Reboots.  Re-imaginings.  Recycled.  Call them whatever you like because as long as money rules entertainment, the lure of a proven idea with a built-in fan base is just too much for the suits sitting around the big tables.  Sometimes they work, like Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica.  Sometimes they end up like the recent Bionic Woman or Knight Rider.  Pass or fail, the risk is still worth it because when the idea hits home,

I’m sure all of the pros and cons were weighed when CBS was presented with the possibility of launching an updated version of their classic hit Hawaii Five-O.  Running 12 season from 1968 all the way into 1980, the original Hawaii was the longest running crime drama in history until Law & Order displaced it in 2003.  It was a hallmark of TV dramas and introduced us to one of the catchiest theme songs ever broadcast.  It also brought about a film industry presence in the state of Hawaii that persists today.  How could audiences not want to see a new version?

Relaunched as Hawaii Five-0 (now with a zero!!) a few weeks back, the reboot pulls cast from popular shows like Lost and Battlestar while retaining the original’s origin story, catch phrases (“Book ‘em Dano”), and that spunky theme song.  Does it work?  I’m torn.  Part of the problem with the show is how slick it has gotten.  The opening sequence of episode three made me want to puke it was cut together so fast.  It is hard to convey grit and a criminal underworld when HD cameras and primary colors are bursting with every shot.  The show is too pretty for its own good.  Even the criminals look tanned and relaxed as they commit crime in the Aloha state.

However, my biggest problems come from a casting choice and a writing decision.  First, I just don’t like our lead Steve McGarrett played by Alex O’Laughlin.    There’s little of interest to his character and I feel like he is more of a pale copy of JAG’s David James Elliott than of the original Hawaii‘s Jack Lord.  He just doesn’t have the charisma necessary to carry a show of this magnitude and will be overshadowed by Scott Caan (as “Dano”) and Daniel Dae Kim (as Chin Ho) weekly.  Both of those actors have been quite good so far.  The other problem I had through the first two episodes was how little Grace Park (as Det.

Kona) was given or developed.  She is basically bait, being captured and tied to a chair twice already in the show.  Her tough girl persona is explained by little more than an introduction in which she punches out a fellow surfer.  We’ve seen her rock it in space, so I only hope they allow her to be more than a cute girl in a bikini in Hawaii.

So far, the new Hawaii Five-0 is neither sinking nor surfing.  It is just kind of sitting there, floating, waiting for a wave.  It is fun and you gotta love the paradise setting, but if something big doesn’t kick start the series soon, I’ll be striking it from the DVR shortly.