Action, insights, extras tied up in neat little box
By Burl Burlingame
CBS has always packaged its legacy shows well, and the “Hawaii Five-0: The First Season” boxed DVD collection — available Tuesday — is no exception. Although the packaging is minimalist and functional, there’s plenty of extra stuff here for fans.
For everybody else the show’s oversaturated visuals and thunderous action sequences really crank on a DVD system with 5.1 surround sound. The digital transfer looks good, if a bit hard-edged.
The extras kick off with audio commentary overdubbed on the pilot episode by “Five-0″ honchos Peter Lenkov, Len Wiseman and Roberto Orci. We discover, for example, that they were wondering whether Alex O’Loughlin could carry off playing a naval officer, and then, on the first day of shooting, he showed up in Navy dress blues, framed against the USS Missouri. One of the producers marvels that O’Loughlin appears so perfect that he “looks like a strippergram.”
Another laments that they never digitally erased O’Loughlin’s earring holes.
We also learn that fake mountains were digitally added in some shots to make things more Hawaiian-y, that “product placement, baby” is important, and that they were surprised by the amount of rain and wrote a fierce downpour into an early scene. Of course, the day they shot it, it was bright and sunny.
The audio commentary has these gossipy nuggets, of course. The real value is in learning about the real-life problems and constraints constantly facing the production team. Scott Caan was cast late, and every day O’Loughlin would cry out, “Where’s my Danno? Where’s my Danno?”
Almost every episode features deleted scenes. In the pilot the deleted scenes were fairly crucial, including an extended expository funeral scene that establishes McGarrett’s relationship with his sister and father and sets up the toolbox scene; a funny bit as Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) browbeats an underage shoplifter; and villain James Marsters swimming ashore after being shot.
Each of the six discs contains at least one featurette. “Legacy” is a short that links the new and old shows. We learn that “Five-0″ is deliberately more of an action show than a stodgy police procedural and that Kim was the first major character cast, the shooting of his pilot scenes overlapping the last days of “Lost.”
“Picture Perfect — The Making of the Pilot” is about exactly that. The first table reading was videoconferenced from Hawaii with CBS execs on the mainland, and O’Loughlin and Caan met there for the first time. And Caan had a moustache.
“Grace Park’s Hawaiian Tour” is a short travelogue that incorporates hula in Kapiolani Park, Hawaiian grinds at Helena’s, stand-up paddle surfing and shave ice.
There’s a music video of the Hollywood stage musicians rerecording the theme music to modern standards — some musicians played on the original version way back when. They tried a guitar version, “and we could not have been more wrong,” said Alex Kurtzman. “You don’t mess with the theme song.”
“Inside Comic-Con” essays the cast and producers dipping their toes in the gigantic San Diego convention. They were unsure how it would play because the “Five-0″ premiere was still several months away. True to ComicCon form, the audience was mostly curious about Grace Park — a fanboy fave from her role on “Battlestar Galactica” — wearing bikinis. Lenkov points out that “Daniel and Grace are pretty huge in the ‘genre world.’”
“Shore Lines — The Story of Season One” are quickie recaps of each episode, and a good way to get up to speed. Despite all the bang-bang, boom-boom, the theme beneath is always the concept of a surrogate family.
“Aloha Action” focuses on the kinetic show’s wall-to-wall stunts, courtesy of stunt coordinator Jeff Cadiente, who earned an Emmy nod for his work here. We learn O’Loughlin loves action and stunts more than acting.
“Gag Reel” is the usual stuff of actors muffing lines and being charming. What’s clear is that the cast and crew are having a good time.
It winds up with the rather weak promo “Inside the Box,” explaining that the Champ toolbox is the series’ secret weapon, it’s MacGuffin. The writers just have to have clues fall out of the toolbox to gin up a new plot.
The DVD set is priced at $64.99, but amazon.com is selling it for $37.99.
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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