Hawaii Five-O – The First Season (2010/CBS Blu-ray)/Hawaii Five-O – The Eleventh Season (1978 – 1979/CBS DVD)/NCIS: The Eighth Season (2010 – 2011/CBS DVD)/NCIS: Los Angeles

Hawaii Five-O – The First Season (2010/CBS Blu-ray)/Hawaii Five-O – The Eleventh Season (1978 – 1979/CBS DVD)/NCIS: The Eighth Season (2010 – 2011/CBS DVD)/NCIS: Los Angeles - The Second Season (2010 – 2011/CBS DVD)/Rescue Me: The Sixth Season & The Final Season (2010 – 2011/Sony DVD Set)

Picture: B/C+/C+/C+/C+ Sound: B/C+/C+/B-/B- Extras: C+/D/C/C/C+ Episodes: C+/C+/C+/C+/B-

The hour-long action show remains a staple of TV and though it has usually not been great in the last three decades, some interesting things happen when there is even some ambition to them, even when they become franchised.

The 2010 revival of Hawaii Five-O might be enough of a hit that the show was renewed and people talk about it as passable entertainment, but The First Season is far from the equal of the best of the original series’ early seasons. Alex O’Loughlin takes over for Jack Lord as McGarrett and (it turns out only for this season) Scott Caan takes over for James McArthur as Dan-O, but the pilot is a horrid wreck and the show actually does not seem to enjoy its locale as past series set in the island state have. Still, the show did get a little better as it moved along, but it ultimately is boring and only seeing how the reworking fails more than succeeds makes it worth a look. Oh, and what is with that dated-on-arrival opening credits sequence that wants to be Mission: Impossible but looks like the graphics of the Commodore 64?

Extras include Gag Reel, Deleted Scenes, seven making of featurettes, CBS Launch Promo and cast/crew commentary on select episodes.

I don’t see this revival lasting as long as the original series and by the time the Jack Lord series reached The Eleventh Season (1978 – 1979), it was becoming long in the tooth and took on a new, laid back tone that was not conducive of an all out action crime drama, but it was such “appointment television” that it continued to be a ratings and profit powerhouse for CBS, yet the show was in decline at this point and the revival can compete with the lesser version of the original to some extent, but that is not saying much. 21 hour-long shows are here over 6 DVDs and there are no extras.

A show I am not a fan of on the upswing a little bit is the original NCIS, now in its Eighth Season (2010 – 2011), the cast has grown tighter, there is some more chemistry and the makers have been smart enough to flaunt having David McCallum (still not here long enough for any show) as one of the reasons it is a hit, though I respect Mark Harmon and am glad to see him in a belated, well deserved hit. You can read my thoughts on the previous season at this link where I covered Season Six:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8983/NCIS+%E2%80%93+The+Sixth+Seaso

24 somewhat hour-long shows are here over 6 DVDs while extras include cast/crew commentary on select episodes and seven making of/behind the scenes featurettes.

The NCIS: Los Angeles spin off continues to be one of the more formidable spin-off shows as it enters its Second Season (2010 – 2011) and we covered the Blu-ray of The First Season at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10547/NCIS:+Los+Angeles+%E2%80%93+T

This time we have a DVD set and though it is fine, all these never shows are more enjoyable on Blu-ray (even more than on HD broadcasts, et al) and this set has 24 more competent nearly hour long shows with co-stars Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J having convincing chemistry and the series has been smart enough not to be overly technical to the point of satire like most of its competitors. Linda Hunt saves the show further by being very good as their boss and the show works better than the new Hawaii Five-O, if marginally.

Finally we get to Rescue Me: The Sixth Season & The Final Season (2010 – 2011) which is actually the last two seasons (to clarify any confusion) and Denis Leary has made a hit out of a show about more than just solving crimes or in this case, firemen saving lives while trying to keep their lives together. Inspired by the events of 9/11, we have covered the show before and you can read our thoughts on it at the following links:

Season Three Blu/DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5479/Rescue+Me+%E2%80%93+The+Compl

Season Four DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7108/Rescue+Me+%E2%80%93+The+Compl

The show is the most realistic, naturalistic and convincing of all of these, being more than a mere genre series (there have been shows about firemen and emergency services before, of course), but this show has balanced its action with character development and it will endure more than moist such shows made now decades from now. Without ruining any of the plots or subplots (start with the First Season and go form there if you have not seen the show), Leary has succeeded in taking his abrasive stand-up comic persona and channeling it into a show about something important that is what makes good TV. The rest of the cast is tight and convincing, the locations palpable. This is mature TV that even asks questions and to its credit, the show is wrapping up while it is on top and has done everything it set out to do.

Extras include a Gag Reel, Deleted Scenes and three featurettes on the show and its wrapping up.

The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Hawaii 2010 Blu-ray is a little more solid and rich than I expected considering the overly slick editing and unnecessary styling and even degrading of shots with good color (limited as it can be at times), though it never totally makes the locales look as great as we have seen them including the 1.33 X 1 image of the 35mm shot original Hawaii series, which deserves Blu-ray treatment. At this point, the show is looking a little softer as they switch to faster film stocks that are not as solid as the older seasons, but this is the way the show is meant to look at this point. The rest of the releases on DVD are anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 transfers that also have slick, predictable stylizing, but are softer in all cases than expected and not as good as their Blu-ray counterparts. They all deserve Blu-rays and only having DVDs do not do justice to the work done on these shows. Just compare to our Blu-ray coverage of the shows in earlier seasons as we covered them before.

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Hawaii 2010 Blu-ray also has a better soundfield than expected, but I expected that to be more likely, so the Blu-ray performance is impressive all around for a new show as it should be but not always is. The Dolby Digital 5.1 on NCIS: The Eighth Season is too much towards the center channel and front speakers despite having surrounds, making it on par with the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Hawaii 5-0: The Eleventh Season, yet NCIS: Los Angeles: The Second Season has a much better soundfield and the final Rescue Me seasons are as dynamic for lossy Dolby 5.1 mixes.

- Nicholas Sheffo