Customer Reviews

Hawaii Five-O: The 12th and Final Season

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I recently watched the episodes of Season 12, which has been criticized for being sub-par for Hawaii Five-0. I genuinely enjoyed them. The plots were excellent, the new Five-0 team came across as highly capable, and the adaptation of the morality tale was quite appropriate for the time in which these episodes were produced.
.
Of course, I missed the Five-0 team I had known: Danno, Chin Ho, and, yes, even Kono, whom I will always miss. But don't misunderstand. William Smith, Sharon Farrell, and Moe Keale were excellent as Kimo Carew, Lori Wilson, and Truck Kealoha. In fact, the way Kimo and Lori were introduced, allowing them to come with problems and a past, was outstanding. It explained what made them tick very quickly. This was a distinct advantage over earlier Five-0 team. Did we ever know what made them tick aside from an ad lib here and there? I don't think so. Herman Wedemeyer was back as Duke Lukela - gotta love that man!
.
More good episode themes and interludes throughout the season. Without checking the credits, I knew that Morton Stevens, Don B. Ray, and Bruce Broughton were back in the composing saddle. I wonder why only one song from Five-0 won an Emmy, when I would rate at least a half-dozen from the entire series as award-worthy.
.
It was good to see actors who had appeared in earlier seasons; e.g., Andrew Duggan and Kas Garas. They had aged, of course; in fact, I did not recognize Jason Evers even when he was pointed out to me.
.
The best quality, I think, was the continuation of the morality tale. For example, in "Image of Fear," Jack taught a young teen that she should not blame her parents for the effect their divorce had on her. After all, he pointed out, many people have come from broken homes and other bad situations to fully succeed. In "Use a Gun, Go to Hell," he taught us, by tracing the bloody circuit a gun had taken, how dangerous they are. He rebuked the theory that people, not guns, kill, a point that remains highly debatable, given the fact that guns do not have a will of their own.
.
It is good to see something on TV that dares to stand up and be counted in favor of the higher cause. Five-0 did that for 12 remarkable seasons. Yes, its flavor changed through the years, but, then, so did the actors and their characters. One ages a lot in 12 years. Society's mores changes, and they especially changed between 1968 and 1980. We moved from conventional middle-class thinking through the hippie era, through Vietnam and Watergate, and into the societal depression that followed. Five-0 changed, but it also survived - and has survived for more than 40 years. When the remastered DVD of Season 12 is released, I will buy it, and I will treasure it.

I received my copy of the final season of Hawaii Five-O this week.It appears that CBS/Paramount has done a first rate job with this last season release.The video quality of the transfer and digital remastering of the set is AAA+++.A crisp and colorful picture really shows off the Hawaiian scenery in all it's glory.I have watched a couple episodes from this set,and really enjoyed them.As with any series that has run 12 years,some may complain that the content quality does not hold up to the earlier seasons.Although I will give this set five stars as it still blows away 95% of the garbage that is on tv today.Thanks CBS/Paramount for finally making the entire series available.Far too often a studio will stop releasing seasons of a series on dvd after only a couple seasons.I can now enjoy every episode of Hawaii Five-O.....all 12 great seasons of the classic series that defined cop shows.

This is the sad end to one great TV show. Jack Lord is trying to make it work with the new people.
And can only do so much. I am happy that I will now have them all.
And can watch them as I wish.
This was when TV was great and had great shows on. Not like the trash that is on now!
I will pick this up the day it comes out.
It will not be long until I don't need cable at all.(( Update). I caned the Cable TV...
Cut about $70.00 off my bill. Just got the High Speed Net with them now. They just did a Up-Grade on it.. Now going up to 50.
So that is fine with me...
Be well all.

Thanks to Paramount for seeing the Hawaii Five-O releases through to the end -
in the "Final Season", Season 12, we get quite a variety of new cast and
scenarios, but as always there's the untouchable McGarrett...
and.. the final showdown between McGarrett and Wo Fat.
Can't wait for the DVD's!

I'm giving the 12th and final season 4 stars and a big thumbs up. And it was just as good as the previous 11 seasons. I started watching at the very beginning last April and in the last 9 months, I've watched all 12 seasons straight through and in order. As such, I feel I can give a pretty good over view. From start to finish, it was a good cop show that had action, adventure, intrigue and some interesting plots.

Now, amongst the reviews I'd read for each and every season before I got it, I saw the caveats and complaints. "Oh, it wasn't as good after Kono left." "Or after Chin ho left." "Or Danno left." Nonsense.

