Every Monday night, millions of people tune into CBS to watch “Hawaii Five-0,” a slick new rendition of the classic cop show based in the Islands.
And at the same time, thousands of fans log onto Twitter, posting running commentary about the show with the hashtag #H50 (or variations of that). We joke about the bad Pidgin, repeat our favorite lines, point out the inaccurate references and discuss — sometimes in depth — the bromance between Det. Steve McGarrett (played by Alex O’Loughlin) and his partner Dan “Danno” Williams (played by Scott Caan).
This community we’ve created on Twitter is, hands down, the best part about watching the show.
Sure, I’m blown away by the stunning images of my home state. Yes, the acting isn’t awful. And OK, the story lines are getting better.
But I’m really watching it because of #H50. And to be honest, I spend more time twittering than actually watching the show. I’m telling you, the tweets are way more interesting!
Not to mention I’ve met cool peeps like @H50undercover, @WendieJoy, @ileimohala, @LisaLisa98 and @blondeatbeach, who had an extra role in last night’s episode — all of whom dig the show (or tweeting about it) as much as I do.
Honestly, I learn so much more from the #H50 thread than by watching the actual show. Fans tweet in where certain scenes are shot and point out cameos by local celebs. I found out last night who the DJ was at Tiki’s Bar & Grill and which guest star — comedian Dane Cook — will be appearing in the next episode. This is the power of social media.
Last night I made the fateful mistake of taking a nap before the show started. (I had a rough day.) I woke up at 1 a.m., horrified that I had missed the episode. (And there were pirates, too!)
I quickly scanned the #H50 thread and figured out that I had missed something about trolleys, exploding phone books and an “invisible” guy.
So I logged on CBS.com and watched the full episode online. Except it wasn’t the same. Sure, it was entertaining. I mean, three people were killed last night! But I had no one to chat with about Kono Kalakaua’s sweet kung fu move on the escalator or Danno and McGarrett pushing the car by the Tantalus lookout despite it breaking down on Pali Highway. (Uh, right.)
I missed my #H50 friends.
So next week, I won’t miss it.
The chat, not necessarily the episode.
33 Comments
I love reading the #H50 conversations. I live in Florida, and I never seem to watch the show live at all, so I’ve never gotten a chance to participate in the conversation as it’s happening (is the conversation really even going on when the show airs on the East Coast?), but I will go back to the start of the conversation when I finally do watch the show. So funny!
@WERUreo The East Coast folks do some tweeting during their showing but they don’t give out any spoilers or at least they try not to divulge keypoints in the show.
There’s an increase in tweets when HI5-0 is shown on the West Coast but when the show airs in Hawaii’s time zone, I’ll bet that no normal human would be able to read and comprehend the tweets that are flying across the #H50 timeline. What seems to generate the most tweets, and this is imho,
– the wrong intonation on the Pidgin words, aka Bird
– the stated location and the actual location where it was filmed
– the one line zingers, usually between Danno and another character
– the bromance between McGarrett and Danno
@harrycovair @WERUreo BIRD! That made me LOL again!
I gotta remember to check twitter when i watch the show. i watch it on my dvr, though, so it won’t be real time.
It’s a whole different experience when you watch Hawaii Five-0 and #H50 at the same time. Great stuff!
I knew something was missing last night. You know, we took my bro to the emergency room (he wasn’t feeling very well) at 7pm, and we were home by 855 (even after getting gas on the way home) and the #H50 twitterstream actually helped make him feel better. Now THAT is the power of social media. We def. missed you last night Cat, but we all had a great time nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing you next week! Loa Aloha I think is the name of the episode… (where do they get the names for these episodes???
@NeilYamamoto Yeah @thedailydish, you were missed. Even @nkvball sent a tweet out which you responded to at 1am. Just not the same without you.
@harrycovair @NeilYamamoto @thedailydish @nkvball Aw, thanks for that. It was NOT FUN watching the show by myself… at 1 a.m…
i wasn’t going to watch h50 — until i started cking the twitter stream. then i had to go turn on the tv. and of course i was already caught up on the plot from all the tweets.
@nonstopmari So true. I never miss anything, really, because I can catch it up on the stream. Who needs to watch the show!
Definitely missed your online comments Cat. I agree that watching the show and typing/reading the tweets makes HI 5-0 much more enjoyable. Even the guys at the UH Basketball game were lamenting that they were missing the live showing of HI 5-0 because the Basketball game went into overtime (which Hawaii won over Nevada 69 – 67) bu were trying to follow the show by reading the tweets.
It’s the Hawaii based gang and the ex Hawaii Patriots scattered throughout the world that make the #H50 timeline what it is. Pointing out the little differences of what is factually correct and what isn’t (Tantalus | Pali Highway), the nuances of Pidgin (training brah, not training bra), and especially the zingers by Danno.
I wonder if we can schedule a massive tweet up at some place for the last show of the season which should be S01E020. That would be an awesome conclusion for the end of the first full season of HI 5-0.
@harrycovair There’s definitely talk of something fun for the season finale. Stay tuned!
@hawaii @harrycovair Oh, @hawaii we need to talk! BIG PLANS!
soon or later, if it hasn’t happend already, an inteactive series tuned for twittering will appear on television. maybe we’ll get to write the show from our lazyboys.
remember in Fahrenheit 451 when Linda was asked by the menacing host; “what do you think, Linda?” it wasn’t even really a two way transmission.
