31 March 2006
ART: Hawaii Five-0 Cop Show Apotheosis
When TV Police Titans Walked The Earth
I was watching a little UHF the other night. This is the only way to watch TV, through a circular antenna receiving TV shows from thirty years ago. Perhaps the best show on UHF right now: Hawaii Five-0.
CSI, Law and Order, all these new cop shows, none of them is even close to Hawaii Five-0. Created by Leonard Freeman in 1968, the ongoing saga of an elite police unit in Hawaii is always a great hour of television. The sets, the actors, the stories: all top notch.
The first five seasons are the best. Here is where Jack Lord's hair is at its crispest, the outfits are at their most unsettling, the plots are at their most vicious. America in the late 60's, early 70's - with the Vietnam war raging - is a vaguely apocalyptic place. Set all this against the lush Hawaii location, and "Five-0" is a must see for deep TV divers.
In a recent episode a deranged Vietnam Vet plots to kill a fellow soldier's wife as she disembarks from a plane. Does this episode have a hot wife with deluxe Jackie-O sunglasses? Check. Is there a stringy lunatic who makes us believe again in evil? Check. Does Jack Lord shoot it out to save the day after emerging from his 1968 Mercury Parklane Brougham? Check mate.
Rumors have it that a DVD set is coming out this year. Of course you can find all the episodes on tape from people online.
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