A cell phone works hundreds of feet under water — and in a submarine, no less.
An entrance stamp from a nightclub is readable by black light on a dead woman’s wrist.
And “Heroes” star Masi Oka is a medical examiner named Max Bergman.
The list of unbelievable things happening in CBS’ “Hawaii Five-O” makes for, well, interesting TV.
Last night’s episode, “Nalowale,” was no exception.
Hawaii has already been a center for terrorists. Now we have a sex trade ring right in Waikiki. And to top it off, the teenage daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines is found dead off the coast of Waikiki — suspended like a mermaid and witnessed by tourists aboard the Atlantic submarine, no less — with an international Filipino terrorist group behind it.
Hmm.
Apparently, I’m not alone in my thinking.
On the Pop Watch blog on Entertainment Weekly online, Darren Franich wrote about a (hilarious) “Hawaii Five-O” bingo game.
“Scientists estimate that something ridiculous happens on ‘Hawaii Five-0’ roughly every five milliseconds. Every episode features hot chicks, hot dudes, malevolent gangsters, car chases, and shots of the Hawaiian coastline that will make you weep with envy. Daniel Dae Kim rides around on a massive motorcycle, Alex O’Loughlin executes some sort of incredible athletic feat of strength, Scott Caan snarks off, and Grace Park inevitably goes undercover in some sort of skimpy outfit. Lessons are learned. Family values are upheld in the most risque manner possible.”
So you can play bingo with the show. Mark it off whenever O’Loughlin shows off his abs. (This episode, check.) Or whenever anyone says, “Book ’em, Danno.” (Check, check)
I suppose it’s just entertainment and I need to accept the show as that — and only that.
And with this new bingo game, I now have a new purpose: to win blackout.
Highlights of Monday’s show:
• Scott Caan’s retort about Ms. Pac-Man and what level he’s reached: “Triple banana, bitch.” Love it.
• The Hawaii Hula Chair’s infomercial goes national — again
• O’Loughlin’s sister, played by Taryn Manning, gets abducted. Twitter from @harrycovair: “Save the sister, save the world.” Made my night.
***
To read all of Cat’s blogs, visit www.nonstophonolulu.com/thedailydish. Follow Cat on Twitter @thedailydish or send her an e-mail at [email protected].
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32 Comments
Fun post to read! Really missing the show right now (well, mostly to have the #H50 tweets to make sense lol)
You mean the suspension of disbelief is a stretch just a little bit too far? Well, maybe some of it is a little far out. It is fun to have Hawaii 5.0 back in the Web 5.0 version, in this case I guess. Just pretend it’s real, LOL! And remember, you live in the most incredible place in the world where anything can happen!!!
Cat, like you said, it’s entertainment. Like you can UV a stamp off a person’s hand after it’s been in salt water for how many hours. And, Steve McGarret’s hottie has access to the neatest satellite and radio listening systems around.
Hey, the bosses expect unrealistic things at work, why not expect unrealistic things from Hawaii Five-O….
It was fun watching all the messed up thing in the show tonight and yeah because it’s just TV I can totally watch the show over and over. Look every show has these weird “Jumpin the Shark” moments, so HI50 is no different.
I would like to know where they got all the extras for the bit at Oceans808. Watch the scene over on your DVR and tell me why there are almost no Asians or Locals at a club in Hawaii… especially Oceans808.
I’ve been working in Hawaii Night Life for over 20 years and I’ve never seen a more Vanilla club ever. Not that theres anything wrong with that don’t read too far into the race-card of the comment it just doesn’t line up with our cultural make-up.
BTW: Grace if your gonna wear a slinky black skirt in the show do some stair master and fill the back out a little please.
CAT,
Got to agree with docrock, I think the club is located in Kailua or Kauai. It was pretty funny to see. Must admit the editing is getting better and it is not so choppy as the earlier episodes. Tends to run a little smoother. Was Dr. Max speaking in tongue? The bits and bytes were hard to decipher.
