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kapuahiSo...I was so disenchanted with 2.02 that for the first time since I started with the H50 obsession, I wasn’t really excited about a new ep.
All I can say is after all the unbelievable crap 1.24 landed the team in, the premiere was a kick ass rollercoaster ride into the future. But I swear CBS, after the wtfuckery you’ve given us for 2.02 and 2.03 there had better be a huge storyline changing holyfuck!moment coming sometime in the future that saves the day.
There’s an expression that says ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. I really don’t think that applies to TV. If it did TV execs wouldn’t go out of their way to fuck up perfectly good tv shows.
It seems this season could be the one that makes us wonder, ‘if they hadn’t fixed it, would it still be here?’.
Kame’e for me didn’t hit the mark in so many ways. So many I hardly know where to start.
Everybody is bitching about Steve being OOC. To me this ep, he was practically the only one that was completely in character.
Remember, Steve is a career SEAL and as we know so well he’s emotionally stunted/retarded/unavailable. In the last few episodes he’s had his meltdown with the Governor, been in jail, stabbed by Hess, thought Danny was going back to Jersey, thought Chin betrayed him when he arrested him, was the cause of Kono losing her badge, has been stabbed, is suspicious of Jenna, had a new team member foisted on him and now has his ex CO ask him to investigate the death of a SEAL. That’s enough to make a sane stable person melt down. To deal with it /or because of it Steve has done the only thing he knows how, he’s retreated into his military persona.
Where am I going with this you ask?
Steve hasn't been pure military since the pilot. You know the same episode where Danny got in his face and Steve physically took him down. We all remember how he was back then don’t we? Pilot!Steve would have coerced Max to re-autopsy the victim whatever way he could, he would have gone postal on the guy he thought killed a fellow SEAL, and he sure as hell wouldn’t have put up with any of Danny’s shit either. As much as we and almost cilivian!Steve love it. And lets not forget Steve's family was shattered when his mother was killed, the SEAL's are his family. He couldn't save his mother, or his father, but there is nothing that is going to come between him and saving his brothers. He will do whatever he can, however he can to reach that objective.
And on that point, that last scene in the secure chamber was priceless for team development. Complete off the wall for realism but they needed it for their weak!plot conclusion. They’ve always looked at what Steve does on the job as a cop as over the top, adrenaline junkie machismo. That scene showed them what he can/has done. More importantly it showed them what he’s capable of. They know now that what he does with them is scaled so far back it could be considered tame, for Steve. I think Danny in particular just got a slice of how lucky he is that Steve has absorbed him, because Danny's attitude and behaviour, whilst not in any way bad, simply do not fly in Steve's military world.
The plot this episode was weak even for a weak plot. To me it was all about getting them to the end scene to show the team exactly what Steve is capable of.
And it seems that this season we’re using the word team loosely. Where the hell was the team. It was like pass the Lori. I hate the divide and separate thing they have going on. It’s like Steve and Danny can’t be in a scene together unless they’ve both had an individual scene with her.
Before you start, I’m not knocking the actress or even the character, even though I think, in two episodes, she’s already had more screen time than Kono had in her first twelve episodes. I have issue with them doing the divide and separate thing with the team. Last season there were very few times when the team wasn’t together or at least in two pairs or at least connected by phone. Steve and Danny are now playing catch with Lori and Chin is in HQ conventry, and who the fuck knows what Kono is doing.
There are things sacred to Five-0. The carguments, the banter and the team. This episode they replaced Steve with Lori in the car and not only didn’t it work for fandom, it felt forced. And what would have been snarky yet somehow adorable banter with Danny in HQ with Lori it just seemed ot of place and more than a little bit bitter. And what was it with Danny and his matchmaking advice in HQ. Because even when Steve has been being the boss in his office, he has never felt more like a boss than he did in that scene.
They didn’t need new characters, they needed more back story. Set the revolving guest star door up but don’t fuck with the team. Two episodes and everyone can see it’s not working, because they are throwing away the things that made us tune in every week. The only thing that could give when they brought in newbies was Steve/Danny time. I’m sure some bigwig sitting in his ivory tower somewhere in Hollywood thought it was a good thing to tame down the bromance, bring in some het interests and make the team bigger, but all it’s done is weaken the chemistry between the existing team. That’s no fault of the actors. It’s hard to have chemistry with someone you aren’t in a scene with. Danny didn’t come into this episode until twelve minutes in. Pretty soon they’ll have CBS merchandise, kids books ‘Where’s Danno?”.
