Hawaii Five-O: Season 2

Description

Product Description Filmed entirely on location in Hawaii, the show followed Jack Lord as he played Steve McGarrett, head of an elite state police unit investigating "organized crime, murder, assassination attempts, foreign agents, felonies of every type." James MacArthur played his second-in-command Danny ("Danno") Williams, with local actors Kam Fong, Zulu, Al Harrington, and Herman Wedemeyer, among others, playing members of the Five-O team. Guest stars included Helen Hayes, Ricardo Montalban, Leslie Nielsen, Herbert Lom, Hume Cronyn among others. McGarrett's nemesis is the evil Wo Fat -- "a Red Chinese agent in charge of the entire Pacific Asiatic theatre. desertcart.com Solving crimes and putting the perps behind bars is Steve McGarrett's bag. Why, he says so himself, and in so many words, in the very first of the 24 episodes collected in this five-disc set comprising the complete second season (1969-70) of Hawaii Five-0. Portrayed by Jack Lord, and described by no less an authority than the New York Times as "a model of steadfast decency" and "beyond cool but still so square he could have been Lawrence Welk’s cop brother-in-law," McGarrett is the leader of the islands' crack, four-man police unit, and as usual, he has his hands full. Perhaps that's why the man has no discernible sense of humor and only the merest suggestion of a social life. Between keeping his famous hair in order, delivering stern lectures about right and wrong to clueless lowlifes, and, as he puts it in another Second Season episode, constantly worrying "about a world without law and justice where no one gives a damn about anything," who has time for such trivialities? This season finds McGarrett and cohorts Danno (James McArthur), Kono (Zulu), and Chin Ho (Kam Fong) dealing with the usual complement of sleaze: murderers, gamblers, druggies, prostitutes, insurance scammers, low-rent terrorists, and so on. But Hawaii Five-0 offers its share of weirdness as well. In "Forty Feet High and It Kills!", Red Chinese uber-criminal Wo Fat (Khigh Dhiegh) and his crew orchestrate a fake tsunami warning so they can kidnap a brilliant scientist (an amusing performance by Will Geer) and force him to conduct genetic-tampering experiments designed to create a master race. In the fairly ridiculous "King Kamehameha Blues," a group of young folks steal the legendary king's robe from a museum, just to show they can; it's a measure of McGarrett's ultra-hardline attitude that the governor's offer of amnesty to the thieves if they'll return the precious garment really sticks in his righteous craw. And in "The Singapore File," McGarrett travels overseas in order to accompany a comely murder witness back to Honolulu; though tempted by her charms, he's far too scrupulous to indulge in any extra-curriculars while on the job (and Steve McGarrett is always on the job). Hawaii Five-0's other elements are a mixed bag. As always, the Hawaiian scenery is gorgeous. Morton Stevens' theme song remains one of the best ever, and much of the other music, especially the jazzy stuff, is also terrific. However, the show isn't big on either action or tension; too many scenes are slow and talky. And in the final year of the '60s, when men walked on the moon and Woodstock and Altamont marked the respective high and low points of the hippie movement, its depiction of the counterculture is laughably square; it's as if the entire decade barely happened. The box set includes brief, previous-week promos for each episode, but no other bonus material. --Sam Graham Review: Just one thing missing.......... - Thank heaven Hawaii Five-0 is available on DVD now, almost through season 6. Six more seasons to go after that. I do have every 5-0 episode ever aired, but they're all on VHS, and most of them have small cuts in them -- cuts I never noticed until I watched the DVDs of the show. I've become a walking talking encyclopedia of a good deal of 5-0 trivia. One obvious thing that diehard 5-0 fans immediately notice is that many significant scenes or parts of scenes cut from the series during its years in syndication are now restored. In many cases, those restorations have been pivotal, important scenes that tied many events together. By the time WGN was airing the series, so many cuts had been made in each episode that most of the time the show made little sense. Now with the DVDs, everything makes sense, including the mistakes. Mistakes are part of every show, and they make great fodder for discussion among fans. But there's a problem when it comes to the DVDs for Season 2. Whoever put these DVDs together did the show a great disservice by OMITTING one of its episodes -- the very last episode in Season 2, "Bored, She Hung Herself." For years there were two 5-0 episodes that were almost impossible to obtain: "Six Kilos" in Season One [a terrific episode!] and "Bored, She Hung Herself" in Season Two. I'm not sure why "Six Kilos" became so hard to obtain, or why it was banned. It's a great episode for many reasons and it does not and never did encourage anyone to use or distribute drugs of any kind. I have a nagging memory [which may be faulty] that "Bored, She Hung Herself" got itself banned because not long after viewing the episode, someone actually attempted trying to hang him/herself in real life and ended up dead. There was some attempt to put the blame on 5-0, but it came to nothing. That's what my nagging memory recalls. I'm not at all sure if I am correct. But for whatever reason, "Bored" was banned in syndication. "Bored" made the most sense for those of us who were part of the counterculture in the late 1960s, when all kinds of prohibited things were being discussed and/or experienced, with various, not necessarily positive, results. We did a lot of nutty stuff back then, and lots of that stuff could have been very dangerous. But the bulk of us are still here. So I was thoroughly surprised when I finally got my hands on "Bored" and watched it. It's not a very good episode. For the most part, I not only wondered what on earth all the fuss was about; it bored ME (and I didn't hang myself!). Very