Hawaii Five-O: The Complete Series

This is a great set. It's all 12 seasons of Five-O, except for one episode. From what I have read, the "Bored, She Hung Herself" episode from Season 2 has been removed, via a decree from Producer Leonard Freeman's widow. Reportedly, someone tried the hanging technique discussed in the show and died. The episode was on YouTube, but I do not know if it is still there or not. A lot of reviews criticize the DVD releases that exclude that show, and while I understand wanting the 'complete' set, I actually applaud someone taking such a strong stance and sticking to it for years upon years. If you want that episode, you just are not going to find it in any official release of the show, so my advice is let it go and enjoy the other years of excellent programming anyway.What was wonderfully amazing to me is that this is one of a handful of sets with so many DVDS that did not have one single problem in playback, not one. Every second of every show for every season played perfectly. The DVDS, roughly six per season, come in a rectangular book-like holder made of sturdy cardboard. It is not the least bit flimsy. Each page is colorful and with pictures of the various regulars over the years. There are two of these books, each containing six seasons. There are a couple of potential issues here. First, each disk slides in and out of a slot on a page. This means being careful when taking them out or sliding them back in to prevent damage from scratching. The other possible problem is if you get a set where the adhesive or whatever they used to keep the slots firm gives way or is not applied. Unfortunately, the first book had one of those pages in my set. The DVD would slide down, preventing the book from closing or being advanced and causing the disk to disappear inside the page if not prevented manually.The two books rest inside a hard cardboard case. There is a long blue ribbon inside that you can use to help pull out the books. The case has wonderful imaging on the front that includes Jack Lord. The case slips into a plastic covering that has the well-known surf wave on the front. It's pretty classy and I like it.The disks themselves are plain in color, but are marked with the season and disk number. The episodes on each disk are listed by the slots for the disks in the book. There were usually 24 episodes per season, though I believe Season 11 was 23 and the final season 19.There is a promo disk included with some nice extras. There's a documentary that was done during Season 4 and before the show was renewed for a fifth year. The very private Jack Lord actually did talk for a minute or so during this piece and, in fact, played the guitar for his intro and exit, which I got a kick out of. Other extras include an Inside Edition piece with James MacArthur talking about Jack Lord's passing. A few clips from Entertainment Tonight are on the disks, notably the stories of the deaths of Lord and MacArthur. Also included is the syndicated promo reel which was fun to watch. The reel promoted the show to stations for reruns. There are a few other items as well, including a snippet of Jack Lord's appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. Lord surprised Douglas with a gift of one of his paintings and discussed his ability to paint. The bad part is that this was just a snippet of his appearance and not even the full segment. I love extras and the disk had some really nice bonus items for fans, but there could have been so much more.My biggest con to the DVDs and the one that almost made me give the set four stars instead of five, is the lack of a 'play all' feature for 11 of 12 seasons. The first season had a wonderful 'play all' button that disappeared after that, to my utter disappointment. Seasons 2-9 included the 'coming next week' promos with Jack Lord doing the narration. These were available on the main menu screen with a 'play all' option. Inexplicably, when you went to the individual episode menu, you once again had the option to play the promos but without a 'play all' for the episodes. When you used the 'disk menu' option on your DVD remote, it would go back to the individual menu instead of the main menu, which was also frustrating. There were no promos for the last three seasons and still, no 'play all' for the episodes. As a devoted fan of the 'play all' option, this was frustrating to the max!As for series, others have done thorough reviews of this great show. What I will add are just a few thoughts on having gone back and watched the 12 years over a period of just a few weeks. First, I did not realize how much I really loved the hint of family that was in the first four seasons that featured Lord, MacArthur, Zulu, and Kam Fong. The office scenes were more humorous than I had recalled and there was a sense of brotherhood I'd forgotten about. Zulu was reportedly fired for an on-set verbal rampage, brought on by Lord's ego, a situation most apparently were not aware of during the outburst. When I read the backstory, I felt sad. I do like Jack Lord in many ways, but he did have an ego and it got in the way here when it should not have. This caused the first major change in cast.Enter Al Harrington as Ben. Lord wasn't sure of him, but Freeman was, so Harrington was cast. As I watched the next two seasons, I really felt the loss of the family. This show was never about the personal lives, not much really, but the one-liners and brotherhood moments were just gone. I felt that loss strongly. It also seemed like they tried to push the Ben character a lot at first, and it some ways, it came at MacArthur's expense, and I did not like that.In Season 7, Harrington was still a regular, but something happened and he was gone around the mid-point, though shows already shot were mixed in with shows without him so Ben was still there. No one seems to know what happened, but by this point, Freeman had died and Lord had taken on the reins and maybe they just clashed. That's speculation. I was happy to see Harrington go as I just never liked Ben. Don't get me wrong. When I went to Hawaii years ago, I saw Harrington perform and had my picture taken with him. He was as nice as can be and his show was incredibly awesome and entertaining, so for me, it was not about the actor, but the character. He just did not fit. The shows without Ben in Season 7 usually included Douglas Mossman as Frank Kamana. I liked Frank so regretted that he was not brought in Season 8.What surprised me is that as the show progressed, the character of Duke, played by Herman Wedemeyer, progressed. I'm not sure what Duke was for a while. He sometimes was still in police uniform and then he'd be in a suit with the Five-O team. It was a little confusing, but he ultimately became a detective and a full part of the team. Oddly, when the show aired originally, I was not a Duke fan, but while watching the DVDs, I really grew to enjoy the character.For the last show of Season 10, Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) was killed off. I had noticed he had not been in the show that much and then poof, he was gone. I read something that said Fong wanted the character to retire, but the powers that be