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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.
