The minute the show starts and you hear the theme song you know something good is coming. The opening sequence alone is worht having this set for. The zooming in on Jack Lord as McGarrett and then whipping around as he turns to get the full on face shot is magic. The whole opening credits really lets you know you are in for something really special.
Season Two is great. The guest stars alone make it worth while. A virtual whos who if television at the time including Lorretta Swit in two epsiodes, and Marion Ross is here before she and Howard got frisky on Happy Days. There is also an episode with a very young and not dancing Christopher Walken.
The stories themsleves are terrific, drug delaers, protection scams, and things effecting national security. Five -O gets only the big cases. My favorite was and episode with Martin Sheen as a scumball lawyer helping a hood set up the team for a fall, starting out by framing Chin Ho for bribery. A nice look into Chin’s family life.
And that’s part of what makes the show work. The relationships between the guys on the team, they are friends and joke around with each other, one liners fired off at Kono, Danny concern for McGarrett when he gets “blowed up real good”. The blend between the no nonsense get the job done attitude and the way they get along is great. And these men are notr playing, they get the job done, shooting when they need to, dropping through skylights and even Chin can haul ass when he needs to.
Tough as nails cops doing the hard jobs and making it look easy. And of course shooting in Hawaii makes the whole thing beautiful.
There is an episode involving a kidnappping that starts out on what would later become the Robin Master’s Estate on Magnum PI.
This show still rocks, and season two holds up to the test of time better than season one.
This is a very worthwhile investment.
Jon Jordan