I love Max to peices, but there was even too much of him this ep, and am I the only one that thought his trenchcoat appearance was a nod to Maltese Falcon? Fandom seems to be jumping to Inspector Gadget but I didn’t see that at all.
I’ll cut Joe some slack because this whole weak plot case was at his behest, and, to be honest if we had to have a new member, why couldn’t it have just been him. Steve was practically screaming for a paternal figure, and Joe fits that perfectly. But I will ask, why is he going out in the field with the team?
I loved the whole Beatles tie in with the Operation Strawberry Fields. Would love to know what Steve had to do with it.
So, in closing, I didn’t say much about the actual ep did I, just apparently wrote a thesis on why Five-0 is pissing me off this season.
There are people that aren't 'invested' in H50, that only tune in for an hour of good shoot em up, explosive, snarky banter-filled action. Many of them are already starting to think 'Hmmph, castle is better than this i might watch castle tonight". How many of this type of viewer do they need to lose before they realise, it wasn't broken, and fix what they fucked up?
Three episodes and they've all had us going WTF. One because it was such a kick ass incredible ride, the other two because the team seems to have stepped into an alternate universe. A trained chimp could see that the wheels only fell off when they started adding to the team. And it really isn't working for them.
All I can say is after all the unbelievable crap 1.24 landed the team in, the premiere was a kick ass rollercoaster ride into the future. But I swear CBS, after the wtfuckery you’ve given us for 2.02 and 2.03 there had better be a huge storyline changing holyfuck!moment coming sometime in the future that saves the day.
There’s an expression that says ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. I really don’t think that applies to TV. If it did TV execs wouldn’t go out of their way to fuck up perfectly good tv shows.
It seems this season could be the one that makes us wonder, ‘if they hadn’t fixed it, would it still be here?’.
Kame’e for me didn’t hit the mark in so many ways. So many I hardly know where to start.
Everybody is bitching about Steve being OOC. To me this ep, he was practically the only one that was completely in character.
Remember, Steve is a career SEAL and as we know so well he’s emotionally stunted/retarded/unavailable. In the last few episodes he’s had his meltdown with the Governor, been in jail, stabbed by Hess, thought Danny was going back to Jersey, thought Chin betrayed him when he arrested him, was the cause of Kono losing her badge, has been stabbed, is suspicious of Jenna, had a new team member foisted on him and now has his ex CO ask him to investigate the death of a SEAL. That’s enough to make a sane stable person melt down. To deal with it /or because of it Steve has done the only thing he knows how, he’s retreated into his military persona.
Where am I going with this you ask?
Steve hasn't been pure military since the pilot. You know the same episode where Danny got in his face and Steve physically took him down. We all remember how he was back then don’t we? Pilot!Steve would have coerced Max to re-autopsy the victim whatever way he could, he would have gone postal on the guy he thought killed a fellow SEAL, and he sure as hell wouldn’t have put up with any of Danny’s shit either. As much as we and almost cilivian!Steve love it. And lets not forget Steve's family was shattered when his mother was killed, the SEAL's are his family. He couldn't save his mother, or his father, but there is nothing that is going to come between him and saving his brothers. He will do whatever he can, however he can to reach that objective.
And on that point, that last scene in the secure chamber was priceless for team development. Complete off the wall for realism but they needed it for their weak!plot conclusion. They’ve always looked at what Steve does on the job as a cop as over the top, adrenaline junkie machismo. That scene showed them what he can/has done. More importantly it showed them what he’s capable of. They know now that what he does with them is scaled so far back it could be considered tame, for Steve. I think Danny in particular just got a slice of how lucky he is that Steve has absorbed him, because Danny's attitude and behaviour, whilst not in any way bad, simply do not fly in Steve's military world.
The plot this episode was weak even for a weak plot. To me it was all about getting them to the end scene to show the team exactly what Steve is capable of.
And it seems that this season we’re using the word team loosely. Where the hell was the team. It was like pass the Lori. I hate the divide and separate thing they have going on. It’s like Steve and Danny can’t be in a scene together unless they’ve both had an individual scene with her.
