenery, some soap opera personal arcs, and enough “Hey, we have unlimited immunity to bust crime” to feel a bit squidgy. I wouldn’t turn it off, but I won’t be obsessive about watching it any more, either.
The coolest thing? The updated main titles, a decent refresh of the best title sequences in TV history.
(Interestingly, CBS floated the following earlier variation, which apparently drew enough protests to force them to redo to the above.)
I tend not to sample remakes of classic shows. When I read that the characters in this version weren’t even cops, the show lost all credibility, as the title refers to the police force, fer goshsakes!
After reading your review, I am glad I left this one alone. If the “coolest thing” about it is the title sequence (and neither theme revamp is as good as the version by the Ventures, in my opinion, although I don’t care for the film editing in any version), then I don’t want to waste any time on it.
I missed the premiere episode, so what specifically the Five-0 team are is still a little hazy (which is itself probably not a good thing). My impression is they are a state “task force” with “full immunity” (which means they regularly threaten to beat up the bad guys, etc.) toward some end. They certainly have badges/IDs that let them call on any other law enforcement, but they don’t seem to be police or state police per se.
Original is still awesome.
the second vid is pretty good and I love the same shot scenes they have, well done that.
WTF is the third vid?
The third was the first main titles CBS announced. Apparently people objected to the orchhestration, strenuously, and the show redid it before it went live.
But, yeah, I like the parallel bits.
That was very painful, thank goodness that CBS actually listened to all those that protested that very evil version of the theme song.
Also, kudo’s to CBS for having a theme song for the show at all.
From the reading I did, it was clear that they recognized that the theme song was one of the key identifiable items of the show. They’d have been crazy to skip it.