Woe to Wo Fat

I've followed this season often on either Me-TV in Chicago or their sister station Me-Too. They offer many classic series and if possible I try not to miss Hawaii Five-0. Better yet I watch this program on video on demand services such as Fancast. The best dramatic police series I've ever seen and it makes me say that they don't make good TV like they used to. I was too young to even know this program even existed.

Watching this clip there probably are those who can't tell that that show was once a great program. Even the best series loses some quality at some point. That moment might start with, whenever the show "jumps the shark".

Of course what causes a TV program to "jump the shark" is subjective at best. I can't tell you when this program jumped the shark. Perhaps it was when many of the important characters of the show left. Perhaps when Chin was murdered or the departure of Danny Williams. At some point the quality will go to despite good efforts to bring back quality.

That being said, I know this scene is from the very last episode of Five-0. I heard some not so very flattering things about the fight scene. Jack Lord and Khiegh Dhiegh were showing their age in playing their respective roles of Steve McGarret and Wo Fat. For some that might ruin this fight scene. Some will even say that there shouldn't even be a fight scene between these two characters as their on-screen antagonism is often more mental than physical.

What was very comical about the last minutes of Five-0 as a running TV program was watching Wo Fat in a cell in a classic striped prison suit. That just made the ending of this show silly. Was such outfits even in use by 1980 and Wo Fat isn't exactly in prison yet just booked and sent to jail with his day in court coming.

Perhaps if the program ended a few years earlier, there could have been a much better series finale. Maybe we would know where Danny would go, perhaps Chin could have been offed in a very dramatic fashion. At that point the fourth member of the team was Duke who knows what the future would have in store for him. Perhaps the Governor announces his retirement. Just a few ideas.

There are often rumors that the series could be revived, even a feature film. I just hope that who even develops either project won't insult some of the good work made by the creators and crew of this great TV police series.

Hawaii Five-0 Home Page

The Wire

I have recently gotten into that former HBO series that recently ended its run this past March. The last time I ever viewed an episode of the series had to been almost five years ago. Most of the first season and some of the second.

At first the program was basically a look at the police investigating a drug dealing organization. The recent episodes airing currently on BET on Tuesday and Saturday nights involving looking at the police, criminals, schools, and politics. An interesting mix for a program that I always thought of as a cop show.

This program only lets me know that cop shows need not be glamorous. Not that they always were it's just that none have been as gritty as this program set in Baltimore, Maryland. The last few episode that I saw this past week, viewers saw detectives come to the realization that abandoned buildings in Baltimore were tombs to countless bodies laid out by a drug-dealing organization, the Stanfield Organization.

Also we see various young men in the educational system. Some drop out of school and become criminals and some are able to escape and may prove to have a future. One outright becomes a contract killer, another becomes a drug addict. There's this little boy, I can't imagine him being older that 10 years old out there in the streets already using a foul mouth and perhaps even dealing. Also the subject of a severe beating by the future contract killer.

I should also add, there was another kid. Apparently he's a snitch and snitching is bad to some people, he gets beaten by some other boys in his group home where he was placed. Unfortunately he's only there because the state had put rules into place where he's forced to live in a group home while they figure out where else they can place him. This is after his foster mother was killed when some thugs firebombed their home even though the home was under police surveillance.

This show is raw, and my only regret was this I didn't see this show develop properly. Oh now I remember what the second season involved, an investigation of a union working some docks in a harbor. So in that season there were three angles the police, criminals, and organized labor.

I think BET finally finished off season 4 perhaps I can finally watch the final season. The new twist in that season in the press. Let's see how that plays out!

The Wire from Wikipedia