Customer Reviews

Hawaii Five-O - The Complete Second Season

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Nothing lasts 12 years without having something going for it. In the case of Hawaii Five-O, it easy to dismiss it as a typically television crime drama that got lucky by finding its audience and keeping it. The same could be said for Law and Order. Except, in television years, luck usually runs out after two or three years. Gimmicks get old, the formula is figured out, and sharks are jumped so often they don't even complain.

But shows that last five years, much less 12, have to have something besides luck, gimmicks, and great scheduling. Hawaii Five-O had a number of things going for it. First of all, let's be honest. The setting was, and still is so lush and exotic that it is easily intoxicating. Hawaii is beautiful, and most people either live there or want to live there. Filming on location has always been a blessing when it's been done, and probably no more so than on this series.

Next, Jack Lord, playing Five-O chief Steve McGarrett, was one of a long line of no-nonsense law enforcement figures. The strength, integrity, and dedication of these kinds of characters cannot be overstated, and these characters will always have lots of fans rooting them on, not unlike Law and Order's Jack McCoy.

Finally, watching shows like this is always a treat because you see so many stars that were either big stars enjoying a working Hawaiian vacation, or lots of up and coming stars before they got their big break. Hawaii Five-O was a natural draw for both categories, and it's fun to watch them and remember when.

It's also fun to remember when you could look forward to hearing one of the best and most recognizable theme songs in television history. Not a small thing when you add it with the other factors. Hawaii Five-O had a lot going for it then, and it has a lot going for it now.

Hawaii Five-O was not your ordinary police drama. Besides the lush location of Hawaii and the unforgettably terrific theme music, the stylized characters and story lines really added a fantastic element to the show, an element missing from more mundane or "realistic" police dramas of both then and now. When you turned this show on from week to week you never knew what kind of story you were going to see. It might be a story about thieves, mobsters or murderers, but it might just as likely be about something larger or more fantastic like international spies, assassination conspiracies or the threat of biological epidemics. Even the stories dealing with common crimes were heavily stylized, often pitting the Five-O team against near super-villain type enemies. In a way, this show mixed the best of police dramas with some of the best elements of stylized spy thrillers, classic detective fiction, and even a tinge of comic book superheroes. It's as if someone took all the best elements of Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Mission Impossible and Batman and somehow came out with a surreal blend of police melodrama and heroic fiction that is fascinating and fun to watch.

Here is an episode list for Season Two:

Thousand Pardons -- You're Dead!
A scam to claim widows' benefits results in the deaths of the bar women used in the scam.

To Hell with Babe Ruth
A deranged Japanese WWII vet escapes from the mental hospital and tries to carry on the war.

Forty Feet High and It Kills!
Wo Fat kidnaps a scientist and wants to smuggle him to China.

Just Lucky, I Guess
A salesman uses the services of a lady of the evening, and then witnesses a mobster killing her.

Savage Sunday
A revolutionary terror group steals weapons from a local barracks.

A Bullet for McGarrett
A university professor brainwashes students to become programmed killers.

Sweet Terror
Five-O must foil a terror plot to destroy Hawaii's sugarcane industry.

King Kamehameha Blues
College students plan to steal the cloak of King Kamehameha.

The Singapore File
McGarrett tries to bring a witness from Singapore to Hawaii to testify in an important court case, running a gauntlet of dangers while doing so.

All the King's Horses
An assassination attempt on a politician leaves a confusing trail of clues regarding a former racketeer and the supposed victim.

Leopard on the Rock
A dictator's aircraft is forced to land in Hawaii as part of an assassination plot. Can Five-O protect him?

The Devil and Mr. Frog
A kidnap victim escapes his captors. Can Five-O recover the ransom money?

The Joker's Wild, Man, Wild
Two young men vie for the attention of a wealthy young woman, who has them perform increasingly dangerous and deadly acts to win her affection.

Which Way Did They Go?
A clever bank robber dupes Five-O into protecting the wrong bank. Can McGarrett and his team catch the clever crook?

Blind Tiger
A bomb sent to McGarrett in a package leaves him temporarily blind. Marion Ross (Mrs. Cunningham of Happy Days) plays McGarrett's hospital rehabilitation nurse. Meanwhile, Five-O searches for the culprit who sent the bomb.

