Well, Undercover Special Agents, here is the final podcast with myself and Mike Buck this past Tuesday. We talk about the finale, behind the scenes stuff, Shelburne, Kono going overboard, Chin’s problems, local boy Karl Herlinger, and where things are going for season 3. Sit, download and enjoy!
CBS drama Hawaii Five-0, has been holding onto a devoted fan base despite the competition. Mike Gordon at the Star Advertiser gives us some insight into this season’s numbers.
With a massive explosion at police headquarters, a few murders and a lot of mayhem in the streets of Honolulu, the CBS drama “Hawaii Five-0″ ended its second season Monday, and by the time the smoke cleared, it had a ratings victory.
“Five-0″ drew 11.42 million viewers, the third-largest audience of its sophomore season, according to Nielsen ratings information released Tuesday by the network.
The crime drama outpaced ABC’s “Bachelorette,” which drew 7.65 million viewers, and NBC’s “Smash,” which drew 5.96 million viewers.
“Five-0″ gave fans a wild ride during the 23-episode second season, which started with thousands of fans watching a sneak preview at Sunset on the Beach and a season-high draw of 12.19 million viewers a few days later.
The second season featured a steady parade of guest stars — including James Caan, Ed Asner, Jimmy Buffett and Peter Fonda — for added star power.
Semiregular “Five-0″ team members Lauren German and Larisa Oleynik were written out of the show.
And “Five-0″ headliner Alex O’Loughlin took a short break this spring to deal with a problem he had with prescription pain medication.
The show averaged 10.66 million viewers for original episodes.
“What do I think?” said Peter Lenkov, the show’s executive producer. “Whew. We made it. I now get to sleep for a week, then start writing again. Very proud of our cast and crew for an outstanding season two.”
CBS said in March it will bring back “Five-0″ for a third season. Filming is expected to start in July. The network hasn’t said whether it will host a Sunset on the Beach preview this year.
Among its key target audience, adults 18 to 49, the “Five-0″ season two finale was respectable, said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. The finale drew 2.7 percent of the total viewing audience and 7 percent of those watching TV at the time, according to the Nielsen numbers.
The 2.7 rating is only a few tenths of a point lower than the season one finale, which means the show has a faithful audience, said Thompson, who keeps an eye on Nielsen ratings.
“It is definitely holding its audience,” he said.
The show would be in jeopardy should that number drop significantly, he said.
“‘Hawaii Five-0′ is by no means getting huge numbers, but at the same time it is beating a lot of stuff out there,” Thompson said. “But it doesn’t have too far to go down before it would start being a marginal show.”
By comparison, the CBS show “Unforgettable” was canceled after a rating that averaged 2.3, he said. The drama, which averaged 11.3 million viewers, was one of the higher-rated shows this season to be canceled, he said.
Donne Dawson, who was recently reinstated as the state’s film industry development manager for the Hawaii Film Office after being gone for two years, said she applied an unscientific “gut level” check to “Five-0,” and the second season came up a winner.
“I know that the industry depends on ratings for survival, but I think you can get carried away to a degree, hovering so closely over them,” Dawson said. “You sometimes need to pan back and say, ‘Does this have the necessary ingredients for a successful show?’ I say it does.”
The show has storytelling and eye candy, she said.
“In my mind that equates to success,” Dawson said. “I think that bodes well for longevity.”
I’m sure you’ll all agree that last night’s Hawaii Five-0 episode was a thrill a minute ride, and not just because the episode opened up with bikinis, which was a nice bonus. The team won some, and lost some; one great mystery was solved, but more questions arose.
Goodbye Captain Fryer
Love him or hate him, Captain Fryer (Tom Sizemore) was an intriguing character. He was a tough as nails cop bent on rooting out corruption in the HPD, and he didn’t care if he was going to step on any toes along the way. His shotgun approach to solving HPD’s problems didn’t win him friends, but deep down you could see he was trying to do the right thing. Or was he? Through the story and plot twists, we saw some moral ambiguity in the character with possible shades of corruption. Thankfully Captain Fryer died the way a tough cop should die. He wasn’t shot in the back…it took four bullets in the chest to take him down, but not before he managed to get a shot off to wound his assailant.
