H50 Ep: Kanalua

[the_other_sandy]

It's weird to see one writer do things so well and so poorly in the same episode.

This is the second episode in a row that Danny's been relegated to the back seat of his own car. I wonder if this is going to become a thing now. I fully expect a rant about it at some point, although I did like Danny's "are we there yet?" to March.

I liked the continuity of Max using a cane to show he's still recovering from his injuries. It may have been months for us since he was shot, but it's just been a few weeks for him. And it was so cute watching him try to "participate in the jocularity." Keep trying, Max. You'll get it.

I also think the episode did a good job of balancing the Steve/Danny banter with the grieving they're all (but especially Chin, of course) are doing. There was still some joking around, but not directly in front of Chin out of respect for what he was going through. And it was nice to see Danny rocking his people skills both with Karen's mother and again with Chin on the beach at the end.

It was great to see Ed Asner as August March again. His face at the end of the interrogation room scene was positively evil. I'm not sure what to make of his death though. Yeah, I can see him deciding to go out on his own terms rather than die in prison, but this is a wily guy who just told us flat out that he always has an ace up his sleeve. Part of me wouldn't be surprised if he faked his own death with the help of whatever bad guys he'd just been talking to before he got arrested, but the writers would really have to sell me on it if we ever saw him again after what we were shown on screen. So basically I'll be disappointed if we never see him again because he didn't have one last ace up his sleeve, but I'll also be disappointed if we do see him again because of the plot shenanigans involved in explaining how he faked his own death in full view of a whole bunch of people. And I obviously just spent the weekend with queeberquabbler and her "shenanigans" sign because I'm using "shenanigans" in a sentence. And I'm about to do it again.

Now I realize that H50 is not exactly a documentary and I forgive a lot of the unrealistic forensics stuff they do in the name of time compression for a TV show. I mean, the show would lose a lot of momentum if the team ever had to wait two months for DNA results to come back. But this episode had some truly exceptional forensics shenanigans, even for H50. Max can run a handheld scanner over a skull three times (one pass for the skull, one to add musculature, and one to put a face on it) to make a 3-D model? Instantly? A 3-D model that includes the back of the skull, which he never scanned? And then he can run facial recognition on the fake face and get a hit in five seconds? And then Charlie can lift a fingerprint off a painted surface with regular tape without lifting a single speck of paint up with it? I call shenanigans. ::waves queeberquabbler's "shenanigans" sign::

Meanwhile, Steve is now relying on Catherine to help him with the whole Shelburne thing the way he relied on Joe last season. Am I upset that she's helping? No. She certainly has the necessary skills and background in intelligence gathering. I'm just disappointed that Steve is still keeping that aspect of his life separate from his ohana. They have some pretty useful skills too, and they care about him just as much as Joe and Catherine. It just bothers me that Steve is always the one pushing for Five-0 to be a family and he always has to be involved in every little detail of Danny's life, and yet he keeps this separate from them unless it spills over into a Five-0 assignment via a prison escape or some such thing. Put your money where your mouth is, Steve! Assuming you ever remember your wallet.

Comments

[superbadgirl]

So much yes to your last paragraph. I wonder if he's got such a fractured view of family that he doesn't even get what he's doing to the people who think of him as family by not including them in his own quest is pretty crappy. It's easy to fic it away as him not wanting them hurt, but in reality, that's bullshit.

I love Steve, but the ohana bit is a bit rich sometimes.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think Steve just plays the ohana card to excuse his natural tendency to be a nosey parker.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

I was totally blindsided by the bit with the walking in front of a truck, pardon the pun. And it really disappointed me in terms of how they played August March because if they made the whole episode about the team actually catching on that he's evil and killed that girl but couldn't pin him down, he could have returned for another oneliner episode where they could finally take him out and he would have made a much better bad guy. Once again, the show overloaded itself with the extremely ridiculous case-file - kidnapping the daughter of a race car driver to have a clean get-away? Really? Because a panicked out-of-his-mind civilian is so good at being level-headed in a police chase with a package of guys with automatic guns in the backseat. REALLY? The car chase escape was fricking awesome though, and the only reason for the entire plot...

I loved the banter and Danny's overall crabbiness though, and Chin, oh man, DDK just keeps 'em coming. Also loved the funeral scene, beautifully understated and so Hawaiian soul.

Catherine, well, I'm actually fairly impressed with the fact that they really found a way to involve her on a regular basis without making her Lori 2.0, however, I'm not sure I like the secret keeper stuff. Totally agree with your last assessment about Steve. Maybe they'll ride that edge on the right side for once, I have hope.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

kidnapping the daughter of a race car driver to have a clean get-away? Really? Because a panicked out-of-his-mind civilian is so good at being level-headed in a police chase with a package of guys with automatic guns in the backseat.

And then they kept the daughter even after they killed her father just in case the police caught them and they needed leverage? What if the police didn't catch March until next month? Next year? Was he planning to keep her forever as a bargaining chip?