Bored, She Hung Herself
A health technique involving hanging results in the death of the girlfriend of the health guru who invented the technique. Was it really an accident?

Run, Johnny, Run
Christopher Walken guest stars in an episode about an AWOL sailor accused of shooting an MP.

Killer Bee
One Vietnam veteran, now a psychiatric worker, tries to drive a fellow veteran insane.

The One with the Gun
A man is killed during a poker game and his brother is seeking revenge on the culprit. Can Five-O solve the murder and stop the brother from committing another?

Cry, Lie
Chin Ho is the accused in a corruption scandal involving bribery.

Most Likely to Murder
An officer investigates the murder of his own wife, leading to facts that strain his friendship with Dan Williams.
Nightmare Road
Revolutionaries want to smuggle a scientist off the island via submarine.

Three Dead Cows at Makapuu (Part 1)
A biological scientist is conflicted about his work and cows are found dead from a contagion that threatens the entire island.

Three Dead Cows at Makapuu (Part 2)
Can Five-O find a vial of deadly contagion before disaster strikes all of Hawaii?

Kiss the Queen Goodbye
An extortionist forces a politician to take her to an event where she can steal a priceless jewel, leaving a fake in its place.

The incorruptible and larger-than-life characters of Steve McGarrett and his stalwart crew of Danny, Kono and Chin Ho made for an interesting mix. At the time this show first appeared on television, only Star Trek had as ethnically diverse and interesting a cast as this show and they were the only two shows to completely eschew ethnic stereotypes in how they used their diverse cast. The show took full advantage of the diversity and beauty of both the Hawaiian Islands as well as the local population when filming, rather than hiding it. This may have been a gamble in 1968, but it's one that happily paid off and helped pave the way for a more realistic view of our country's population on TV in years to come. Hawaii Five-O was a huge ratings success and ran for 12 seasons, forever in the world of TV. And it deserved it. Then and now, these shows are fun to watch. I already own Hawaii Five-O Season One on DVD and am enjoying it thoroughly, as is my young son who is seeing the show for the first time. I am looking forward to owning Season Two on DVD shortly and hopefully more sets after that. "Be there, aloha!"

The early reviews almost scared me out of buying this set, but I'm glad I didn't cave! I just finished watching disks one and two and if any episode has been edited, I sure couldn't tell. The shows are fun to watch and, like Season One, the color and sound are outstanding!

I'm disappointed about the missing episode, too, but it's possible that the studio just couldn't find a suitable print. If they never intended to air it again, they might have been lax with the film. As for the legal department theory...some nut could just as easily say that an episode gave them the idea to commit insurance fraud or become a "Red Chinese" agent or try LSD as to try a new and dangerous way of finding...well, let's just say, "self-fulfillment," so the "we'd better leave it off or they'll sue us" theory doesn't make sense. At least they were honest by printing the disclaimer on the box (the fact that there's a disclaimer at all is probably the work of the legal department!).

In addition to the previously-mentioned guest stars, I spotted former professional wrestling champ Nick Bockwinkel in a cameo as a union foreman in the first episode on Disk Two.

Enjoy. I really don't think you'll be disappointed. Aloha!

I can understand the disappointment of completist fans at the omission of Bored, She Hung Herself, and the discomfort created by the warning (note: it IS only a warning!!) about potential editing of some episodes. But folks, nothing is perfect, and I would rather see the clean and clear reproduction of what IS in the Season 2 release, than not get to see it at all!!! One episode does not make a whole series, and there are some really awesome episodes in Season 2 ('tho there are the first stinkers too - a Bullet for McGarrett is shockingly bad!) We still get the nuances, story twists and clever and shocking turns; the hot and jazzy music; the colourful, clever and compelling characters; Danno's sharp little zingers and gentle comments (and spectacular blue eyes); Steve's passionate declarations on morality, justice and responsibility; the stunning beauty of late 60's /early 70's Hawaii. There is nothing nearly as good on current TV, and with the DVD release we get to see it (almost) all without commercials or overtly hacking edits. PLEASE!!!!! Get over one poor decision by P'mount and SUPPORT the CONTINUING RELEASE of the show!!! Buy Season 2, so it don't go pau, brudda! Bring on Season 3 wikiwiki!!!

