Here’s hoping for an epic boatgument before these bad guys show up on Monday’s episode, “Lana I Ka Moana.” And no doubt Danny’s reference to Hannukah will even further confuse those who have been speculating about his religious beliefs!
For the second year in a row executive producer Peter Lenkov has landed on The Hollywood Reporters “Top 50 Showrunners” list. The boss-man behind Hawaii Five-0 joins such heavy hitters as Steve Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Shonda Rhimes, and Aaron Sorkin on a list of tinseltown’s powerful creative minds.
THR’s criteria:
1. Direct responsibility for the day-to-day creative output of a scripted TV show that has aired for at least one full season (unless he or she also had another show on the air). 2. How prolific the showrunner is: Those with more shows on the air were more likely to be included. 3. Nielsen ratings, especially relative to other shows on the same network. 4. Emmy attention and critical praise. 5. Professionalism and reputation among studio and network executives.
They probably should add “gracefully accepts criticism on social media” as the sixth factor. Many the Five-0 fan, myself included, have not been shy in letting Peter know when we’d like the show to make adjustments. He accepts that without attacking even his harshest critics, and deserves extra points for that.
The show that inspired me to write: Lenkov: Magnum P.I. In fact, there was this incredibly cool episode entitled “Did You See the Sunrise” written by Don Bellisario that turned on the lightbulb. Got me dreaming, thinking I’d like to write something like that some day.
My big break: Lenkov: Selling a spec called Demolition Man to Warner Bros.
My TV mentor: Lenkov: Larry Hertzog, Joel Surnow, Pam Veasey… there’s been many amazing folks who’ve influenced me over the years.
My proudest accomplishment this year: Lenkov: Work-wise: Getting a season three pick-up. Personal: Potty training my three-year-old.
My toughest scene to write this year: Lenkov: McGarrett sitting down with his mom and asking her why she faked her own murder 20 years ago.
The most absurd note I’ve ever gotten:
Lenkov: Ask me when I’m retired.
The aspect of my job as showrunner that I’d rather delegate: Lenkov: Where to hold the wrap party.
My preferred method for breaking through writer’s block: Lenkov: Looking at a mortgage statement.
If I could add any one writer to my staff, it would be: Lenkov:Shane Black.
The show I’m embarrassed to admit I watch: Lenkov: Real Housewives of Orange County.
The three things I need in order to write: Lenkov: Coffee. Final Draft. A smile from my wife.
If I could scrub one credit from my resume, it would be: Lenkov: Just one? Seriously? Can I have two or three?
Last week’s episode was a kickstart to the new season, with guns blazing and the Grappling Hook Helicopter in all its glory. The season now shifts into regular gear with last night’s episode “Kanalua”, which featured the return of Hawaii Five-0 bad guy August March.
“Steve, only *now* you take your shirt off?!?” Photo CBS, Norman Shapiro
As a stand alone procedural episode, I thought it was great. The chase scenes through downtown Honolulu were executed well, and there was great action with the shootout. The bromance continued well, and I got a few laughs when Ed Asner and Masi Oka were thrown into the banter. The only time when the story lost me a little was Catherine’s (Michelle Borth) ease of cracking the security password, but it went to show her ability in intelligence gathering.
Letting the Cat out of the bag
The show writers once again have the challenge of working in a strong female character to the show. I think they’ve learned from miscues and the vocal criticisms of season 2 and are working hard to break Catherine Rollins into the mix at a nice, easy pace. Michelle stated at her tweetup here in Honolulu a few months ago that Cat would be there to help the team, without an overbearing presence, and I think the writers have successfully accomplished that so far. She’s helped protect Doris while the rest of the team tracked down Wo Fat last week.
You’re a heart breaker, dream maker, love taker, ball breaker, don’t you mess around, no no no! Photo CBS
This past week, she did her own intelligence recon with the agent. So she’s there to support the team, much like Jenna Kaye was there to support the team, but her transitions into the case are seamless and I hope Cat continues to develop.
A kinder, gentler Hawaii Five-0
A noticeable difference that I appreciated was the time with character development and interaction spent with the team. A good amount of time was spent with Chin’s scattering of Malia’s ashes, and individual scenes of the team members consoling Chin. As expected, Chin’s cousin Kono picked up a lot of that duty, but what was pleasantly surprising to me was Danny making a gesture to bring Chin back to the group outside of Tropics bar.
Kanalua, CBS
Daniel Dae Kim once again nailed the scene perfectly, telling Danny the story of how he and Malia met. I hope this is a trend that we see a lot of this season, with more interpersonal development amongst the team members. Peter Lenkov and especially Bob Orci promised a lot more character development, and I believe it is definitely headed that way.
