H50 Ep: Hana Lokomaika'i

[the_other_sandy]

I still have a head cold. I'm still on all the decongestants ever. Sometimes, if I stand by the humidifier long enough, I can actually breathe through my nose for a minute. Bleah.

Comments

[mangacat201]

I actually didn't mind the talky stuff so much, even if it took a little too long for my tastes to get to the point where past and present intersected in terms of stories. (And why oh why really, would a famous drug lord who obviously has no intention of going to jail give a confession to a cop about killing his father? Seriously)

I totally buy Grace Park at any age, tbh, I was way more bugged by that super ever awkward 'getting-to-know-you'-scene between Chin and Malia.

But DDK totally owned that episode. Like so.

What really soured it for me though, was... if family's so important to that unit of theirs, WHERE ARE HALF OF THEM. Not even a mention of 'Danny's-off-doing-...-uhm-stuff', that really did get on my nerves.

[the_other_sandy]

Chin doesn't get enough showcase episodes, so I don't begrudge him that. This episode was just way too much Chin just sitting there telling a story, with the occasional cutaway to an action scene to make it seem less like toddler storytime at the library.

And yes, you'd think they could manage to squeeze in one line about Danny having to be in court or having to stay home with Grace because she's sick or something.

[mangacat201]

Yes, I mean, one line is all it would have taken to show that Danny might not have been able to contribute anything to the investigation due to not being involved (and wtf is that about, if they catch a case, he's THERE), but still showing his support to ohana in that time. That makes me really mad.

[bookwurm]

I'm starting to get the feeling that TPTB want to do something "different" or "arty" with the show. I like different and arty, but I also like action, adventure, buddy-cop shows. Mixing the two can work, but it's tough, and it gets even harder if it's done too often.

In this case, it came across as "let's give Chin a past" with lots of exposition. I think it would have worked better if they had concentrated on the present-day case with flashbacks to Chin's father. IA being scum with lots of talking and dual-layer flashbacks wasn't really enough for me to get emotionally invested in either of the past cases, so it just felt like IA was being scum because they could.

[the_other_sandy]

I'm starting to get the feeling that TPTB want to do something "different" or "arty" with the show.

I guess being a Serious Drama and a nighttime soap didn't work out as well as they'd hoped. I'd rather they do something radical like go back to being a fun action-adventure buddy cop show.

I think it would have worked better if they had concentrated on the present-day case with flashbacks to Chin's father.

Agreed. The emphasis was definitely on the wrong case.

it just felt like IA was being scum because they could

Which disappointed me because up until now, HPD's IA department hasn't been portrayed as the stereotypical bully boys you usually see on cop shows.

[opalshore]

I watched that whole episode while thinking 'where's Danny?' and then went through it all again thinking maybe I had missed a brief mention of him being somehow unavailable, but nope. Then I looked through the opening credits (because I don't actually pay attention to those anymore) and 'phew' he's still there. Which, I mean, I knew he would be but I had a brief moment of panic and I had to check to make sure. This thing where they just ignore whole sections of relevant information is really getting old.

And this episode had WAY too many cuts going back and forth for me. It just lost potency and became annoying. And the interviews were a bit too long, too much action in the past to which I couldn't relate because of so much cutting back and forth and then not enough to keep me tethered to the current situation.

This episode ultimately left me feeling apathetic, and caring about little past my wait for the next episode in the hope that that one would be better.

[the_other_sandy]

I'm not a huge fan of episodes that jump around in time myself. The jumps kill the momentum of each story for me.

[opalshore]

I think they were trying for something really impressive but they took it too far and it backfired in my opinion.