Before you start, I’m not knocking the actress or even the character, even though I think, in two episodes, she’s already had more screen time than Kono had in her first twelve episodes. I have issue with them doing the divide and separate thing with the team. Last season there were very few times when the team wasn’t together or at least in two pairs or at least connected by phone. Steve and Danny are now playing catch with Lori and Chin is in HQ conventry, and who the fuck knows what Kono is doing.
There are things sacred to Five-0. The carguments, the banter and the team. This episode they replaced Steve with Lori in the car and not only didn’t it work for fandom, it felt forced. And what would have been snarky yet somehow adorable banter with Danny in HQ with Lori it just seemed ot of place and more than a little bit bitter. And what was it with Danny and his matchmaking advice in HQ. Because even when Steve has been being the boss in his office, he has never felt more like a boss than he did in that scene.
They didn’t need new characters, they needed more back story. Set the revolving guest star door up but don’t fuck with the team. Two episodes and everyone can see it’s not working, because they are throwing away the things that made us tune in every week. The only thing that could give when they brought in newbies was Steve/Danny time. I’m sure some bigwig sitting in his ivory tower somewhere in Hollywood thought it was a good thing to tame down the bromance, bring in some het interests and make the team bigger, but all it’s done is weaken the chemistry between the existing team. That’s no fault of the actors. It’s hard to have chemistry with someone you aren’t in a scene with. Danny didn’t come into this episode until twelve minutes in. Pretty soon they’ll have CBS merchandise, kids books ‘Where’s Danno?”.
I love Max to peices, but there was even too much of him this ep, and am I the only one that thought his trenchcoat appearance was a nod to Maltese Falcon? Fandom seems to be jumping to Inspector Gadget but I didn’t see that at all.
I’ll cut Joe some slack because this whole weak plot case was at his behest, and, to be honest if we had to have a new member, why couldn’t it have just been him. Steve was practically screaming for a paternal figure, and Joe fits that perfectly. But I will ask, why is he going out in the field with the team?
I loved the whole Beatles tie in with the Operation Strawberry Fields. Would love to know what Steve had to do with it.
So, in closing, I didn’t say much about the actual ep did I, just apparently wrote a thesis on why Five-0 is pissing me off this season.
There are people that aren't 'invested' in H50, that only tune in for an hour of good shoot em up, explosive, snarky banter-filled action. Many of them are already starting to think 'Hmmph, castle is better than this i might watch castle tonight". How many of this type of viewer do they need to lose before they realise, it wasn't broken, and fix what they fucked up?
Three episodes and they've all had us going WTF. One because it was such a kick ass incredible ride, the other two because the team seems to have stepped into an alternate universe. A trained chimp could see that the wheels only fell off when they started adding to the team. And it really isn't working for them.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 02:16 pm (UTC)The rest is all very true too, unfortunately.
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Date: 2011-10-04 02:30 pm (UTC)I just want them to realise that they're screwing it into the ground and fix it before it's too broke to help.
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Date: 2011-10-04 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 02:42 pm (UTC)Because right I don't know WTF they are doing. *disgruntled*
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 02:42 pm (UTC)Thanks for your take on the show; you've identified some of the points that have made me go from HAWAII FIVE-0 YAY to Hawaii Five-0 can play in the background while I get lunches and stuff ready for tomorrow.
Do you know I didn't even record it last night. Didn't watch very much, didn't dvr. It will repeat later in the week on one of the other channels I get, but I can't say I'm all excited for it.
The ZOMG LOOK WHO'S GOING TO GUEST STAR stuff has put me off. I keep thinking, can't the show stand on it's own merits? Why all the bait to get people to tune in? It just sits badly with me.
As does the apparent direction the show is taking. :(
Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm always curious how other people are receiving the shows I watch. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 02:45 pm (UTC)I'm glad Danny had this realization and I hope it dawns no him how much Steve really has pulled back. And Danny and the team have been this anchoring influence.
I agree with other parts of your review about the lack of chemistry, but I'm still enjoying much of the show and I consider myself emotionally invested. It will be real interesting what happens when Kono returns to the fold with this 5 person dynamic.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 03:25 pm (UTC)I agree with you 100% about Steve. I read the whole thing as him going back into his SEAL world, where you do what you have to to get the job done, and to me his actions weren't OOC at all. He's a trained killer and we shouldn't forget the mindset you have to have to be that. And as you say, with the stresses he's been under it makes perfect sense for him to retreat back into the 'safety' of his military persona. Even more so when it's a case involving danger to fellow SEALs.
