Hawaii Five-0 Season 2 Report Card: B-

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With the summer season about to heat up, TV Fanatic is taking some time to look back on the fall, winter and spring.

We've already handed out a B+ to Hart of Dixie, an A- to Person of Interest and a B to Body of Proof. Now, staff writers Jim Garner is here to grade Hawaii Five-0 in our latest TV Fanatic Report Card...

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Named Guest Star Screen Time (B-): Starting early in the season we had actors such as Robert Englund and Patty Duke, who were advertised as being on the show and barely got any screen time. This trend continued for the majority of the first half of the season.

However, starting with James Caan in February, this turned this around. In subsequent episodes both Caan and Ed Asner were prominently used, capped by the visit of LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, from NCIS: Los Angeles. I’m hopeful that Peter Lenkov and his team have worked out the bugs on how to use big name actors they invite on the show.

Hawaii Hotties

Recurring Character Casting (C+): It’s no secret that many fans did not like Lori Weston - there were even petitions to CBS to try and get her removed. While I personally liked Lauren German’s character, there were many others that were cast as if this show was set in New York and not on the Hawaiian Islands. 

I really hope that the casting department takes a hard look at how it is casting key recurring roles and find appropriate actors. The only reason this category didn’t get a failing grade was Terry O’Quinn as Joe White. He possessed the perfect balance of fatherly wisdom and frustrating co-worker antics with Steve. Besides, as I said early on, I think I have a budding man crush on him!

Team Dynamic (A-): The one thing we learned from Lori Weston’s temporary assignment to Five-0 was that we love Steve and Danny’s “carguments” a lot and you can’t mess with that dynamic. However, we also got a few new things that worked well, such as getting to see Danny in the driver’s seat for a couple of episodes while Alex O’Loughlin was out. It’s going to be hard for Lenkov to add a fifth musketeer to the team given how attached people are to the four current members as they are.

Weekly Cases (B):  We had the gamut of stories this season, from haunted relics to small pox attacks. However, for me the clear winner for the season was “Lekio” where James Caan showed that carguments could be done as a three-way and we got to see Cann bring some old-school to the new Five-0.

Spotlight Stories (F): None of the spotlight stories for our regulars hit the mark this year. Rachel went MIA so Danny’s home life was as boring as root-canal. Kono was “kicked off” the police force and was trying for some weird “emo” and “grumpy” look that just didn’t work on Grace Park. But both of those were a walk in the park compared to the horribly over-hyped and under-revealed “Shelburne” storyline Steve had going.

While Kono got back into Five-0 and resolved her case and Danny’s home got mentioned less and less, I got to the point well before the reveal that I was totally done with Shelburne and was no longer invested in caring who or what it was. I really wanted Kono’s story with Adam and Chin’s story with Frank Delano to bring up this rating, but there was just too much damage done early on.

However, given that those two stories are factors going into Season 3, I’m hopeful that Lenkov and his team will use them as the anchor to some better spotlight stories for the team next year.

Overall Grade: B-

What grade you YOU give Hawaii Five-0 Season 2?

Jim G. is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.

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Hawaii Five-0 Quotes

I just wanted to tell you I'm so sorry, so sorry.

Danny [to Marie]

Dealer: Game's closed unless you have an invitation.
Grover [holding up his badge]: Here's my invitation. It's even engraved.