@docrock, GP has no buns cuz she Asian. Need implants. Wait a minute, how did she get to go to that club? She must be a banana, yellow on the outside and white on the inside (a’la Pidgin to da Max)!!
Cat, I won’t be able to follow your blog tomorrow… I have to go to the eye doctor. I strained my eye muscles by rolling my eyes too much tonight!!!
Tonite’s and last weeks episode were the best so far. Snappy dialogue, crisp action, and lots of eye rolling moments for the local viewers. But that’s part of the show’s charm : Kuhio Ave is our red light district ??? Longboard beer gets a promo shot. Gordon Biersch and Ocean Club subbing for Zephyr nightclub. And 24-quasi torture of the week : forcing a jerk to down a spiked drink, then drive him to talk by blowing an air horn. Last week it was forcing a guy to talk, by taking him to the middle of the ocean and throw him in shark cage. What will Next week’s torture of the week be?
@CodyZamboni Yup the non-CSI, good cop/bad cop routine is quite original in Hawaii 5-0.
The show is fun to watch, get to enjoy the sites and sounds of home, and hopefully we’ll have a show end soon without the someone shooting someone thing. As for cell phones working that far underwater… Atlantis would have to provide a surface link and my suspicion is that they would not do that. HF signal is absorbed by water and only goes about a few millimeters. Last nights episode is my favorite thus far and it seems they are getting better.
@dbjack Agreed. The show is fun to watch. What else are we gonna do to recover and veg out after a hard Monday at work……If I really wanted some reality, I’d go read the newspaper…..*not*
@Ron Indeed, just suspend your disbelief for an hour and enjoy the accuracies and inaccuracies of the show. JQP never needs to know.
I love this show so much! I am sure the locals roll their eyes. Does anyone know who did the painting they showed in Alex’s bathroom? Gorgeous!
Cat, the Atlantis sub operates at a max of about 100 ft. The sunlight falls off beyond that depth and it would get dim and hard to see. In real life, the colors would be muted. (Great underwater photography to match the other video shots and editing. Good mix between wide angle and medium tele shots.)
@dbjack, modern PCS phones typically operate in the 1.7 – 1.9 GHz band (as opposed to HF, which is 3 – 30 MHz). Still, it wouldn’t radiate enough power to get out of the water — it would have the same effect as making a cell call from an elevator far away from your carrier’s cell site — no signal.
Notice how in the first minute we get clips of everyday scenes around town? People hanging out around the surf. Maybe next week we see people hanging around the shopping malls. We know the real deal happens at Costco. Would be real interesting to see if they can work that into a plot for an episode.
The show is getting to the point where if you didn’t see the pilot or subsequent episodes, you wouldn’t understand the subtle plot lines developing. That wasn’t the case with the original series where each episode stood alone. (The exception would be the trilogy in Season 5 in 1972 entitled “V for Vashon” centered around the father, the son and the patriarch.) This week, we took a short break from being family (ohana — getting to be like Lilo and Stitch) but we’ll see it again next week. It’s going to be a recurring theme that’s going to add a unique spice and education in the series.
Now we’re getting recurring female lines in the plot. Steve’s girlfriend and Steve’s sister.
And, what’s in that toolbox?
@Ron @dbjack The sub was carrying a portable Long Wave MiFi unit. lol. That along the same line I was thinking when McGarrett told his SO about keying in on a 400MHz Spread Spectrum signal. Quite entertaining when you think about it.
@Ron Was abbreviating Higher Frequencies to HF instead of the more formal descriptors because frankly I was being lazy 🙂 To use a cell in the Atlantis the sub would be pulling around a floating antenna otherwise it is impossible. VLF radio waves, 3–30 kHz, can communicate in seawater to a depth of roughly 60 feet.
@dbjack Yup. Just drag a mile worth of wire behind you. The transmitter is only at Lualualei next to Waianae Valley. 🙂 Actually, the subs only receive the Tacamo signals (which is slow speed digital) transmitted from Lualualei and Michigan. The backup transmitter is an airborne C130 that’s scrambled from Guam whenever Lualualei or Michigan goes off the air.