Cat didn’t you tweet that you were done writing about the show, hmm? 😉 I thought you were really serious when you didn’t show up for this week’s ep. but now we know the reason why. Yeah #H50 is great during the Hawaii broadcast since there’s all the virtual nods and winks with other people who know where a certain location really is, cultural references, etc. It’s an social media viewing party! I noticed a few regulars were missing but given what day it was, and also the UH B-ball game on at the same time I can understand.
Just curious as to how people follow usually follow #H50–desktop, laptop, iPad, smartphone? I use Seesmic Desktop on my PC where I have my own stream alongside #H50. It was working perfectly for awhile, I seemed to be getting everyone’s tweets as they came in and I could see my tweets hit it almost instantaneously. Then after a software update #H50 would sometimes not update at all, one of the eps was a bit of a wash because of that. I changed the search to h50 (no hash) and that seems to work better. I still am amazed at how fast people can type out a response. I mean I can fire out short phrases/riffs quick enough but I’ve gotten longer responses from people like hawaii whose tweets seem to comeback before my finger lifts off the Enter key. Guess I never got my hands in shape from texting haha. Until next week then!
@808marv I use the Tweetdeck app optimized for Chrome, mostly because I’m already using Chrome and have other tabs open. The #h50 stream definitely seems to tax it, though! Tweetdeck overall seems to have a good handle on the “firehose” coming out of Twitter.
I’m a fast typist, yes, but also I tend to think in advance of what I want to tweet (thanks to the preview articles I post here at Nonstop Honolulu). When I see the bartender on screen, pow, I can tell you he was on “LOST.” Heh.
@808marv hawaii I use Hootsuite. And I have a ritual of arranging my columns in Hootsuite at least 5 minutes before the show starts to make sure I’m “ready” for the main event.
@hawaii yeah I think there are some tweeps on there that also have lines/jokes ready, the can’t be typing THAT fast. Gotta be some Ctrl-C Ctrl-V action going on! @chrisquintana I admit I get “prepped” before the show too. Crack my knuckles and everything haha j/k.
@808marv @hawaii @chrisquintana Knowing the guest cast helps, but of course, if you scan back in the #h50 thread, you can probably catch the best lines and snarky comments from the East and West coast broadcasts and be ready to let ’em fly on HST.
@hawaii LOL there you go again with the fast response!
@808marv @hawaii I can’t tweet from my phone while I’m watching. My thumbs aren’t as quick as @johngarcia !
As for not blogging about #H50, yeah, I stopped for a bit. I figured there were other bloggers out there doing better, so why compete? But I’m going to post blogs about the show here and there. More here then there 🙂
Despite some flaws in the show (cultural, geographical, etc.), I really enjoy the show, overall. However, tweeting during the show is, hands down, the best way to “watch” it. The #h50 stream goes by so fast! I don’t like a lot of commercials during shows that I like, but that’s when I try to read through the #h50 tweets. I try to read some tweets while the show is on, but I’m afraid I’m going to miss something. (Actually, it’s just that I can’t pay attention to what’s going on in the show & read tweets at the same time.) While I never miss an episode, I’ve had to resort to watching the dvr recording a couple of times when I was feeling under the weather & couldn’t make it to 9pm. It wasn’t the same. I actually felt kinda…lonely. ha ha.
@chrisquintana Does Hootsuite seem to lag about 4 minutes behind for you? Using it on an ipad, since it is too hard to type quickly on my phone.
@nkvball Um, possibly? There’s always a “lag” but I thought it’s just because I’m not fast enough to keep up.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jay Terauchi, 808marv. 808marv said: @hawaii Hey hawaii, I just mentioned you in my comment on "My #H50 addiction": https://fyre.it/rV […]
Yeah it was interesting how the Pali changed from windward to leeward on us… more interesting was that they didn’t turn around and roll down the hill to town. I think there is a gas station on the way down from there but it has been a while. The direction they were going is still uphill for a while isn’t it?
Anyways, loved the part about the training bra. There is always some good humor in there somehwere. And frankly I love the Kono kicking ass stuff. She is developing into my favorite character because they also have her figuring out stuff now. Suspect in real life she is a pretty cool lady.
@dbjack I gotta say, those Tongans spoke perfect English. Must be because they were from Mililani! 🙂
@Cat Probably went to private school too 🙂
When they moved an episode to Sunday night a couple of weeks ago, had to DVR it, but like you said it wasn’t the same without the Twitter feed. The show is definately getting better but it is still fun Tweeting about what we see etc. Like Roundtop Drive being called Pali Highway. Looking forward to seeing your Tweets next week, no naps!
@nkvball No naps, promise!
The whole concept of enjoying Twittering during the shows speaks VOLUMES about the show itself… The really, really good shows engross you. You won’t want to touch your phone while it’s on. I’ve found that H50 has been stacking up on my DVR. It’ll sit around for a couple or three weeks before I watch them all at once. The really good shows, like Mad Men, Medium, Californication, etc., I watch those immediately.
Cat- i <3 tweeting with you about #H50:) Thanks for always making me laugh:) Great blogging too lady:) XO WJ
Wow you overslept a few hours that night, I overslept a week and missed your blog on it LOL. Thanks for the shoutout Cat, and I’m glad I was there on twitter when you woke up LOL.