This was a Steve-centric episode; presumably soon we'll get a Danny-centric one. But them individually is not what we're here for; we're here for Steve and Danny as *partners*, working together, sparking off one another, having one another's backs. And for the team pulling together. How can TPTB be so *stupid* as to not see this?
And putting Lori into situations where the boys should be together really isn't helping at all, and won't help the fanbase warm to her character (I'm trying hard to give her a fair chance, but I must admit their attempt at getting me interested in her backstory with the runaway bride thing didn't work, so far she seems too two-dimensional for me to believe it, and I have no idea if that's the actress or the way the character's being written). I actually don't think it's fair on Lauren German to do this to her.
That's a condensed version of my rant. I want my show back!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:32 pm (UTC)I hope it's okay I commented on your post. It felt good reading your words, feeling not alone - H50 is my "escape moment" in the week, I need it to stay as good and reliable as it was!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 04:42 pm (UTC)The reason fans are saying Max looked like Inspector Gadget is because that's what Steve called him when he walked in dressed that way.
The whole ep just was so very disjointed -- they've always skipped over certain details, expecting the audience could figure they filled each other in on those missing things but this was worse than most. Not only did we not even see the plane Steve jumped out of, but instead of having Danny come find him we got Joe driving up alone. And they missed a golden opportunity for Danny to yell at Steve for the sky diving rescue.
I definitely did not like waiting 12 min for Danny to show up. I do think it was interesting for them to see what Steve is capable of but I've noticed other reviewers not liking the seemingly gratuitous scene of killing baddies.
God, I hope they don't completely ruin this show. It's not that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" doesn't apply in TV, it's that TV execs don't believe in it. I'm not sure why they've never seemed to notice that "fixing" a show that is just fine never seems to work out. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 05:46 pm (UTC)I thought the case was somewhat interesting (surprise) but kind of thrown in there even more than usual - why did the guy have info on Steve and a case he was on? He wasn't on SEAL team nine. Is he in danger? Could the hacker be selling the info on the other teams to other bad guys searching for vengance?
I have to say, as much as it grated, it made sense to send Chin into the woods with Steve and Joe and to send Danny with Lori to interview the wife, both from a team strengths standpoint and from a character standpoint for Danny, because of his own recent Rachel situation. I guess broken marriages and infidelity is going to be the "fatherless child case" of season 2?
So, yeah, a little underwhelmed with what was on screen, but focusing on the good side and how pretty Steve was. Sooooo pretty.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 06:12 pm (UTC)well thought out well written piece.
last night while running the whole WTF show thru my head one thought occured to me...maybe Steve is unconsciouly pushing danny away because while he understands Danny's reason for almost leaving it still had to hurt that he was going to go and not even fight to stay with the team. Steve is closing off to keep from hurting...
also with that whole scene with Danny saying what a good match Steve and Lori would be could be making Steve think Danny is pushing him away
i am a sad fangirl who needs to quit over thinking the emotions of flipping fictional charactors,,,
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Date: 2011-10-06 10:22 pm (UTC)At first I thought I must of missed one of the characters saying Danny had gone on vacation because it was so long before he appeared. Then Steve was replaced with Lori for the cargument and suddenly we're into fandom sacrilige . It's starting to feels like the fun close-knit team aspect of the show has gone the way of Danny's ties...
And I do love Steve but the last two eps have felt like a showcase in how bad-ass and Action Man he is. Look he rides a horse and jumps out of planes! At this rate by the season finale he'll be jumping out of planes on a horse, which they'll expect us to lap up when instead we'll all really be wondering how they managed to bugger up Hawaii Five-0 in one season.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-07 06:28 am (UTC)A lot of what you're saying was being said back in the massive comment thread in my post and that thing got so long and involved that I never really got anywhere else to look for feedback. Which is why the Steve is OOC thing was kind of a shock here. People think Steve was OOC in that ep? Seriously? Wow. I completely agree that he was probably the only one that was IN character, except for the ignoring Kono thing.
I've been trying to muster some optimism for the next ep but its just not there. I feel quite certain we'll get more of the same for at least the next few episodes which I assume are already in the can. After that its just a matter of if they figuring out they've totally changed their show and if so, if they decide that they like it better this way. *sigh*