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3 ways that Hawaii Five-0 was better than the original series

By Brittany Frederick

"E uhi ana ka wa i hala i na mea i hala" -- Five-0 investigates when a plane that mysteriously crashed into the Pacific in the '80s is found, but with a recently murdered scuba diver inside. Also, as MacGarrett and Quinn zero in on who planted the bomb in his garage, and he formally asks her to join Five-0, she is arrested for money laundering, on HAWAII FIVE-0, Friday, Oct. 11 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Rob Morrow returns as Wes Cullen. Pictured L to R: Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett and Katrina Law as Quinn Liu. Photo: screengrab/CBS ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved ("E uhi ana ka wa I hala I na mea I hala" is Hawaiian for "Passing time obscures the past")
"E uhi ana ka wa i hala i na mea i hala" -- Five-0 investigates when a plane that mysteriously crashed into the Pacific in the '80s is found, but with a recently murdered scuba diver inside. Also, as MacGarrett and Quinn zero in on who planted the bomb in his garage, and he formally asks her to join Five-0, she is arrested for money laundering, on HAWAII FIVE-0, Friday, Oct. 11 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Rob Morrow returns as Wes Cullen. Pictured L to R: Alex O'Loughlin as Steve McGarrett and Katrina Law as Quinn Liu. Photo: screengrab/CBS ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved ("E uhi ana ka wa I hala I na mea I hala" is Hawaiian for "Passing time obscures the past") /
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Hawaii Five-0 season 10
“Loa’a pono ka ‘iole i ka pūnana” — Grover and Five-0 investigate a murder at a private golf course involving a man who was frozen to death in the locker room’s cryo-chamber. Also, McGarrett tags along with Danny when he tracks down the father of a boy who has been bullying Charlie, on HAWAII FIVE-0, Friday, Jan. 10 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured: Ian Anthony Dale as Adam Noshimuri. Photo: Screengrab/CBS ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved Photo: Screengrab/CBS (“Loa’a pono ka ‘iole i ka pūnana” is Hawaiian for “The rat was caught right in the nest.”) /

2. More intriguing characters

The new Hawaii Five-0 kept the core characters (or versions of them, in the case of Kono) that the original fans knew, but it also added more characters who were just as interesting. And there were several characters who were more interesting than the ones seen in the original series.

That can be chalked up to the evolution of the show several decades later. This series doesn’t have the aforementioned over-emphasis on Steve McGarrett, and also TV heroes are painted in many more shades of grey than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Antiheroes are almost more normal now than the straightforward heroes that populated the Five-0 task force in the original series.

One example is Adam Noshimuri, played by Ian Anthony Dale. He was introduced in the second season as a member of the Yakuza, albeit one who was trying to clean up his organization. Over the next eight seasons, Adam has gone from potential bad guy to confidential informant to now full member of the task force (and Dale was promoted to series regular last season). That’s not a character who would have fit in, or even had the opportunity to have that long of an arc, the first time around.

Procedurals have changed, too, with many TV crime dramas taking care to include more about their characters’ personal lives. Hawaii Five-0 is no exception, with every character in the original main cast having had at least one significant romance, and so we’re more interested in these characters because we’ve gotten to learn more about them beyond the job—their dates, their friendships, who they are when they’re not working. The end product is richer because of it.

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