The Good
One the greatest police, procedural shows of all time is back for a second tour of duty.
The Bad
No extra features really.
Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Second Season finds Detective Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord), Danno (James MacArthur) and the rest of the team going up against the worst that the North Shore has to offer. This season finds McGarrett and his crew going under cover against jewel thieves (“Kiss the Queen Goodbye”), racing against time to stop a psycho from pulling off an old mission from Pearl Harbor (“To Hell With Babe Ruth”), trying to get back money from extortionists (“The Devil and Mr. Frog”), and even following a thief from Hawaii to Hong Kong (“Which Way Did They Go?”). To say that it is business as usual for the Five-O team would be an understatement, but what makes this show always easy to watch is seeing McGarrett and his team in action. They are always working leads and angles. Even when it seems like all hope is lost, they never give up and that is why they usually get their man.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Of all the police shows that I have ever seen, Hawaii Five-O makes an impression because of the caliber of acting that each performer displays. There is a depth and strength to each characterization that makes watching this show always one of discovery. Even though we usually know how things are going to turn out, it is still fun seeing our Five-O detectives get there.
Features
No extras came with this release.
Video
Full Screen Format. These shows look awesome. They are digitally remastered and they look pristine. It seems that every episode has gone through a process of revitalization and color correction. I noticed no point where the images seemed shaky or where I noticed any hits or other problems with the picture. My only real gripe with any of this is that they left an episode out of the collection (“Bored, She Hung Herself”), and they admit that “some episodes may be edited from their original network versions.” Truthfully, with 20 hours and 6 minutes of content we are probably not missing much, but that doesn’t mean that I want to know that I am missing something.
Audio
Dolby Digital: English and Spanish Mono. Subtitled in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Okay, this is one area where I noticed a slight problem. I had to turn up the audio levels on my system well over the halfway point. Once I did this, things seemed to play fine but I was surprised that I had to do this. One would have thought that as long a Paramount was bumping up the picture quality, they would have also bulked up the audio a little bit more. Sadly, this wasn’t the case but it isn’t like these discs are unlistenable.
Package
Jack Lord gets the most face time on the front of this slipcase cover. Next to him are some images of the other cast members, and the main background is the blue sky and palm trees. The back of this slip case showcases a bunch of pictures from this show, a technical specs list, and a description of what Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Second Season is about. The six discs that comprise this set are all stored in 3 slim cases. They feature the same front cover image as the slipcase itself, and on the back are episode listings, descriptions and airdates.
Final Word
While I will admit that the plethora of extras on Hawaii Five-O: The First Season left me a little let down by those offered on Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Second Season, I still really enjoyed what this new, six disc set had to offer. As I have stated, one can easily predict how these shows are going to go:
A) A crime is committed.
B) McGarrett and Five-O are stumped.
C) The criminal continues to commit the same crime.
D) McGarrett and Five-O are still stumped
E) The criminal eventually trips himself up.
F) McGarrett and Five-O pick up on this mistake.
G) The criminal is still in business…
H) Until McGarrett and his team put enough clues together to bring the hammer down.
At the same time, even though I know that this is going to happen, I love how long this show lingers letting me think that it might not. It takes its time putting across the stories and I love how it will often go way past the 30 minute mark before McGarrett is able to get his head around whatever case they are working on.
Still great after all these years, Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Second Season is great TV that always seems to work.
Hawaii Five-O was released .