All this is thanks to the fine acting of Tom Sizemore, who had stumbled recently in the past with addiction problems, but seemed to gain traction in acting again on Hawaii Five-0. Personally, I loved the character because he brought an edge to the Five-0 team from within HPD, which kept Steve on his toes. So mahalo, and aloha to you Tom!
Hello Toothpick
Hawaiian expat Karl Herlinger @regnilreh) played the elusive Toothpick, a throwback reference to a character from the original Five-0 series. A man of few words but having the ability to bore a hole through you with his menacing stare, Toothpick was there at every turn, harassing the team. He’s definitely a guy you’d love to hate…every time he came on screen you know something bad was about to happen. His final act of letting Kono impersonate an anchor will definitely cement his place in Five-0 history as a really bad dude. We’ll certainly see him in season 3, and see how much more mayhem he can create. With him and Delano on the loose, Honolulu is wide open…
And if that wasn’t enough
The team was methodically torn apart, one by one. Max took a shot to the gut, HPD was blown to smithereens (which was pretty epic if you were there to see it in person), Danny’s got custody problems, and Chin had a tough decision to make. With bullets flying, cars speeding around downtown Honolulu, HPD headquarters up in smoke, and a relentless assassin, this episode harkened back to the pilot in the scope of action.
Photo E-PR
Regarding Danny, he’s in an ironic situation from a season ago. Last season, he was on the verge of dropping everything to return back to New jersey with Rachel, but now we see him at odds with her over Grace’s custody. While an unhappy Danny is always an interesting Danny, his unresolved problem that leads to season 3 surely can’t play out that long. And what ever happened to his brother (played by Dane Cook)?
Taylor Cole who played the assassin Hilary Chaver was especially fearsome. Leaving a trail of bodies in ruthless fashion behind her, she was absolutely brutal. Thankfully, no puppies or kitties were harmed by her.
Damn you Channing Tatum
Ok, so did I miss something? Bad guy Toothpick is munching on his toothpick, when he should really be using dental floss, while stalking an unsuspecting Kono, who has happily forgiven Adam for duct taping her a few days ago. We cut to commercials, and then my senses were assaulted with this:
If the new "Footloose" wasn't enough, here's "Flashdance" for the new millenium!
So I endured the squeeing emanating from Mrs. Officer 808 beside me, as well as the bicep flexing and chair leaping in front of me for what seemed like an eternity, before we finally cut back to Chin Ho arriving at a darkened Halawa prison.
Wait, what? Did Channing Tater’s wiggling short something in my brain? Did I miss something?
After lengthy dialog between Delano and Chin from the prison down to the dock, we learned that Toothpick had stealthily subdued and kidnapped Kono (with more duct tape, no doubt). Delano then used this as a bargaining chip at an unseen negotiation to compel Chin to release him. Chin presumed he’d be taken to Kono, but alas, Delano has something more sinister planned. Ripping a page right out of the Riddler’s playbook from Batman Forever, Chin had to choose between saving his wife or his cousin.
Ok…now I get it.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, I know that a lot of armchair critics are going to take issue with the huge leap in the story that was sacrificed for the sake of Channing Totem’s pecs. I personally would have loved to see Toothpick go head to head with Kono, because we know Kono can fend for herself. I would have loved to see the drama unfold as Delano summons Chin to Halawa to break to him the news of Kono’s capture. But I know in the story writer’s defense that one can’t fit everything into a 42 minute episode (which of course would have made for a great excuse to do a two hour finale) so we’ll have to be content with Chin and Delano talking through the events.
I do give credit to the writers for bringing Delano back into the story. Bent on vengeance, he played the Five-0 team all along by taking out Fryer, and then exacting his revenge on Kono and Chin. With that, the story played out perfectly. Delano’s motivation for singling out Chin as the “crooked cop who got away” was an ironic twist that opened up a wound Chin had thought healed long ago.
Photo Norman Shapiro/CBS
I thought Daniel Dae Kim nailed the whole episode perfectly. We saw Chin’s soft side with Malia, we saw him doing his Five-0 thing with the shotgun, and we saw him as the conflicted target of Delano’s schemes.
And go see Magic Mike in theaters, Channing Tummytum’s chiseled pecs paid a lot of money for that air time.
The real Shelburne
So as most of us speculated earlier in the season, Joe lied about Shelburne’s identity. I gave a quick run down of the possible candidates for Shelburne a few months back, and a few of you gave your guesses, and a lot of us were correct in saying Doris McGarrett is the real Shelburne!