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

IDEK. The whole kidnapping case was a lark, especially since I did not feel any real urgency or upping the stakes during the part where they were supposedly just investigating to find her, so the mother-daughter reunion (with perfect hair) did absolutely nothing for me in terms of emotional payout. Once again with the overloading issue. This is going to become a thing this season, isn't it?

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Misdirection. I get the feeling they think if they just throw enough stuff at us fast enough, we won't notice how ridiculous it all is. They'd be much more successful if they tried to distract me with more bromance, because I would fall for that every time.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

Bromance seconded, though I actually think that they'd have the ability needed to sustain a gripping and lasting plotline for both episodes and season arcs if they just quit acting like a bunch of five-year-old boys with a penchant for action figures and the attention span of a gnat. But then that'd mean less car chases and more serious work. Yeah, right, what was I thinking. I also feel like they're not quite aware what the make-up of their audience demographics is...

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I discovered through bitter personal experience with another fandom that shows write for the audience they want, not the audience they have, and the audience they want is male and 18-49.

When it was pointed out to the showrunner of that other show I watched that his demographic skewed heavily towards women 30-60 and that we were the ones buying merchandise, attending cons, writing fic, and actively participating in online forums, he said flat out that we were the wrong demographic and he didn't need us.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

Which is something that sadly not surprises me in the least, but I still can't understand. The arrogance and nerve to treat the people who ultimately are responsible for your paychecks with such disrespect and disdain is just...
As double-edged as the more dynamic interaction of creative sources and fanbase is in light of the new social media/online exchange, I think this is one thing that actually makes the creators have to face the real make up of their viewership more. Still ways to go for the big networks of course, but it's a start. TV producers and companies need to start getting real about things viewers expect of a program and how to get it to them. *sigh*

[cmariad.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a problem with the scenes where August March was in Danny's usual seat next to Steve, while Danny was relegated to the back seat, and I'll tell you why.

August March was, in the ep, a man with a past criminal history then a man who was under investigation/detained for a new crime/set of crimes. If Danny had ridden in his normal seat, then March would've been alone in the back seat. That's something cops normally don't do--put their suspects/detainees so they're essentially sitting alone in a car. It gives them a potential opportunity to open the back door & make a jump for it. Especially if they're not cuffed/shackled, which March wasn't in any of the car scenes he was in.

So either March had to sit up front with Steve (who was likely driving over Danny) or he & Danny both had to be in the back seat, for realism's sake. Especially since Steve & Danny drive what is still a "civilian" car, though it's been outfitted with *certain*, but *not all*, bells & whistles to make it a real police car. It has the police lights, if not a siren, but it probably needs have mesh between the front & back seats to prevent a prisoner from putting the driver/other front seat officer into an incapacitating headlock to facilitate an escape, as well as door locks & handles removed from the insides of the back doors so that a prisoner doesn't have a chance to leap out the back doors because they have to be opened from the outside by the police officers driving the car involved.

I also didn't really have a problem with Doris being in the front seat last week. This is because, even though she's Steve's "estranged" Mother, she's still his Mother. In the case of car rides blood relatives normally get preference over partners, estranged or not & no matter how you define the word "partners" in that case--in the professional &/or personal sense. Or at least it usually seems that way--parents usually sit with their children, if only 1 parent is on the trip, or children usually sit together if both parents/multiple adult relatives are on the trip, & couples also sit together, normally. (shrugs) I may not be explaining this very well, but I still understand why Danny was relegated to the back seat in 301.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it's still Danny's car. It's bad enough that he never gets to drive it, but now he doesn't get to sit in the front seat of his own car either? That's just rude.

[bookwurm.livejournal.com]

I loved the scenes with Chin actually grieving and talking about his feelings. I thought they did a good job balancing his fabled "Zen calm" with honest reactions for someone who just lost a spouse. It was nice to finally see someone dealing with things emotionally rather than just bottling up everything. Also, Danny and Chin had some nice bromance going at the end. I'm partial to Danny + Steve, but I thought Scotty and DDK did a great job on that scene.

Regarding Danny riding in the back seat: There were a lot of very good reasons for Danny to get stuck with the back seat of the car, mostly involving safety and ease of getting in and out of the back. This is why, as someone almost guaranteed to be the smallest and/or most maneuverable person in the car, I won't buy a 2-door car. The Camaro is cool, as cars go, but if I'm going to be stuck in the back seat, I at least want to have my own door rather than waiting for someone in front to move.

The "science" had some amazing hand-waving and special effects. The kidnapping seemed really tacked on at the last second. If that's the sort of security practiced by WitSec (or whoever is supposed to have Doris), I'm surprised mobsters ever make it to trial; I have a more secure password on my LJ account.

Overall, though, I liked this episode better than the previous one. It had continuity, people actually dealing with emotional issues, bromance, banter, and team warm-fuzzies. I hope they keep getting better as the season progresses.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Steve can be unrealistically stoic sometimes. It was nice to see a character experiencing genuine human emotion.

I, too, liked this episode better. At this point, the "mythology" episodes are a hot mess for me. I prefer the more straightforward "catch bad guys" episodes.