Customer Reviews

Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Eighth Season

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Amazon suggests that reviewers tell what we would have wanted to know before we purchased this product. Well, I'll tell you: For the past few years, I have heard that, after Season 6, Five-0 really fell off. In my opinion, that simply is NOT true. Granted Five-0 changed after Season 6. It became more mature, taking a more intellectual look at issues and details. We certainly wouldn't have spent an hour in Season 1, learning about the art world, yet we did in Season 7 ("How to Steal a Masterpiece"), and we are all the better for it.

In Season 8, we continue to learn. In "Death's Name is Sam," we learn about heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles - hand-held ones, in fact. This was brand new technology in 1975, when this was filmed. Even now, it is fascinating to watch as McGarrett tries to divert the missile with flares in order to keep the aircraft from being shot down. Fortunately, the experimental effort was successful. But Season 8 isn't all about technology and learning.

Steve has a new love interest in Season 8 ("Sing a Song of Suspense"). She is Chelsea Merriman, and she is a professional singer. After witnessing a brutal murder, she is taken to Steve's beach house for safekeeping. Oh, how the romantic sparks fly between them. As he leaves for work, she tells him to "Call if you're going to be late tonight, dear." I had to wonder whether Lois Nettleton, who portrayed Chelsea, didn't ad lib some of those lines.

The Five-0 Team has settled in nicely with McGarrett, Danno, Chin Ho, Duke, Jenny, Che Fong, and Doc - and the Governor, of course. Sadly, Season 8 was Doc's last on the show. He will be missed.

All the way through, not a single dud came to light. Not every episode was bottle rockets and roman candles, but every one was good and held my attention from beginning to end. Don't miss it. McGarrett and the Five-0 Team are still right on top. Be there. Aloha!

Without a doubt, Hawaii Five-0 was one of the top 10 television shows that was ever produced for all-time. They certainly don't make TV shows like that any more. The quality of the previous 7 Seasons of Five-0 was always great, and I would certainly expect that Season 8 will follow in the same tradition. However, even if they produced it in Black and White, I'd still give it 5 STARS. By the time Season 8 had rolled around in 1975, some of the plots were not quite up to par like they were in some of the earlier Seasons, but I still love watching every one of them. A few years ago I previously purchased all 12 Seasons of Five-0 which were mainly just old copies that were probably made directly from TV broadcasts, which even included the commercials. And I've even enjoyed watching those old versions, no matter how poorly they were copied. As I'm sure you can tell I am huge fan of Hawaii Five-0 and I am now on Amazon.com's list to receive my copy of Season 8 when it finally comes out on March 16th of 2010. I'll be patiently awaiting the UPS truck as soon as I get up that morning. I guess you can say that "I've got my copy booked".

I must admit, Season 8 was the season that I started to tune out of Five-0. I'm a big fan of the first six seasons - for me, these seasons represent superb escapist television at its very best. In these early years, Jack Lord was coolness personified and the show was a no nonsense gritty AND entertaining drama.

Unlike in the latter years, in those early seasons, McGarrett's anger never appeared contrived or forced - you really felt this man's rage! Circa 1974 this changed and McGarrett's spontaneous outburst against life's injustices became elongated rants to whoever was within ear shot.

Additionally, the big attraction of the show was how one week you could see a light-hearted episode and the next you'd see a hard hitting thought provoking instalment - season 4 demonstrates this nicely, `Odd Man In' and then `Skinhead' could hardly be more different, but they were encompassed together within the same season. This kind of contrast was rife in the early years and, more importantly, superbly executed. With Season 7 there were signs of wear and I'm afraid that this increased with during season 8. It's really a paradox that the earlier episodes seem fresher and less dated than anything post 1974. What's the saying, quit whilst you're ahead, sadly this wasn't heeded, however, that said, there are still some very good episodes within this eighth season.

The opener, `Murder - Eyes Only' is a feature length special and is pretty good - this is how i'd have liked to have seen the show continue, i.e. as two hour long specials, maybe 6 or 7 in a season - that way we'd have kept quality over quantity. Unfortunately this wasn't to be and the remaining 22 episodes are the usual 50 minute affair. Other good episodes are `McGarrett Is Missing', `Termination With Extreme Prejudice', `The Case Against McGarrett', `Retire In Sunny Hawaii - Forever'. As I say, good episodes, but nothing truly outstanding - and IMO, this season is nowhere near the quality of Seasons 3;4;5 and 6.