wanted Chin killed. There apparently was a bit of discord, but I am not clear on why. The big joke here, though, is that when the network did a pilot for a reboot in the late 90s, someone did not do their research and Kam Fong was part of the reboot cast as Chin Ho! I understand the powers that be were not thrilled with the faux pas. I guess they thought Kam Fong should have told them. Point to Fong!One of the things that the changing scenery in cast affected was the dynamic between Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) and Danny Williams (James MacArthur). For a couple of seasons, it seemed to be that their little moments, those little one liners of lightness, and their teaming up together in scenes lessened and almost disappeared. I never liked that. Now, I did like it when we saw Danny getting to take charge or those times when it was clear he was a capable of detective and the definitive #2 to McGarrett's #1, but the mix was best when Steve and Danny had their moments. I felt that in Season 11 a few of those times returned. There were more jokes about Danny and the ladies, for example. It was cute and a nice break in between the dramatic scenes. Unfortunately, MacArthur was weary of doing the same old thing and declined to come back for what was ultimately the last season of Five-O.MacArthur's departure caused the biggest change for the series. He was replaced by not one, not two, but three new actors to the show: William Smith of "Laredo" fame, Sharon Farrell, and Moe Keale, who had appeared on the show frequently in a variety of characters. Things were looser, the dress was more casual. To be honest, the change in attire began a year or so earlier. It was a little weird. One day, Steve would be in a casual outfit, surrounded by men in suits. Then Danny would be casual in one scene, but wore a suit in the next. They were obviously trying to go with the times, but they struggled to figure out the right mix.Farrell was fired during the season. I don't recall the story fully, but there was some on-set problem. She and Lord did not mix well together, and he reportedly lashed out at her and one thing led to another. Like Harrington in Season 7, the network simply mixed episodes so that shows with and without the actress aired all season. I never thought Farrell was a good choice. They would have done better to bring back one of the female police officers used during show, such as Officer Sandi Welles (Amanda McBroom) who, if I recall correctly, was in four episodes over a couple of seasons.MacArhur was sorely missed during the 12th season. They tried to build chemistry between Steve and Kimo (Smith's character, Kimo being a nickname given to the character who was not Hawaiian and whose given name was Jim by Steve), but it was not the same and failed to live up to Danno and that relationship.Regardless, there were 12 strong seasons of Five-O, the first four being the benchmark that the subsequent seasons never quite lived up to, but which were still a mark above other shows, then and now.This DVD collection is great, worthy of the five stars, even without the missing show and the extras that could have been included, but were not.

This review covers BOTH complete Five-O series sets available. Unfortunately Amazon combines both reviews on to one page, although the two items are distinctly separate. I have both. My first review, at the bottom covers the box set in the plastic cases (4 stars originally, although after breaking several DVDs due to the horrible packaging, and subsequently getting the far superior cardboard packaging set, I'd downgrade this to 3 stars - & the 3 is only due to the packaging. They did a spectacular job transferring & updating the shows for the first few seasons. They look great & are a joy to watch - if you don't break the DVDs. I had to purchase individual series sets for a few seasons due to broken DVDs.) So regarding the "plastic box" set - I respectfully disagree with one previous reviewer. They fit on your shelf great, but if you watch these more than a once or twice, you will probably break, or at least damage, at least one DVD trying to pry it out of the plastic shell. The cases hold two DVDs stacked on top of each other in "book" form. Another knock on these DVDs, especially after seeing the other set (more on that to follow) - discs are silver, w/ light white/silver writing on them. Try reading what disc you have. It's tough. Episode names are written on the disc for seasons 2-12, but it's tough to read. Only extras are promos on some seasons & the "Memories of Five-O" show. Good, but also available on YouTube.As for the beautiful, & in my opinion, far preferable, "cardboard" set. No, it won't fit on your shelf neatly, but you will get two cases of sturdy cardboard with discs color coded by season, with episode names printed on disc in readable colored type. The storage is sturdy & won't damage the discs. Allows for easy access & removal of the discs, & isn't that why you bought it? To play them? An entire disc of extras, all of which are better looking than their YouTube counterparts, & some I hadn't seen on YouTube. Same disc content as the other set - superb transfers, season promos w/ Jack Lord. The "cardboard book" set is the way to go if you anticipate watching these episodes more than once, and you absolutely should. All but a few stand up today. Spend the money, and enjoy it.Original review re the plastic box set:I don't feel I need to write a review for Hawaii 5-O. Everyone knows this show and what makes it so fantastic - scenery, great guest stars, and of course a top-notch cast headed by Jack Lord. Twelve seasons of episodes include some standouts - "Over Fifty, Steal", "Hookman", and the "V, for Vashon" trilogy - and some that aren't quite as memorable, to be sure, but are always great to look at.I feel a review of the DVD set itself will be more useful to potential purchasers. I appreciated people that took the time to review the product itself.The DVDs are packaged in multiple plastic boxes, each DVD on its own spindle, two DVDs to a "page" in the package. In order to get to the DVD behind one in front, you have to either pull the one in front out, or bend the one in front. Either way, this puts stress on the DVD in front. I've found the DVDs difficult to remove from their places in the cases, and after removing the DVDs a couple of times from their places, one of my DVDs has now cracked, making it unplayable. Unfortunately, I am evidently just outside of the return period. I'd recommend removing your DVDs from the packaging and putting them in to individual sleeves instead.The set is otherwise excellent - the episodes themselves have been cleaned up and the picture looks sharp and clean. You can really tell the difference if you're a huge fan like me and you have episodes in both DVD form and the iTunes version. The iTunes versions (even HD) are not cleaned up like the ones you'll see on the DVDs. McGarrett's Hawaii looks sharp, sunny, and beautiful, even as he battles Wo Fat and the various criminals that roll through Honolulu.You'll love this set - just check your DVDs when you get them and put them in a better case to avoid damage.