"I am *not* crying, Mom! There's wasabi in my eye!" (Vidcap: CBS)
But what does it all mean? Wo Fat is locked up, Joe is gone, and Steve is left with his mother. Are they going to catch up on old times? Peter Lenkov promised us that we get to see the whole reunion between mother and son. But how much deeper does the international intrigue go? One big answer is solved, and we have to see how Danny, Kono and Chin resolve their problems but it seems that the Wo Fat story has come to a halt…for now. We’ll have to wait and see what season 3 brings us.
And now, Things We Learned About Hawaii From Hawaii Five-0, Episode 223, “Ua Hala”
1) Steve and Joe earned a total of 19,250 frequent flier miles from Hawaiian Air, going back and forth between Hawaii and Japan. Joe didn’t disappear on Steve to be mysterious- he was trying to beat Steve to the airport to cash in on the free ticket!
Did you notice…?
Kamekona walked in with a balloon that said “Live long and prosper”, a hat tip to Max’s love for Star Trek.
How many of you women had to reach for the kleenex, when a concerned Joe White held pressure on Max’s wound, while sweet, charming Max looked up to him and breathed, “Am I going to die?”
I spent some time on a sunny afternoon watching Steve and Danny chase the HPD car out of the back alley. Some of you may remember some of my “spoilers”. I credit the Five-0 crew with spending an hour filming a shot that lasted all of seven seconds. A lot of work goes into filming an episode.
And on that note, the spectacular pyrotechnics of HPD blowing up was something to see (check out the BTS from yesterday), but with great stunt work, good editing, and sound effects, that explosion is a hell of a lot more spectacular on screen.
Kono will be underwater for three months. Thanks a long time to wait to see what happens!
From Hawaii Five-0 Guru Mr. Mike: “Ua Hala,” the title of the show, is Hawaiian for “Death in the Family.” This is virtually the same title as the last show of season 10 of the original series. In that show, Chin Ho was murdered and his body dumped in front of the Iolani Palace where the Five-O office was located.
More from Mr. Mike: Karl Herlinger, the guy who plays “Toothpick,” the nasty villain of the finale, appeared [as a child] in the 2-hour 12th-season opener from the original show, A Lion in the Streets. As pointed out by a contributor to my site, the son of union organizer Andy Kamoku is walking home from school with his friends (including Herlinger). They part at a corner, and the son continues on, alone. Some kumu gangsters drive up…It turns out to be a kidnapping.
If you haven’t had a chance to watch the Season 2 finale, you might want to avoid the below article from TVLine. It certainly sounds as though Peter Lenkov has already put plenty of thought into exactly how he’ll be torturing each member of the Hawaii Five-0 team in Season 3. Is it September yet?
The Season 2 finale of CBS’Hawaii Five-0 packed quite a Hawaiian punch on Monday night, killing off one recurring character, putting a bullet in another, leaving the lives of two women in jeopardy and bringing McGarrett face-to-face with the mysterious Shelburne – who is someone he knows, but surely never expected to see again.
Here is what executive producers Peter Lenkov and Elwood Reid shared about the shock and awe and aftermath, during a recent press gathering.
MAMMA, MIA! WAS THAT SHELBURNE? | Just to be clear, connect the dots and put to rest any worries about semantics, Joe did in fact lead McGarrett to the mysterious Shelburne – whom a shocked Steve greeted with a “Mom?” “The identity of Shelburne will be revealed [in the final five seconds],” Lenkov confirmed. And make no mistake, we’ll get to witness all of the most unexpected reunion. “[Next season] really picks up a second later,” says Lenkov.
WHO WILL CHIN HO LOSE? | Delano made Chin Ho choose between rushing to rescue wife Malia, who was being held at gunpoint at home, or cousin Kono, bound and about to be pitched over the side of a boat. Chin Ho ran to his missus, who nonetheless seemed very much worse for the wear, while Kono was last seen flailing and falling deeper and deeper into the Pacific. Without revealing either woman’s fate, Lenkov said that in Season 3, “We’re going to break [Chin Ho] and have him get rebuilt up again. When we found him he was already broken, but you never got to see him when he was a strong cop and got everything taken away from him. Now we want to see things taken away from him and see how he deals with it. We’re very deliberately altering his character.” And Daniel Dae Kim’s take on the sad Sophie’s Choice? “He loved the challenge, emotionally,” Lenvok shared, “with what he was going to do with his character.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR DANNO? | Detective Williams got off easy compared to everyone else in the finale, save for some domestic strife between him and ex-wife Rachel, who is threatening to move Grace to Las Vegas. Nonetheless, “There’s a lot of wood on the fire in the finale [that's] going to give us a lot of stuff to play” in Season 3, said Reid. “There’s some stuff that played during the middle of the season, particularly with Danny, that’s going to come back next season too.”
