- Network: NBC
- Series Premiere Date: Sep 1, 2004
Critic Reviews
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It's relatively entertaining, but the content is more than a bit rough for its 7 p.m. time slot.
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Hawaii is not a great cop show and does not break any ground in the well-trod field of buddy shows. But it has well-choreographed action and an amusingly campy feel.
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Hawaii's pacing, dashes of humor and casting make this one worthy of an "aloha" - but that's a tentative hello.
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Like the shallow exploits of Crockett and Tubbs, Hawaii emphasizes style and flash over substance, powered by the kind of intelligence you'd expect from a coconut.
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Hawaii does have one great thing going for it: Hawaii. Every vista is beautiful, and every other scene seems to be shot in front of a multihued sunset. Get rid of the actors and the story, and you might have a show -- though not this show, and not this network. Goodbye, NBC. Hello, Travel Channel.
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Take just about every action-movie cliche, and toss in a few soapy ones, and you get an idea of the crammed mess to be found in Hawaii.
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Hawaii isn't half as cool as "Hawaii Five-O," nor nearly as frothy fun as "Magnum P.I." What it amounts to, in an ocean of really good cop shows across the dial, is a retro failure built around people you don't really care about saying stupid things you can't muster enough interest to snicker over.
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Goofy, silly, trying to be hip, lighthearted and loose, but ending up merely stupid, a dopey mix of inane dialogue, hints of sex, gunfire and blood. [29 Aug 2004, p.TV-6]
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If the networks keep up this pattern of releasing dreck before the usual start of the TV season, it will have a record number of cancellations by Canadian Thanksgiving. [1 Sept 2004, p.R2]
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The new cop series Hawaii isn't your father's "Hawaii Five-O." It's probably not yours, either, or your child's, or anyone's. It's awful.
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What did anyone really expect from the guy responsible for the infamous dud "Shasta McNasty" for UPN five years ago?
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Hawaii isn't an unpleasant place for a visit, but it offers scant incentive to gain a place on anybody's channel-surfing itinerary.
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The landscape is beautiful, the stars are beautiful, but watching Hawaii is like staring at a department store window: Everyone wears cool clothes, the scene is hip and tries to look fun, but there's not much substance to any of it.
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The horrible Hawaii suggests that crimefighting has degenerated to idiotic levels since "Hawaii Five-O" and "Magnum, P.I." The new protectors of paradise work in such stupefying ways that you want to shout at the screen, "Book 'em, Danno!"
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It's bad in all the old usual ways. Indeed, with scarcely an original thought from beginning to end, it has been made to be like other things whose badness has proved no bar to popularity...A thing of no surprises and little drama or suspense. The end of every scene may be predicted nearly from its beginning. [1 Sept 2004, p.D1]
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There is nothing distinctive or exciting about this show, other than the pink-hued skies and the dramatic ocean-scapes...Why NBC would even bother with a crime show this stale and derivative is a mystery.
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Hawaii makes its gory, boring bow tonight in High Definition but, unfortunately, Low Intelligence...It's deficient in plot, intriguing characters, points of interest and the merest tiny hint of taste. It's not so much a TV show as one big deficiency.
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Hawaii provides any student of the medium with a virtually complete compendium of every cliche, shortcut and stereotype in an entire genre of TV that is more than 40 years old...[It] is nothing but stupid. [1 Sept 2004, p.E01]
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This is no Hawaii Five-O. It's Hawaii Zero. [29 Aug 2004, p.3]
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