H50 was always about one character from day one till the last episode: McGarret. And it was all about one actor that whole time as well: Jack Lord. Sure, he had a team but aside from a few lines here and there, they never really dove into the team members much at all. In the earliest days, we saw an episode that had shown Chin ho at home with his wife and their dozen kids of all ages. 6 or 7 years later, we see his daughter dating a mobster's son. At the end of the 10th season, we learn that he's got nothing but an estranged daughter in his life. ??? Not a lot of care was given to the secondary characters or their lives. so really, when Kone, Ben, chin ho, even Danny left...it didn't really matter. They were all there to act as springboards for the boss and that's fine. Frankly, Moe Keale, who played Truck in the final season, may have been the best actor out of all the Five 0 team members and Kimo did as good a job as Danno.

As for later seasons not being as good, again, nonsense. Each season, there were a few clunkers where I almost drifted off to sleep. As for "recycled storylines", the most egregious offender was an episode from the early years when Kono was there---some maniac holds up in an old bunker over a highway and is terrorizing people. Not more than 2 or 3 seasons later, 6th, i think, they reused 75% of all the footage from the same episode and just inserted a different guy with a gun! this was well before the "lame later years". No, the show has remained pretty consistent throughout its 12 years and that's a fact. McGarret is jumping out of copters and shootin' up the bad guys straight through.

My one regret is that Duke never became the number two guy after Danny left but I guess since he was a local and not originally an actor, much like Chin ho and Kono, he didn't get the same status. ah well.

Another complaint was that he wasn't in it much at the end. Wrong. there was an ep or two where he was off testifying on some case but that was the same thing he did many times in earlier episodes and Danny was left in charge, again, always consistent. So, don't believe any negative press- this was a solid, good cop show all the way through with the same ups and downs throughout. Buy them all. And the whiners going on about the "horrible transfer quality" to DVD on season ten? Seemed fine to me. Certainly better than VHS. Farewell Jack, Mahalo.

Well here we are at the final season.I literally grew up with this series from 1968 when I was six until April 5th 1980 when the final episode was shown on my eighteenth birthday.
Was this the worst season as most people claim?.No it isn't.But it wasn't the best.I read somewhere that James MacArthur said he left the show because the stories were getting stale.True.But I don't think that this is the reason that the final season semmed so bad to some.I think it was because first we lost Chin Ho in season Ten.Then James MacArthur left the show after season eleven.We, the fans were still reeling from this and it's always hard to introduce new characters into a show because people don't like change.Jack Lord must have realised this and decided to end the show so we never got used to the new team.We still had Steve and Duke and Truck reminded me of Kono from the first four seasons.But Lori was gone mid season because of what I hear was a disagreement about dress code.I don't know if this was true.But the biggest mistake was having William Smith play Steve's right hand man.Now William Smith is a good actor.Maybe too good because the season before he had played probably the worst villain in TV history.That of Falconetti on "Rich Man,Poor Man.Although he had been in "Laredo" in the sixties.I think Falconetti will be his most famous role.
There were still good episodes here.But if you think this final season was bad check out the new series that is now on TV.What were they thinking.Jack Lord must be turning in his grave.What a mess.
Stick to the original and best.

Finally got the last season of Hawaii Five-0 and enjoyed it immensely. Can't say I care for the change of characters, but it all works out ok for being the last season. The sound and picture quality are excellent. Nice way to end a long-running series. Aloha to all the previous actors who are no longer with us now, and to Jack Lord who made it work!!!

I think the original Hawaii Five-O was much better than the current effort that CBS is airing. In the final season, Kimo, Duke, Truck, and occasionally Lori are a great team to serve with Steve McGarrett.

I was slightly disappointed in the final episode in which McGarrett finally caught Wo-Fat; I think much of it was far-fetched. That being said, there are two features of the final season that stand out because they are much better than more recent efforts to portray the same idea. Firstly, in Blue Bloods much is made of Danny Reagan's unconventional methods of dealing with suspects. Kimo achieved the same effect with far more class. Second, much was made of the ending in the Sopranos in which the audience was left what happened next. Again, Hawaii Five-O achieves the effect in a much better manner: After McGarret bids Wo-Fat "Aloha" in a prison cell, Wo-Fat removes a file from his shoe. Did the wily Wo-Fat subsequently escape? We will never know.

Steve is getting a bit old. New additions aren't bad but I sure do miss the original cast. If you've purchased the other sets Seasons 1 through 11 then this is a must.The actors credits credits shown at the end of these final episodes have an extended run time. ALOHA

Season 12 of Hawaii 5-0 is much better then the Hawaii 5-0 that is on now
I found it as good as the orginal cast the orginal cast was loser with
some jokes added but adding a lady was a good touch to the show I am
glad I have all twelve seasons of it