HAVE WE – AND MCGARRETT – SEEN THE LAST OF JOE WHITE? | Though Joe vanished into thin air before taking McGarrett to Shelburne, and despite Terry O’Quinn’s 666 Park Avenue pilot landing on ABC’s fall schedule, the Five-0 bosses are hoping for the occasional encore. “[Terry] is open to it, which we were all very surprised and excited about,” said Lenkov. “We love him, and hopefully he’ll come back.” After all, as Reid noted, “Joe is integral to the McGarrett mythology.” (With reporting by Vlada Gelman)
I have nothing pithy to say here, except that Chin's shirt is funderfull.
Hit the ground running kind of looses all meaning in this episode, because it’s more like, “keep your head down and put the pedal to the metal.” As promised, this finale *was* explosive and angst-filled. And maybe it shocked some people, but for others like me, it just confirmed suspicions that have been floating around since last fall. Not that this is a bad thing, it was actually pretty snazzy.
The Pros:
– We find out who the “big death in the family” is before the intro credits roll. Frye and Joe White topped my list for the big death tonight, so this wasn’t a huge shock. In fact, the way it was set up, the minute Fryer parked in that alley, you pretty much knew he was dead. Lots of foreshadowing tonight lead us into the big money scenes.
– The psycho killer chick manages to infiltrate HPD! Call it unlikely or far fetched, you got to admit, the girl had some balls.
– Max is a fighter. Poor Max. I think we’ve whumped enough on Max, show. Let’s cut the guy a break.
– HPD goes KABLOOEY! I do like a good explosion. And McG actually talking to the shooter and not knowing it? Who knew it was a woman shooter from the first? (raises hands) Again, it just took a little paying attention to say, “hey Steve, you just walked past the shooter in the hall!” but it was still cool. As was the choreographed flying Five-0s after the whole building blows out.
– Danny’s Dilemma: I can’t say I’m surprised that we’re being drawn back into the “where Gracie goeth, will Danny goeth?’ debate again, since it’s been a while since we’ve dealt with anything Rachel or Grace related. But it’s still nice to see that Danny is finally going to stand up to Rachel. Long, LONG overdue, man.
– LOVE LOVE LOVE the little cargument wherein Danny makes it known that Steve still SUCKS for leaving a Dear Danno note in his wake. Because, really, Steve. you don’t get to have it both ways. You don’t get to keep secrets and then demand Danny tells all.
– Why is the killer chick so damn good? I mean, eluding the cops in they’re own backyard, blowing up HPD, nearly taking out all of Five-0 in one swoop? What is she, part Rambo?
– Steve and his badass self protecting Chin and finding out that body armor works. And we are so glad that it does, Steve.
– Billy Baldwin is back. Seriously, Halawa prison has the worst security ever. Five-0 and/or powerful criminals can just walk in and out with other powerful criminals. And no one asks questions or does paperwork. I don’t think this is actually a “pro”… so much as a “I see you, TV magic, and I am laughing…”
– Danny and Grace. Always cute.
– ALL the CHIN PLOTS. Actually, Chin’s final story lines were more dramatic and even surprising than the final so-called twist with Shelbourn. A heart wrenching choice, and of course we knew which way he was going to go. But Kono’s gonna spend the hiatus floating in the ocean. Bummer.
– Steve’s face when he sees ‘Shelbourn” was pretty sweet. Even if that was the biggest foreshadowing boom ever.
The Cons:
– It was a little random that we go from the ” all is well, case is solved” feel to Chin taking Delano out of Halawa and dealing with the kidnappings. It felt like a step got skipped there somewhere.
– Ah, the much abused Shelbourn storyline. People have been saying it was Momma McGarrett since last season, so Steve’s “Mom??” moment wasn’t a shocker. No socks being blown off here with that. But I will say, I’m more invested in finding out about Malia/Chin/Kono than I am about Momma McGarrett simply because I’ve sort of lost interest in the whole Shelbourn case. Maybe it will rekindle my interest next season.
