A brief digression, if you’ll allow …
Guest blogger Jeff_in_OKC and I conduct occasional off-list discussions of the beloved Sixties TV show that featured the most tight-assed cops on the planet, Hawaii Five-0. Steve McGarrett was probably my formative influence on what a casino regulator should be (“I’ll tell you what’s next: Prison for you punks!”). Re-viewing the original episodes, there’s a (unintended) Mad Men-like fascination that comes from watching the establishment try to cope with phenomena — the Vietnam War, drugs, relaxed morals — it doesn’t really grasp. Imagine Donald Draper and Pete Campbell attempting to police paradise. It’s an ironic vibe that CBS-TV‘s reboot isn’t even trying to replicate. But hey, it’s got Grace Park, so no complaints here. (Could she emulate precursor Zulu and constantly address her boss as “Stebe”?)
The big question, of course, has justice been done to the most famous TV title theme ever? It’s been shrunk to 31 seconds but there’s at least been a conscientious attempt to emulate Reza S. Badiyi‘s pre-MTV visuals, which provided Beat poetry to offset the series’ button-down prose. Does it work for you?
At least the song is closer to the original than the one used in earlier promotional pieces. The idea of the computer screen look is too busy but whatever. The show itself seems like it will be more like “NCIS” than “Five-0” but it still should be fun!
I hope the cops don’t have multimillion-dollar state of the art computer systems at their beck and call. That would wreck any idea of “realism” in the show, considering that even FBI field offices had/have computers so lame that agents had to go to public libraries to connect to the Web.
The opening theme is quite good for someone who never saw the original series. For me, however, it’s a little too 21st century with the flashing images. What struck me was the USS Arizona Memorial visitors center in the new theme. It wasn’t there when the original series debuted.
It was nice to see Lady Columbia at the Punchbowl still in the new theme.