So I had always intended to watch the new Hawaii Five-0. I liked the trailer/ads, and I loved Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park. I liked Alex O'Loughlinfrom The Shield, too, so the cast really got me interested.

Somehow, though, I just forgot to watch. When the first season came out on DVD, I almost bought it, but was buying a lot of other DVD's at the time, so I put it back, intending to buy it the following month.

Again, I forgot about it (out of sight, out of mind).

A couple years later, the Blu Ray sets (1-2) were on sale for Black Friday at Best Buy. I picked them up, had them in my hands, but put them back because I was spending too much on Black Friday. Again, I intended to get them a month or two later. That never happened.

Finally, I saw the first season at a discount website for $6 on Blu Ray. I had to get it this time. And I did. This was last year, 4 years after the show went off the air.

Boy, did I feel like a dope. I absolutely LOVED the show, and bought the rest of the series on Blu Ray. (The German full series set is excellent, and region free!) I just finished the series yesterday. While there was a dropoff in quality after the Third season, it didn't fall much, and it maintained a solid quality level and was always entertaining (even if occasionally ridiculous with the action pieces). And occasionally the show was flat out great, too.

The heart of the series for the first several years was the relationship between Commander McGarrett and Detective Williams. Steve and Danny were not friends. They were like brothers. They bickered and squabbled and competed with each other, and they loved each other like brothers - always looking out for each other, even when each was irritated with the other. It was a great TV relationship/partnership. But you also had great characters in Chin and Kono, and Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park were perfect for those roles. They both brought a lot to the show to go along with Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan (who I really, really liked on the show).

The guests that showed up on the series were usually really good, often former B+ list types, well known actors from movies or other series. Who wouldn't want to work in Hawaii? The producers did a great job of casting, as the strength of the show was the characters.

Of course, there was a ton of action, and that was particularly well shot and executed. The show looked phenomenal, too, with Hawaii really being used to it's full potential. And in HD on Blu Ray the show looks amazing.

The loss of Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park definitely hurt the show, but not nearly as badly as I thought it would. Meaghan Rath came in and helped create a fun, well rounded character to replace Kono. Tani was the perfect replacement. Beulah Koale wasn't given as much to work with, and his acting style was very bland. Junior was just kind of there to help move the stories along. He didn't add much to the show at all, unlike Chi McBride did as Lou Grover. McBride is a VERY likeable actor, and he brought a ton of personality to the role. Bringing him in in the 4th season was a great move.

The supporting cast was loaded with actors with quirky personalities (the late Taylor Wily as Kamekona, Masi Oka as M.E. Max Bergman, Jorge Garcia as Jerry Ortega, etc). And a nice tie in to the original series with Dennis Chun playing Sgt Duke Lukela, as Chun is the son of original Five-0 actor Kam Fong Chun (the original Chin Ho Kelly).

I was genuinely surprised at the strength of the last three seasons. There weren't any real duds (a handful of mediocre episodes, but nothing bad), and some very strong episodes in there as well.

Overall, it was a great run - one that I feel stupid for missing out on the first time around! It would have been fun to participate in the discussions here. But I love the show and burned through the full 10 seasons in just 4 months!

I have no idea what to watch now. The, "New," Magnum P.I., maybe?

The real question is, did you ever have the urge to buy a Subway sandwich?

I feel Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park should have received equal pay when it was time to renew contracts. They were actually getting more screen time than Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan at that point in the series. Scott Caan didn't even appear in some episodes!

The one thing I didn't care for was Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos). I wanted him to be a better villain and then his tie in with McGarrett and his mother just made it weird. I also wanted more with Catherine (Michelle Borth) and McGarrett, but hated the globe trotting missions with them. And while Kono and Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) started off interesting, once Grace Park left the show, that story should have died along with it. Instead you have what was the Yakuza head joining the team? Just a weird way to somehow tie it back to Kono. And Steve's Aunt (Carol Burnett) was a little too comedic for me. The other tie in to the old series was Al Harrington in guest spots

I think you'd like the Jay Hernandez Magnum. It's along the same vein and there are some crossover characters. I like that it found its own voice so you don't compare it to the Tom Selleck version (though there were some borrowed storylines). I also wished NCIS Hawaii would have crossed over more, but that changed when both Katrina Law and Buelah Koale were different characters.