few episodes of 5-0 have that effect on me. As far as hanging oneself, only a very tiny part of the show dealt with the notion that a character's death was caused by attempting to hang herself for a mental/spiritual/and/or sexual high. The show quickly made it clear that McGarrett and the rest of the 5-0 team realized that this practice was NOT a cause of the victim's death, and very little about the practice of hanging oneself was discussed in the show. Unlike most 5-0 episodes in general, this one was certainly one of the poorer episodes I've seen, and I've seen ALL of them, including those "banned" while the show was in syndication. I'd give it a 2-star rating where the highest rating would be a 5-star [and that would be generous]. It's not particularly interesting, and there's nothing whatever salacious or threatening about it. If anyone believes watching that episode might cause someone else to try to hang themselves to achieve some kind of "high", they are at best naive, or at worst, paranoid. Those of us who are still persistent addicts of 5-0 are legitimately annoyed because we shelled out money for the ENTIRE group of episodes that made up Season Two. "Bored" is not in there. We've been cheated. Today's world is a very different world than the 1960s counterculture. There is absolutely no reason NOT to include this episode. "Six Kilos", the other difficult-to-aquire episode, is right where it belongs in the DVDs for Season One, and is one of the most interesting [plotwise and visually (when it comes to McGarrett's Hawaiian shirt wardrobe)] episodes in the entire series. I have no idea why this particular episode became one of the two 5-0 episodes that were banned. So I cannot understand why, if "Six Kilos" was deemed appropriate to include in the DVDs of Season One [which it most certainly is], "Bored" is not appropriate for inclusion in Season Two. So be aware when you buy Season Two of 5-0 on DVD: you're going to be missing the last episode of the season, and for no good reason. I hope at some point the powers-that-be who make decisions about Season Two on DVD will press a NEW DVD that includes "Bored, She Hung Herself." It's a boring episode, but those of us who are collectors want EVERY episode, even the episodes we don't particularly enjoy. We all buy DVDs of notable TV series because we assume we will receive EVERY episode in the series, including any pilots or 2-or-3-part episodes. That's why we spend our money on them. We want a COMPLETE collection of every season, not a CENSORED collection. We do not buy these DVDs to be cheated. In Season Two, we are. We've been censored. And we're not happy about it. The First Amendment guarantees us freedom of speech, and omitting "Bored" violates that amendment. Apparently somebody thinks we're still impressionable little children 30+ years after the series originally aired. We're NOT YOUNG ANYMORE. We're all grown up and are coloring our hair and buying anti-wrinkle creams. As parents and/or grandparents, or as aunts or uncles, we know enough to NOT permit small children to watch things that are unsuitable for them. We assume those of us who have adult children restrict their children's TV/DVD viewing in the same manner. So to whoever made the decision to omit "Bored, She Hung Herself" from Season Two, I have only one thing to say: "YOU'VE VIOLATED MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH! YOU'VE CHEATED ME OF A COMPLETE COLLECTION! AND I DON'T APPRECIATE BEING CENSORED!" Review: Not quite complete, but still A FIVE STAR SET--Now with "BE HERE, ALOHA" PROMOS! - FIVE STARS for HAWAII FIVE-O Season 2. WHAT'S RIGHT with this set??? 1) Almost all of the "This is Jack Lord....be here, aloha" promos are INCLUDED. There isn't one for "TO HELL WITH BABE RUTH" on disc one, but so far I haven't found any others "missing". This means either a) the powers that be actually LISTEN to our suggestions, b) that these promos DON'T exist for season one, or c) both A & B are true! Each disc contains the four promos for the episodes on that disc, accessable in a set from the main menu OR viewable PRIOR to the appropriate episode. You can also "skip" the PROMO and just watch the episode. They do NOT appear between the show and the end credits/theme, but rather at the START of each matching episode. Maybe for season THREE the producers could "plug" them into the preceding episode in their correct place (HINT--see above letter "a"). 2)Once again AUDIO and VIDEO quality is excellent. Menu design is easy to use. Packaged in slim line cases inside a slipcase box, 6 discs, 24 episodes. Well packaged and produced. What's WRONG with this set?? 1) The episode BORED, SHE HUNG HERSELF is NOT included, only a footnote on the back of the box as noted by other reviewers. As lamentable as this may be, dare I say one can understand the probable reluctance of the legal department to include an episode which might "give people bad ideas". It only takes one nut with a lawyer to make things bad for all of us and heaven knows there's no shortage of either nuts or lawyers in this day and age! 2) Certain, unspecified episodes may be edited. You may be able to tell which if you carefully watch your DVD timer. But, unless you've got a fantastic memory of every episode as it aired nearly forty years ago, will you really miss a few seconds here and there?? After all, the episodes are ENJOYABLE in syndication, so why not just ENJOY THEM on DVD (without the annoying commericials!). Sure, it would be NICE to have them complete and unedited as they were back in 1969-70, but I'd rather have an "edited" version than NO version at all! Episodes run 51 minutes each (except those edited few!). I haven't watched them all, so I don't yet know WHICH episodes are edited, but ALL EPISODES on discs one and two are full length, 51 minutes. Perhaps I'll update this later with more time info if I can figure out which are edited! IN CONCLUSION: Worth the price of admission. Still, in my opinion, the BEST police show ever with far and away the BEST theme music of any TV show, anywhere! Just ENJOY the great TV and try not to think about what's "missing!"