By all means harass Paramount for the missing episode on future releases -similar story lines have been presented since then (6 Feet Under had someone self-asphyxiate when a wedge of lemon fell out of his mouth while he was doing something similar but naughty on a piece of exercise equipment, and that one was aired more than once and released on the DVD. So, come ON P'mount!!)

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!"

The Second season of Hawai'i Five-0 starts
with a bang with "A Thousand Pardons--You'
re Dead" starring Harry Guardino, who also
played in "A Lion In the Streets", parts I
& II, the best episode of the Tweleth and
last season, and "Murder--Eyes Only" and
the underrated third season episode, "Trou-
ble In Mind" in which singer Nancy Wilson
plays an excellent performance. The second
season expands on the fine characters of
Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakua, esecially
with number #43 'Cry, Lie'. Chin Ho is framed
by crooked (and ambitious) Lawyer Martin Sheen
(see also the very fine 'Time and Memories').
Kono almost gets shot and/or beaten to death
in 'The Hostage'. Look for the second season
on DVD around July 4th. "Be there, Aloha",
Steve McGarrett says...Episode listing, Key =
****-excellent, ***-very good, **average, *-poor
A thousand pardons, you're dead***, To hell with babe ruth*.5
Forty feet high, and it kills[Wo Fat episode]**.5, Just lucky,
I guess***, Savage Sunday**.5, A bullet for McGarrett[Wo Fat-
cameo!]**.5, Sweet Terror**.5, The King Kamamehameha blues***
.5, Singapore file***, All the king's horses***.5, Leopard on
a rock*.5, And Mr. Frog**.5, The joker's wild, man, wild**.5,
Which way did they go***, Tiger**.5, Bored, she hung herself
[banned on US DVDs pending lawsuit...can be found on bootleg
copies of the 12 seasons on dvds, buyer beware!, and on aussie
hawai'i five-0 dvds)***, Run, Johnny, Run***, Killer Bee**,
The one with the gun***, Cry, Lie***.5, Most likely to murder
***.5, Nightmare Road**.5, Three dead cows at Makapu'u(double
episode)**.5, Kiss the queen goodbye***.5

My family and I have thoroughly enjoyed the Five-O series. We savor the flavor by watching just one episode per week, a day which we have dubbed "Five-O Night." The overall quality of the second season's DVD is superb. On the second season's DVD set, the video is superb and the audio is well-mixed. I especially appreciate the professionalism of the music scores on these old TV series. To hear them with such digital clarity is neat. On this set, you can actually hear the ping on the ride cymbal. I like that. With such an absence of creativity and propriety in today's TV climate, these old classics are well worth the money spent. Mahalo

Except for the missing episode, It is so nice to watch the episodes without commercials and chopped to death in order to fit more commercials. The way it is run in syndication, if you have never seen the show before, you wouldn't be able to follow the story now. The episodes are wonderfully restored even though some of the storylines are a little bizarre. Try picturing Victor from The Young and The Restless as a hypnotizing killer?! All in all, it is worth every dime!!

To the previous reviewer -- yes, the "'V' for Vashon" trilogy is definitely Five-0 at its best, but that was season 5, not 7! Season 8 gave us "The Case Against McGarrett" where Harold Gould reprises his role as Honore Vashon who puts McGarrett on trial in prison for the murder of his son Chris back in Season 5! Seasons 1-9 were Five-0 at its best, after that the show began to slip...

I'd have to say that Season 5 is my favorite, but my all-time favorite episode was from Season 4 -- "Rest in Peace, Somebody" where McGarrett is being harassed by someone from his past holding a deadly grudge against him and who is planning to assassinate the governor to ruin McGarrett!

As for Season 2 -- great season as well, just like Season 1! Standout episodes include "A Thousand Pardons -- You're Dead!", "A Bullet for McGarrett", "The Singapore File", "Blind Tiger" (with Marion "Happy Days" Ross), "Killer Bee", "Cry, Lie" (with Martin Sheen), "Nightmare Road"

Hope Season 3 is on its way! That one has the unforgettable comedy classic "Over Fifty? Steal" with Hume Cronyn as wily master-of-disguise crook Lewis Avery Filer!

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!"