[Hawaii Five-0] Episode 2.17 "Kupale" Review

[eumelia]

I don't have an icon happy enough for this review!

Please excuse for incoherence!

So what did we have here:

Hawaiian locale - check!

Local extras - check!

Kono's guy instict - check!

Chin offering sage relationship advice! - check!

Mamo! - check!!

Gabby!! - check!!!

Max and his time machine love!!!! - check!!!

Steve in fatigues! - check!!!!

"Danno don't swim" my peachy ass! - check!!! (It was at this point where I actually paused the ep and actually basked in my happiness - if you had an inkling as to how much my life has sucked the past month or so, you wouldn't judge me for this!)

Oh, Steve and Danny's love - multiple check, because this whole episode revolved around how much time those two spend together!

Continuity from season 1 - motherfucking check!!!

I had no idea how much I missed and wanted the above until now. Oh man!

Also, dude, Steve inserting himself into Danny's love life? Fucking gold!

Um... huh, not much else really. It was quite lovely to see the awesome foursome in their awesome dynamics, playing off each other's strengths and the final scene with everyone Danny considers his friend (I'm was very happy to see Kamekona and Max there), considering Danny's own insecurities and fragile emotional state ("You're never happy", Steve, as they say, calls it).

That's with regards to the team.

As for the, um, plot.

Okay, so, let me just say that when I saw a Hawaiian warrior come out of the trees and faux attack (before keeling over and dying) a white woman on her way to the spa, I was, um... perturbed. I actually paused and said to myself "Wait, it may not be as racist as you think!"

Which no, it wasn't, as racist as it could have been. Danny's little comment about chafing kind of made me giggle.

But the fact that we had this exotic shot of Hawaiians in loin cloths and head dresses kind of made me go "er...?". However, Mamo and the fact that these were actual people who were keeping their culture alive by way of historical re-enactments mitigated (but didn't cancel out) the whole exotification and othering than went on before hand.

I know it shows my bias, but the minute the business partner showed up I said "You greedy murderer, you!". Glad to see my powers of plot prediction are still strong.

Plot really isn't this show's strong suit, unless it is part of the character arc.

Another thing that made me want to curl up and die was the portrayal of the environmentalists and the racism it conveys.
Like Kono, I know these people, I am, to a certain extent, one of these people (not when it comes to the environment, but the tactics employed by radical anti-capitalist groups like that are shared and it doesn't have to be special interest like environmentalism) and the contempt rolling off Steve was, um, well... *hand wave* I guess.

But beyond that, I'm still trying to decide if the show is asking us to mock the privileged white boy who blames the native Hawaiian for the destruction of the environment, or is serious in telling us that the white environmentalist knows better than the native industrialist who is "ruining" the islands, making his historical re-enactment hobby and connection to his roots, ironic.

I was actually waiting for Kawika and the Kapu to show up. Now that would have been interesting.

Carguments, Banter and Team!Love.

Hello, show. Thank you for coming back.

Comments

[silveradept]

Steve's coming at it from the perspective of "those people are great nuisances most of the time, and then they do something really illegal and stupid and get in way over their heads. Argh." Doesn't mean it isn't still full of fail, but that's what we're supposed to see from Steve's perspective, I think.

[eumelia]

Yes and no, the show's conservatism is part of its appeal - there great trust in the armed forces and great trust in authority (which ever way it may come about) and radical environmentalists are in principle anti-authoritarian and in many places (including the US, and a whole lot in Europe) some radical environmentalist groups and individuals are very violent in their activism - so the the guy's threat tactics and that girl's assertion that she's pacifist can be brought into question.
For myself, because radical anti-capitalist groups are already vilified in the media (not even talking about the Occupy movements) I was uncomfortable. But my locale is not Hawaii, so I may be reading too much into that.

Steve's own authoritarian mind set made me uncomfortable because that aspect of him makes me uncomfortable... as I've said, part of the appeal of these characters is that they're fictional - there's a hell of a lot of abuse of power and corruption in Five-0 that I would never let fly irl.

[silveradept]

Well, the USian mindset tends to scoff at radical anything because they either can't conceive of them being effective, they have a reason to make those radicals look bad, or the idea of radicalism for them are the ridiculous and gross antics of the most non-threatening, ineffective group (that will get all the media attention they could ever want.)

There's that or they're really anti-USian terrorists in disguise. Not much room for radical opinions to exist, really.

But yes, there's a lot that happens in Five-0 that would never happen at all in real life.