Re: Hawaii Five-oh-no

It's all in the execution.

Look at BSG. The concept was almost exactly the same - man-made robots try to kill what's left of their makers - a rag tag bunch of fighter jocks with a fearless leader gives it their all to save humanity.

The late 70's series did the best it could given the late 70's tv genre's habit of being poorly written, poorly acted and composed mostly of eye candy and velour. Sounds like the new H-5-0 is taking this idea too far - but I have not seen it yet.

Then the BSG reboot was by all account brilliant, taking the same basic concept and making it almost documentary like in its realism (a space documentary - will have to remember that idea (speaking of which, there is a little seen black and white documentary style cut of Star Wars - Lucas was well trained in the documentary arts)).

Next look at V. I had fond memories of the early 80's miniseries, but as an adult I realized that it was, actually pretty poorly acted. But the concept and execution by 1982 standards were something new. We like seeing something new on tv - it is a rarity nowadays. That is perhaps why LOST was such a sensation - it was no Fantasy Island, (although it would have been extra special if Morgan Fairchild or Mr Rourke himself made a cameo - not really).

I was initially critical of the 2010 V - but having now watched the whole first season, it is both something old and something new and pretty good for what it is. It has the spirit of the original but is done in a new way, to appeal to current tv audiences (sorry Mark, Tim and me, but current tv audiences are younger than us).

Will there ever be a sci fi show with the level of acting and overall feel of a non-scifi tv drama? BSG - already come and gone and a tough act to beat.

Knight Rider. Loved it as a kid, but same deal. As a grown up, you watch an episode on TBS and realize that aside from the technology, the show was poorly written poorly acted and very much done in the style of everything else of that era - which was ok for that era of course.

The new version (2009 version, not the short lived series of the mid 90's) had the technology and pretty bad everything else. Perhaps it was paying homage but more likely, it was simply a bad execution. They had the budget for effects and hardware but not writers or actors.

Some time it would be interesting to see proper actors giving a complete Oscar worthy performance to truly silly material - Knight Rider, starring Russell Crowe - I'd pay to see that.

Ok, this thread is fun.

Mike Cohen