I was a fan of the original Magnum that I found in reruns, so I gave this a try out during its first season. I didn't dislike it, but there was too much going on with much better shows to watch for me to keep up with this. I honestly was surprised by the thread title saying that it lasted ten years. I guess there are a thousand hours of these CBS procedural dramas that I don't have a fucking clue about.

One of the other things I noticed (beyond Scott Caan's absences after the 5th or 6th season) was that Taylor Wily was missing in several Season 9 and Season 10 episodes, and just about every time he was in an episode he was sitting down the whole time. After his first couple of appearances I did look him up and found that he died last year at only 56 years old. I wasn't surprised, I actually expected that. He was carrying way too much weight, and it caught up with him. It's a shame, because Kamekona was a really colorful character who added to the show, and you hate to see anyone die at 56.

They lost a bit when Masi Oka left the show, too. Max was a great character - one who would have fit in well on Bones. I really liked him. Having said that, Noelani was a good enough character to fill that M.E. role.

Supposedly the main reason it ended was because Alex O'Loughlin couldn't handle the injuries anymore that he constantly sustained while working on the show.

Scott Caan basically spent more time in LA than he did on set in Honolulu and that's why he was basically a part-timer in the last few seasons.

I read they had an idea for an 11th season, but CBS opted to just end it rather than have O'Loughlin bail completely.

The new Magnum PI, which was cancelled, is the closest thing to H50 and they even had a few crossover episodes. But, it's much lighter in tone. Shame it bombed when it moved to NBC after CBS cancelled it.

Well, don't forget, he got seriously injured early on and developed an addiction to painkillers. He missed 2 or 3 episodes while he was in rehab. The injuries just kept piling up and nagging at him. He hung in there as long as he could, but by the end they were using stunt doubles much of the time, whereas early on he did a lot of his own stunts. But there was still a lot of running and jumping to do, and as someone with a permanent back injury I completely understand how hard that can be.

Yeah, apparently he really didn't like being in Hawaii. That was a shame, because I really like him. The banter between Danny and Steve was priceless!

It looked like the new guy in the last two episodes was primed to be the next Steve. But he couldn't have been in charge because he had no law enforcement experience. At least Steve had some in the military, more or less. Lou could have been in charge, with the new guy as the action hero. It would have worked, but ratings might have tanked. A black guy as the boss, with another black guy as the lead? Heaven forbid!

I'm thinking about blind buying the entire series on Blu Ray. The only thing holding me back is that it's the same price as Five-0, but for less than half as many episodes.

Speaking of the banter between Steve and Danny...

I’ve always been somewhat interested in this series but likely won’t ever get to a long-running procedural. I’ll get to Magnum before this, and my side project to watch House lasted half a season before getting abandoned. These days it’s much easier to watch a six-episode season and move on to something else.

I'm still in a place where I can easily watch an episode or two every night. I blew through all 10 seasons in 4 months. That's while watching The Rookie every night at the same time, getting caught up on that one, too.

And I'm really glad I did, as I love both shows. They're two new shows to add to my favorites list. VERY rewatchable.

Back then I went to university and had a lot of time on my hands, so in those days I gave almost every new network a chance. I really liked the action packed pilot and watched a couple of episodes more, but Alex O'Loughin wasn't just working as a leading man, at least not for me and it thought it was kind of annoying that CBS tried to make him a thing for a couple of years, first in Moonlight, then in Three Rivers. Jason O'Mara was another actor that was pushed that way and was equally bland.

In the end CBS bet on the right horse.

I look at it this way. If you didn't watch a long-running series in it's original run, chances are you are highly unlikely to ever watch it.

H50 was 10 seasons and 240+ episodes at 42 minutes each. That's a lot. Fortunately I watched it week to week as it aired.

I'm the opposite. If I can binge it on Blu Ray or DVD I can get through 10 seasons in 3 or 4 months! I just do it one or two series at a time, blow through it, and move on to the next. An episode or two of each series each night (two series at a time), and it's easy. And I get some quality time with my wife as I do it. (She usually likes the same show, although she was meh on H50 for some reason, but she LOVES The Rookie, which we just blew through the first 6 seasons of in 2 months. She inevitably asked to watch the next episode when we finished the first one for the evening.)

When they left that was probably around the time I bailed on it. I don't know what year or season. I liked the show but just felt it was going to get cancelled and leave me hanging so I just quit. It was must see for me however when I kept up with it. Almost 5 years now that it has been off the air time flies.

I am sure in one of the season thread I mention what season I gave up.