I thought this weeks show was slow going till the end. I had more fun reading the tweets flying by from twitterlulu. Very observant and vocal online crowd this week.
The most critical and suspenseful moment came at about 951pm when there was not only one glitch but TWO glitches. Looks like this was reported by twitterlulu to be across all carriers.
As you pointed out there was one quip by Danno that everybody hit on. @hawaii setup the domain and @valdezign already had the t-shirt designed just after the end of the show. Now that’s team work and dedication without any quarreling and bickering.
Welcome to twitterlulu @triple_banana and http://www.triplebanana.com.
Thanks for the credit Cat. That was the second quip that came to mind when McGarrett and Danno were led to the Morgue and heard Dr. Bergman playing the piano. The first quip was: HATAAAAA!
Hello Cat!
I missed last night show. For me it’s not show I have to watch at this point.
@M If you change your mind you can find it on the CBS website, personally I watch it Tuesday morning via the internet.
@dbjack @M What I do is watch it on the CBS website Monday night, a little after 8 Hawaii time after the West Coast has seen the show. Main advantages are that I see the show a little earlier than everyone else, and avoid a lot of commercials (and based on the Twitter traffic last night, there were a LOT of commercials. Guess they gotta juice it while they can).
If you look towards the end, when Nancy McGarrett is going through the tool box taking photos, she comes across a letter written to John McGarrett (Steve’s father). The address on it is 404 Piikoi. That’s the site of the current Hawaiki Tower (KHON studios at 88 Piikoi) and formerly was the home of Record’s Hawaii and a few other establishments in a small trip mall (They had a large parking lot in front of it.) If you go looking for it, you’ll never find it!
Whoever is doing their writing and detailing certainly knows a lot about “old” Hawaii.
I love it!
@Ron I thought I saw 415 Piikoi on the envelope. Gotta watch the closing scene again.
OK, how realistic was “24”? How realistic is the technology on the CSI franchcies? Or cops shows that always catching the bad guys? I mean come on, why is this show being singled out for not being true-to-life? And if you don’t like all those crimes being portrayed in Hawaii, perhaps they should just cancel the show. Lighten up!!
For our next visit to Hawaii, I guess I will need to tell my wife/family to leave the snorkel gear behind to make room in the bags for flak jackets…LOL Everyone is getting shot. I do enjoy the show though, despite the outlandish storyline.
@Cat, very impressive to be posting this soon, after such a long trip back from Europe.
Who writes this stuff for H50??? Come on get real with the names already. 🙂
Missed the beginning part, gotta watch it during lunch or later tonight. I don’t mind the overblown action but I hope the show has reached their quota of endings with someone in an abandoned warehouse being forced to enter the “sooper sekrit” code on a laptop that could end up threatening national security. That’s two out of four eps already! 😛 Maybe now they can move on to a keypad on a safe or something. 😉
BTW: in the beginning it was called Waikiki Bay and most of us know it as Mamala Bay. Regardless of the little stuff they mess up I still love the show.
I live for the bogus names used in the show, just to see what it will come up with next. Don’t you remember Al Moana (Don Ho) when McCloud had an episode here in the 70s?
@bogus Didn’t McCloud also ride a horse down King Street or Kalakaua Ave in that episode?
In the end, it’s all about the triple bananas…..
I wonder how many people my age,early 50s, would ever admit they moved to Hawaii because of the original H50. Grew up dreaming about it.
What was the deal with Masi Oka’s character? I had to rewind and hear his name again because surely he didn’t have a Jewish name??!!! I mean nothing wrong but a bit off. Plus, his character was W-E-I-R-D!!!! Off. Not sure if they meant it as a comic bit or what. I got a little turned off to the show when they showed that part. Other than that, I don’t care they change the names of places, it’s nice to enjoy the scenery. I just hope people don’t think Hawaii is all about the heavy guns and sex trade.