Hawaii Five-O: The Third Season once again brings viewers the exploits of the 5-O as they battle the evil Red Chinese agent, Wo Fat, who also seems to be McGarrett's number one nemesis, along with many other nefarious characters. They'll deal with drug pushers, car thieves, hit men, scheming and murderous family members, kidnappers, war criminals, serial killers and more. I was kind of surprised at some of the topics they encountered as they seemed a bit harsh for the 70's, but apparently Hawaii Five-O wasn't afraid to tackle the serious issues of the time. In "Trouble in Mind," legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson stars as a drug-addled nightclub singer who stumbles into a batch of really bad drugs, where she pays the ultimate price. One pusher is a 10 year old child and it was really disturbing to see him with his heroin. Martin Sheen plays a pivotal role in "Time and Memories" as a greedy fiancé to the daughter of a very wealthy lawyer - one who shows up dead in his home. The lawyer's wife is prime suspect #1 and she's also Steve's former fiancée! This episode is filled with weird flashbacks of their life together and is kind of sappy, but interesting.
Another really cool episode is "The Late John Louisiana" where a hitman has fallen in love with his prey and has been hiding her away from his boss for two years, only to be found out. This one had some neat dynamics. The best episode of the season, however, has got to be "Over 50? Steal" which stars a much younger than I am used to seeing Hume Cronyn of Cocoon fame. This is the only episode of the season which showcases humor and is really, really enjoyable. Cronyn stars as a jewelry thief who leaves Monopoly cards at the scenes of his crimes to taunt police, all the while slipping right under their noses. Both cat and mouse enjoy this game and the banter between Steve and the thief is really fun.
Of course, the team wouldn't be complete without Steve's younger sidekick Danny "Danno" Williams (James MacArthur), and Detectives Chin Ho (Kam Fong) and Kono (Zulu). Kono even gets kidnapped in one episode, well, he gets swapped for the kidnap victim and it gets pretty dicey.
One nice addition is the fact that you can watch the episodic promos for almost all of the shows. Basically, it's Jack Lord introducing the show with clips and giving a brief rundown of the episode to come. While certainly not necessary, they do a really good job of immersing you into the time period. One of the main draws for this show was the beautiful scenery of Hawaii and most episodes don't disappoint. I have a feeling this show paved the way for favorites like Magnum P.I..
Hawaii Five-O: The Third Season is just what fans would expect, all the episodes, with episodic promos, but nothing more. This show won't make any new fans, but for those who have been dying to rewatch Steve and crew, this fits the bill.