I'm now in receipt of this DVD set and, with regards to remastering, its the usual mixed affair. Some episodes look very good, with rich vibrant colours - however, 'Wooden Model Of A Rat' appears less striking than other episodes on the set in this respect. As usual there is evidence of 'dirt' in certain scenes in certain episodes too. These are minor setbacks as the quality of even the lesser remastered episodes is way above anything I've seen broadcast on tv for this season.

All episodes contain episodic promos except for the opener, 'Murder - Eyes Only' - this feature length special is unabridged, coming in at just shy of 100 minutes in length.

I've rated this set 3 stars because previous seasons set the benchmark extremely high - that said, in comparison to many shows of today and in terms of entertainment, this set would attain a five star rating.

Jack Lord had a work ethic of the highest standard. He demanded the best effort out of everyone and he got it. James MacArthur was the best second in command as Danno that could ever be. Just loved how the team put their game plan together in such detail. Shows like this come along once in a lifetime, glad to have it in my collection

Hawaii Five-0 was beginning to show its age in season 8. None of the episodes grabbed you like other classics(Over Fifty?--Steal, The Vashon Trilogy, One Big Happy Family etc) and repetitiveness started seeping in. Late in this season there are back to back kidnapping episodes. Two episodes(The Capsule Kidnapping and Death's name is SAM) saw car-airplane chases at the end. Another pair of episodes had McGarret in the grasp of the episodes villians(Case Against McGarret and McGarret is missing)

Two other episodes(Anatomy of a Bribe and Deadly Persuasion) had villains who were more than a few cards short of a full deck but their actions at the climax didn't add up when compared to the rest of the episode. Honoree Vashon also became more and more unhinged as The Case Against McGarrett progressed. Season 8's writers kept coming back to the same themes.

Two episodes(The Waterfront Steal and Love Thy Neighbor Take his Wife) have the daughter of the bad guy involved with the criminals or the person being framed for the crime.

Richard Kiley could have made a great guest villain but he is given little to do in A Killer Grows Wings except to drive a car between sugarcane fields.

The best episodes, Retire in Sunny Hawaii--Forever, The Case against McGarret, Turkey Shoot at Makapu, Honor is an Unmarked Grave, and A Touch of Guilt, were very good but only Retire(and just marginally) ranks among Five-0's all-time best episodes. With the possible exception of Deadly Persuassion and Wooden Model of a Rat, there isn't a bad episode during the season. So overall this is good season but the warning signs of Five-0's future decline were very obvious.

I grew up watching this series. I was 6 years old when it first aired and both my parents and I watched it religiously. I was never so happy as when I found out this series was available on DVD... whoo hooo! :D I honestly think this was one of the greatest shows to ever air on US television. It's always interesting, always good. Not every show is a diamond, but no show is. I just received Season 8 and am on the second disc now and just love it. Some of the shows I DO remember oddly enough and some I don't. The particular episode I'm watching now stars James MacArthur's mother, Helen Hayes and it's very cool to see them act together. I reccommend Hawaii 5-O to anyone who likes crime drama without all the gore and language in today's shows. Like my review title says..'McGarrett Rules!' ..and always will! This show ran from 1968 until 1980. It starts with Wo Fat and ends with Wo Fat.. :D who is a great actor himself..but I can't think of how to spell his name right now..lol Buy this with confidence and enjoy!

The 8th season of Five-O is pretty good but is starting to slip, compared to the earlier years.
There's a great double-length episode featuring Wo Fat to kick off the set but there are also several rather silly, implausible stories.
One in particular, 'The Case Against McGarrett', has an inane plot and worse acting, particularly by the absurdly miscast Harold Gould reprising his role as a crime boss.
On the plus side, the video quality is excellent.
Five-O fans should enjoy this set but casual viewers should probably stick to the earlier seasons, especially Season One.

I recently picked up Season 8 and skimmed through most of the shows, which I haven't seen in some time. Overall, I think season 8 is an improvement over season 7, with better guest stars (Ed Asner, Donna Mills, Susan Dey, Dan O' Herlihy, Lew Ayres, George Takei, John Colicos, Pat Hingle, Charles Durning, Adam Arkin, Helen Heyes), and of course several strong episodes at the top of the season to kick things off. Additionally, McGarrett has ditched the awful cream-colored suit and jet black hair dye (he doesn't seem quite so pasty as in the last few seasons). In fact, the sideburns seem a little shorter, the suits are a little less garish, and the music scores are very good.

The 2-hour opener has great production values and is a good espionage thriller with Wo Fat, although he doesn't seem to have much to do other than sit around on his hydrofoil and let his henchman handle all the dirty work.