The return and departure of August March
One gripe I’ve slowly come to grips with is the short shelf life of many of the supporting characters of the show. Big name actors have brilliantly played characters that unfortunately meet their end much sooner than I’d like to see. I absolutely loved Tom Sizemore as the hard nosed Captain Fryer. I loved to hate William Baldwin as Frank Delano. Even Karl Herlinger’s quietly menacing “Toothpick” had just enough substance for me to want to see more. Last, August March (played by Ed Asner) entered the Hawaii Five-0 Hall of Fame of the Faithfully Departed. Not remembering much about him from the classic series, Ed played the deceptively sly but malicious August March in season 2, who seemingly got away with murder and grand larceny. March returned in Monday’s episode as the mastermind of the lithograph heist, despite his schemes, he leaves a trail of evidence the Five-0 team picks up on. Alas, March decides he can’t go back to jail, and checks out permanently, thanks to the help of a semi truck. I understand that in the Five-0 universe, most characters have an expiration date, but some like Fryer and March you’d like to see from time to time. So Mr. Asner, we bid you a fond “Aloha” and thanks for the memories of August March from the old series to the new.
And now, “Things We Learned About Hawaii From Hawaii Five-0, Episode 302, “Kanalua”
1) Chin floated a lantern at the end of the episode, which takes from a Buddhist tradition that honors the dead. Each May, the Lantern Floating Hawaii group organizes a huge event on O’ahu’s south shore where volunteers launch thousands of floating lanterns, some of them intricately decorated, oftentimes with a note honoring a loved one who’s passed away.
Courtesy Lantern Floating Hawaii
2) Kamekona (Taylor Wily) blew a conch shell at the beginning of the episode. It usually was used to announce the arrival of royalty or to mark the start of an event.
While not excellent news, (and we knew it wouldn’t be) Hawaii Five-0 did in fact wring out a few more viewers now that the “Live + Same Day” DVR numbers have been released. The final ratings have the CBS show scraping ahead of “Castle” in the all-important demo, and adding a few more viewers that were previously attributed to “Revolution.” But here’s the good news for the Five-0 faithful: the ratings for the J.J. Abrams sci-fi show have been declining each week. Although, I’ve heard some positive reviews of “Revolution,” people are saying that will require patience and a weekly commitment in order to stick with it. If that’s the case, I think we’ll see even more viewers returning to watch McGarrett and team, as the MTV generation rebels against another Abrams show that strings you along for years before providing answers to it’s many mysteries.
Things are looking up for Hawaii Five-0, even though the overnight ratings still have them in last place. Based on the “live” numbers, it appears that some of the “Revolution” audience may be revolting and finding their way back to CBS, but Castle is still bringing in the most viewers. The 18-49 demographic is still firmly in favor of “Revolution,” but it remains to be seen how many of them stick with the show. In light of the viewer numbers from the past two weeks, it may be time for CBS schedulers to rethink using sitcoms as lead-ins to the Alex O’Loughlin-led cop drama.
Quite a few Alex O’Loughlin fans have been hoping to hear this news since the first season of Hawaii Five-0. With the many Asian characters inhabiting the shores of Oahu, it made perfect since to cast O’Loughlins’ former co-star and buddy, Daniel Henney.
Before Alex O’Loughlin rode his current wave of success on Hawaii Five-0, he played an organ transplant doctor on CBS’s Three Rivers. Rivers co-star Daniel Henney is now being transplanted to Hawaii for a November episode.
Henney will play Michael Noshimuri, the beefy, tattooed brother of Adam (Ian Anthony Dale), who was just released from Pelican Bay Penitentiary where he served 15 years. In other words: watch your back, McGarrett!
Some of you know that I jokingly refer to Ed Asner as my imaginary boyfriend (sorry Alex,) so you can imagine how pleased I was to see this interview with the veteran actor on Zap2it. I’m hoping that this isn’t the last we see of August March, but I suspect tonight’s episode won’t end well for the curmudgeonly criminal.
Ed Asner never expected“Hawaii Five-0″ to turn into a 37-year gig for him.
That’s the span of time between his first appearance on the original CBS crime drama and his reprising the role on the network’s current reboot of the show. After appearing in an episode last March, the seven-time Emmy winner has his third round Monday (Oct. 1) in the same part: August March, a veteran smuggler and art expert now asked by the Five-0 police squad to help probe a lethal robbery.
“You have to pay for crime,” the warm and frequently amusing Asner tellsZap2it about returning again as the character he first played in 1975 opposite Jack Lord. He reasons that in his latest return as March, working with Alex O’Loughlin as today’s Steve McGarrett, “I have to pay for killing that beautiful girl who got dumped in the ocean. That bugged everybody.
