[004] Posters & Promos
[108] 1×01 Pilot

[002] January 16th – The Weinstein Co.Glamour 2006 Golden Globe After Party
[010] January 19th – 2006 Asian Excellence Awards
[010] March 3rd – 23rd Annual William S. Paley Television Festival – Battlestar Galactica
[005] June 5th – 65th Annual Peabody Awards
[010] August 29th – Polaroid Lounge & Gifting Suite at Marquee – Day 1
[006] August 29th – Sean Diddy Combs Hosts the Launch of Nylon Guys Fall 2006 Issue
[020] October 7th – 2006 Spike TV Scream Awards

Story: When counter-terrorism expert Roland Lowry is abducted on his way to pass off some highly sensitive intelligence, the Hawaii Five-0 squad takes the case and searches for his whereabouts. But team leader Steve McGarret (Alex O’Loughlin) and partner Danno Williams (Scott Caan) continue to butt heads, as Chin-Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) tries to keep his cousin Kono (Grace Park) happy on the eve of her police academy graduation.

Graduation Day: Slowly but surely, “Hawaii Five-0″ is shaping up to be a solid series. It’s still early days, but the show’s second episode brought a tidal wave of action-packed excitement and thrilling guest stars, showing that the series has plenty of promise.

First tip of the hat goes to the opening sequence, a classic “dad gets kidnapped while talking to his kid on the phone” scene. Security intelligence expert Roland Lowry is abducted by European terrorists for nefarious purposes, and it’s up to McGarret, Danno and Chin-Ho to track him down. Meanwhile, Kono is stuck with the relatively easy task of watching after the hostage’s child, but when the hostage’s girlfriend turns out to be a sleeper terrorist operative, things get a little tricky.

Kono’s plot was off to a shaky start, but an excellent fist fight with her terrorist rival and a brutal rematch near the episode’s end saved the day for the “Battlestar Galactica” vet. In contrast, I do have to admit that I’m worried that Kim is being underutilized as Chin-Ho, but I can’t say it isn’t great seeing the actor resume his badass Agent Baker stance from the days of “24.”

Also worth a round of applause is the dynamic between Danno and McGarret, which is seemingly getting better with each episode. O’Loughlin’s cold exterior is beginning to soften under the heat of Caan’s snarky attitude, and their chemistry is only bound to strengthen as the season pushes on. McGarret gets further props for his quick thinking move to fingerprint his suspect using his own blood. Cool stuff!

There’s no way we can close out the rehash without calling out two very special guest stars. “Freaks and Geeks” alum Martin Starr played computer hacker Adam “Toast” Charles, a character that I can only hope will serve on a recurring basis. Plus, the brilliant Peter Stormare of “Fargo,” “Prison Break” and a host of other classics made a great appearance as the terrorist mastermind. My hunch is that we haven’t seen the last of him.

Next Wave: The team faces off against a shark, hot women in hot cars and football stars in next week’s episode of “Hawaii Five-0.”

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Hawaii Five-0 proved tonight that it isn’t a typical cop show. Sure, it has many of the same old cliches we’ve been seeing in cop shows; but unlike many of those shows, Hawaii Five-0 is never boring. For those of you that thought this show would lay off on the action after that explosive pilot – well, you’re wrong. Not all action is expensive (sorry, Michael Bay), and Hawaii Five-0, with some help from Grace Park, proved that some hand to hand combat can go a long way in spicing up what could have been a ho-hum episode.

Taking the episodic route was a good move by the writers of this show; keep an underlying season long story (in this case the death of Steve’s father) while making every episode an individual story to help move the big picture along. This makes the show move quicker, easier, and it makes developing the relationships between these characters all the simpler.

Last week I said that the second episode of this show would define its path for the rest of the season, and I’m pleased to say I was right. Last week, Steve (Alex O’Loughlin) and Danny’s (Scott Caan) verbal jousting matches felt staged and frosty. Tonight’s episode dramatically improved their repertoire, which goes to show that cast chemistry often improves as time goes on (I know, can you imagine you’re getting this kind of analysis for free?) Also, for those of you wondering, O’Loughlin now seems to be doing a sort of Nicolas Cage and Robert Downey Jr. hybrid impersonation, which I think is much more effective.

While Danny and Steve try to grow accustomed to one another’s styles, their relationship becomes more interesting. The stage their relationship is at now is tedious, but necessary. Waiting on their friendship to move to the next level is something that I look forward to, as I’ve seen enough of this pattern to last a lifetime.

The great part about television is that it never rests on one subplot for long; enter Kono Kalakaua, played by the beautiful and talented Grace Park. She officially became a member of Honolulu P.D. which brought forth some negative feelings from Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim), who was kicked out of the police force because he was incorrectly deemed corrupt. I wouldn’t say any of this is groundbreaking, but with great performances by all the leads, the proceedings are truly a lot more interesting than you would think by reading a plot outline.

This is accomplished by making the plot of each episode its’ own thrilling adventure. Tonight’s episode, which featured a hostage situation and some high tech terrorism, did not tone down any of the explosive violence that we saw in last week’s episode. Hawaii Five-0 is not afraid to pull the trigger, and it isn’t afraid to get its’ hands dirty, either. Steve’s foray into Jack Bauer terrorism torture territory was handled fairly well, all things considered. It made for some entertaining friction between Steve and Danny, but what really got me is the fact that Hawaii is traditionally one of the “blue-est” states in the nation; and yet it’s the guy from New Jersey who stops Steve from throwing a murderer off of a building. I guess that should teach me something about stereotyping.

Not much progress was made towards Steve’s goal of finding his father’s killer, who we presume survived being shot in the first episode. A few mentions in the beginning of the episode mainly served as reminders and teases for episodes to come. I have to say that I am very impressed with the bounce-back of Hawaii Five-0; I’m even excited to see next week’s episode. With two weeks in the book, the best is yet to come on CBS’ newest cop drama.

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