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Pilot Watch: 'Hawaii Five-O'
by Joel Keller, posted Jun 30th 2010 11:02AM
From now through the end of July, we're going to be taking a quick look at the fall and mid-season pilots that the networks sent to critics after their upfront presentations. Keep in mind that in each case, our opinions are based on a pilot that could be completely recast and reworked between now and the fall.
Show: 'Hawaii Five-O'
Network: CBS
Timeslot: Mondays, 10PM ET
The lowdown: A remake of the classic CBS cop drama that ran from 1968-80. CBS's favorite actor, Alex O'Loughlin, plays Steve McGarrett, the role originated by Jack Lord. A top Naval intelligence officer, he returns to his home in Hawaii after a notorious terrorist kills his father. He's hired by the governor (Jean Smart) to create a police task force that has complete immunity and authority to expunge the scum by any means possible. On his team, McGarrett recruits Danny "Dano" Williams (Scott Caan), a displaced detective from New Jersey, Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), who left the force under suspicion of wrongdoing, and Kona Kalakaua (Grace Park), a young but tough rookie who's also Chin Ho's cousin.
What we're saying: The original 'Five-0' delved into the underbelly of paradise, but there was an undercurrent of camp that reflected the era, when the only images most people had of Hawaii were hula girls, leis, and Don Ho. The pilot of the new version is mostly deadly serious, substituting terrorism for organized crime. The pilot, written by 'Star Trek' and 'Fringe' writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, tries to throw some comedic breaks in with the action, mostly via the reluctant and abrasive Dano. But the pilot also showed that the Five-O crew, especially McGarrett, as impervious supercops rather than the normal police officers we saw in the original version.
This is not being positioned as a pure procedural, as there are too many back stories to explore. But if Kurtzman and Orci can infuse McGarrett and crew with some vulnerability and give them some good ongoing cases to pursue (maybe a modern-day version of Wo Fat), the program can gain a toehold in the crowded CBS schedule. If they remain supercops, though, the show will get boring in a hurry.
Here's a preview:
Tell us what you think. Does it have a shot of making people forget about the original?
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