“I have a hard time bending over under certain conditions, and the way she dropped the bag (containing cash and diamonds) in the beginning, I couldn’t reach it without looking very clumsy after my very adept killing of her. Finally, they arranged for her to drop the bag at a much higher level so I could scoop it up much more easily … the convenience of modern technology.”
Asner hasn’t seen the result of his latest “Hawaii Five-0″ work (“I will when everybody else does”), but he doesn’t believe clips from his 1975 appearance are integrated, as they were last time. And he maintains he doesn’t mind that, since the earlier way, “You see what an old man I am.
“It wasn’t until about a week ago that I remembered where ‘August March’ came from,” Asner adds. “My old assistant looked it up, and that was Saul Bellow‘s entry into literary stardom: ‘The Adventures of Augie March.’“
It’s been a bountiful professional year for Asner, still legendary — and still evident, in weeknight “Mary Tyler Moore Show” repeats on the classic-show channel Me-TV — as the gruff but lovable Lou Grant.
After guest spots on TV Land’s ”Hot in Cleveland” (which reunited him with Betty White) and ABC’s “The Middle,” he’s completed two upcoming TV movies: “Home Alone 5: Alone in the Dark” for ABC Family, and “Two In” for Hallmark Channel. He’ll also provide the voice of Santa Claus, a role he’s filled a number of times (“I own the territory”), in a Christmas episode of Cartoon Network’s ”Regular Show.”
Asner is about to tread the Great White Way, too: Following several weeks of previews, he opens Thursday (Oct. 4) in a Broadway staging of Craig Wright‘s dark comedy ”Grace,” casting him as an exterminator who impacts the plans of a couple (Paul Rudd, Kate Arrington) newly relocated to Florida. Michael Shannon (“Boardwalk Empire”), Arrington’s significant other in real life, also stars.
“It’s nice to participate in the power that it achieves,” Asner says of being in New York for a while. “It’s so funny. You can be a journeyman actor in L.A. and do your TV guest shots and the occasional movie, and all kinds of readings and plays within the town, but there’s that wall of the bankers in New York. Nothing happens until you do something that sets them off, such as appearing in this play.”
Asner has done Broadway before, but it’s been 23 years since his last appearance there in “Born Yesterday.” Of “Grace,” he reports, “The audience response for me has been fantastic. I’ve been very lucky.” And it’s a somewhat easier go than the other stage role he’s had lately, traveling the country in a one-man show about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“I’m on stage there for an hour and 40 minutes all alone,” Asner reflects. “Here, the play also runs about an hour and 40 minutes, and I’m in a third of it at most. Because other people are involved, though, the clockwork and the timing are so much more important. The other way, you can react to yourself at your own risk.”
Many Hawaii Five-0 fans have been speculating along the sames lines as the first viewer below. As to the second comment, I have seen a couple of complaints about the volume of the background music on the show, but personally, have never noticed it being overly loud. What about you?
Question: After watching the season opener of Hawaii Five-0 last week, I am going out on a limb here with some wild speculation that Doris [Mommy McGarrett] let Wo Fat go because she couldn’t shoot her “other” son! What a wild plot twist that would be: Steve has been chasing his brother all along. Reel me back to sanity or say it’s so. — BR
Matt Roush: I wouldn’t put anything past this show when it comes to ludicrous plot twists, but that would be quite the stretch. Doris shows up again in the Oct. 15 episode, so maybe you’ll get another piece to your puzzle then — or maybe it will fan the flames of some more wacky theories. Isn’t TV fun?
Question: Maybe it doesn’t matter to most people, but I recently discovered when mentioning how annoying the loud background music was on Hawaii Five-0, that others agreed. We were all at a dinner party and I was complaining that CBS shows in particular must have teenaged executives that want to “pump up that music” when previewing their shows. When the dialogue is smothered by the music, I wonder if they feel the dialogue is so bad we don’t really need to hear it. I watchedHawaii Five-0 last week and it will be the last time. Is this something that you or anyone else out there has noticed, in particular the shows on CBS? — Dorothy
Matt Roush: Believe me, this matters to a lot of people. I could probably print a complaint a week on this issue. So let me get this particular gripe out of the way while the new season is still young. Because while it may be the case that drowning out dialogue can be a blessing in disguise for some shows, CBS is far from the only offender; in my home, it tends to be ABC which most noticeably overdoes it with the underscoring, especially on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, where the jaunty pop score can obliterate whole stretches of dialogue (and when they turn up the volume while the doctors are wearing masks over their mouths, it’s especially ludicrous). Again, I’m not sure if this is a loss or a gain depending on who’s talking, but there’s no question this is one of the most pervasive pet peeves, and has been for some time.
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