Other great episodes include "McGarrett is Missing" wherein he survives a plane crash in the jungle with a convict from season 2; "Death's Name is SAM" in which terrorists attempt to blow up a jetliner using surface-to-air missiles; "The Case Against McGarrett" features McGarrett being held hostage in prison by Honore Vashon, and is the wrap-up to the season 5 Vashon trilogy; "Retire in Sunny Hawaii Forever" features Helen Hayes as Danno's aunt investigating murder at a retirement home; "The Defector" is another great espionage thriller involving a Red Chinese agent; "Deadly Persuason" features a psycho out to murder the visiting royal family; "A Touch of Guilt" is about a senator's son who's involved in a gang rape. I think overall there are fewer lousy episodes this season than season 7.

Some other observations about the DVD set itself:

-The song used in "Sing a Song of Suspense" is intact
-The disclaimer on the box from previous seasons, "Some episodes may be edited from their original network versions", is NOT on the box this time around.
-They use the same shot of Danno and Duke on both the front and the back of the box
-Either I'm getting used to it, or the JL picture on the front of the box looks better than it did in the web artwork. Maybe they touched it up a tad so it didn't look quite so photoshopped.
-It's interesting that inside the disc cases, they have another new nighttime shot of downtown Honolulu, again looking very modern like the season 7 cover shot.

I am watching S8 upconverted to 1080p on a Blu-ray player on a 46" plasma, and I actually think S8 looks sharper and less grainy than several of the previous seasons. This could have more to do with the film stock they shot on back then, which I suspect changed throughout the show's run, and also with how the film was processed back then. I don't really think the remastering has changed during the DVD releases, as really the resolution looks the same throughout each. I also suspect the earliest seasons looked brighter and more colorful simply because shows in the late 60's in the early days of color TV seemed to go crazy with lots of bright colors (Star Trek, Five-0, Lost in Space, Gilligan's Island, etc.).

I have really been enjoying the new music scores from many of the season 8 episodes. Morton Stevens, Bruce Broughton and Don B. Ray, the music supervisor of Season 8, introduced a number of music cues in season 8 that I liked a lot(most of them didn't seem to get used in further seasons unfortunately). In fact, I think season 8 was one of the very best seasons for consistently great new musical scores.

4 more seasons to go, and season 9 (hopefully coming sometime this summer) is another winner. Thanks CBS-P!

A smiling McGarrett on the cover is a forerunner of McGarrett smiling a lot of in this season's episodes, and sometimes that's kind of scary. Season 8 still has lots of great stories and scenery. The season opener is tight and taut and features young Donna Mills and David Birney as well as the ever delightful and charming Kigh Deigh as Wo Fat. Wo Fat is probably the best villain ever created and just so much fun to watch, even if he does get snookered by Steve in the end. Helen Hayes delivers a wonderful performance with her son Jim McArthur in Retire in Sunny Hawaii...Forever. Some other wonderful characters and performances are delivered in The Defector, The Case against McGarrett, Target? The Lady (Susan Dey), and Wooden Model of a Rat (Ed Asner). Also gorgeous Hawaiian scenery in McGarrett is Missing (Big Island)and Turkey Shoot at Makapuu (hang-gliding ai-yi-yi!) Danny's horrible plaid suit was ditched in favour of a much nicer medium blue one and he gets still more face time, always a pleasure of the series 8-). Season 8 is still a very worthwhile addition to a fan's collection and many of the episodes are better than any regular night's current TV fare. Aloha, akamai, be there!

Get ready Five-0 fans and those not to
well versed in this great show. The best
four man lineup in Hawai'i Five-0 history
was: McGarrett, Danno*, Chin Ho and Duke!

No disrespect to Frank, Nick, Ben, or Kono,
but things just go better with Duke! My fav-
ourite fourth Five-0 guy. Also look in this
season for the lovely Sandi Welles, played
by Amanda McBroom! She's in three episodes
and one more in the Ninth seaon, which is
even better!!

The Series goes a bit downhill after season
eight, though I liked season 9 a bit better
than eight. And season 11 a bit better than
season 10 [remember Chin Ho gets bumped off
then]!

[*Danno was James MacArthur and 'Dano' was Tim
O'Kelly, in the T.V. Pilot.]

Looking ahead, I wish they would release the
12th season as McGarrett! They bring Nick back
for a couple episodes in season 12, but Carew,
Lori, Kevin and the constantly disappearing
Truck are somewhat disappointing! A real jem
in season eight is the fourth Vashon episodes:
"The Case Against McGarrett". Pick Up on this
winner - I've already got mine preordered!
Aloha, reviewers and readers of these amazon's!