– If Joe White calls Steve ‘son’ one more time, I’m going to start to think he’s secretly married Momma McG during the interim.
The Verdict: A It was a LOT better than last season’s finale, and the high octane action made for a great chase. But I think Chin’s story beat out the McG shocker by a mile.
Just in case you’re not excited enough for the Hawaii Five-0 season 2 finale, we’ve got a few things to whet your appetite. Many thanks to those friends who donated their behind the scenes photos, or shared their video discoveries with us. Check back with us, because we’ll have more!
Mike Gordon of the Star Advertiser has interviewed Hawaii Five-0′s latest bad guy, Karl Herlinger. Will “Toothpick” be a character that we love to hate, or want to see come to an early demise? Tune in tomorrow for the Season 2 finale to find out.
Even with a latte in hand, Karl Herlinger looks like a villain or, at the very least, someone capable of extreme road rage.
His eyes are set close together, his brow quick to furrow. The television actor from Kailua can wither with a glance.
“I get cast a lot as a bad guy,” he said recently at a Kaimuki coffee shop. “I think it’s the way I look. But I’ve also gravitated toward those roles because they are fun. And it’s interesting to find the humanity in the badness.”
Of course, that makes him perfect for a menacing role in Monday’s season finale of “Hawaii Five-0″ (9 p.m., KGMB). Herlinger is the second Hawaii-born actor in as many weeks to wear the bad-guy mantle on the CBS hit. (Last week it was Mark Dacascos, aka Wo Fat.)
Herlinger plays a character named “Toothpick.” He won’t elaborate on the part except to say he creates mayhem for the “Five-0″ team — and he hopes to stress out the show’s fans.
“If I have done my job right, they will either love hating me or there will be some kind of level of disgust,” Herlinger said.
Having a guest spot on a series shot in his hometown is a dream come true, said the 40-year-old Herlinger, who was born at Castle Hospital, grew up in Enchanted Lake and graduated from Kalaheo High School.
The actor, who now lives in Los Angeles, said the final episode will leave fans hungry for the season three premiere.
“This episode has a lot of action,” he said. “It has a great start and it doesn’t let up. It’s what you want a finale to be.”
Herlinger has been a working actor, on stage and television, since graduating with a degree in theater arts from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1994. His first TV role was on “Law & Order,” but his first appearance on a series was in 1979 as a background extra in the final season of the original “Five-0.”
He had never seen the old “Five-0″ episode until he found it on Netflix last week. His parents wouldn’t let him watch it — Herlinger was only 7 — because the plot involves a child who gets lured into a car by strangers.
“They were protective of certain types of influences at a young age,” he said. “I later watched the show, but I think at the time they just wanted to preserve as much innocence as possible.”
Herlinger and his wife, Malia Musick, have a 5-year-old daughter they protect just as much. (They’re expecting a baby boy in August.)
“She has never seen anything that I have done because everything I have done has pretty much been some kind of violence,” he said.
HIS acting roots are decidedly innocent, though. As a boy he tagged along with his older sister when she took dance and acting lessons, and wound up onstage. His résumé through high school included “The King and I,” “Music Man” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” But he also appeared in a stage drama for Honolulu Theatre for Youth and said the experience was powerful.
“It added a level of depth to the art that I had not thought was there before,” he said.
While he was in Hawaii shooting “Five-0,” Herlinger began sending Twitter messages from the set. He kept the plot secret but aroused fans by saying he was going to turn the Steve McGarrett character into mochiko chicken — and including a photo from lunch.
“I made a conscious decision to do that for this show,” Herlinger said. “Prior to this I didn’t tweet a lot. I thought it would be fun to tweet as the character and really engage the public.”
Herlinger got tremendous response and exchanged numerous messages. But he kept the plot secret, in part because the final scene of the finale wasn’t even printed on his version of the script; the ending consisted of blank pages with asterisks on them.
But the fans didn’t know that. He kept them hanging as only a villain could.
“It’s fun to have a secret and toy with people,” he said. “All of it feeds into this character.”
AND that’s a wrap …
I guess CBS doesn’t want to give away much more about the season 2 finale, since this latest promo only shows more of the massive explosion we saw in a prior teaser.
helps to support the blog, mahalo!