By Stu Robinson,

Episode 19 of CBS’s new Hawaii Five-O finds the team investigating why a man in a superhero costume took flight off a hotel  balcony and, lacking actual super powers, met his end pool cabana below.

The episode is structured around an investigation, but the audience never has a chance to figure things out for themselves. Heck, the team only solves it though the coincidences and dumb luck that one finds only on TV. That said, it still was pretty engaging. Once the team deduces that the man was tossed from the balcony of the room above his own in a case of mistaken identity, it becomes a question of who was staying in that room and why somebody would want that person dead.

The secondary plot advances the McGarrett family mystery, particularly the relevance of the mysterious Wo Fat. CIA analyst Jenna Kaye turns up in McGarrett’s office and tries to steamroll him into turning over all his information about the deaths of his parents. McGarrett stalls for time and somehow obtains her CIA personnel file through personal connections. Turns out she’s the foremost expert on Wo Fat but was removed from the CIA’s investigation after the failure of an operation she planned, which led to the deaths of an agency strike team that included her fiancé. Like McGarrett, it’s personnel for her – and she’s been conducting her own investigation while on leave from the CIA.

When they start to compare notes, Kaye shows McGarrett a picture of his father’s killer, Victor Hesse, receiving a prison visit from Wo Fat – an event the television audience saw in a coda to Episode 12.

In the series’ pilot, McGarrett captures Hesse’s brother in a military operation, only to learn that Hesse is holding a gun to his father’s head back in Hawaii. When the brother dies moments later in a firefight, Hesse kills Papa McGarrett. The audience, and McGarrett, are left to assume that Hesse pulls the trigger in retaliation for his brother’s death, as he had threatened to do moments earlier. Now CIA analyst Kaye suggests a scenario in which Wo Fat brought Hesse to Hawaii and ordered him to to kill McGarrett’s dad. I have trouble with both scenarios: How could Hess or Wo Fat possibly have known that McGarrett’s Navy SEAL team would capture the brother – much less the exact day and time.

Product Placement

While it has been clear from the start of the new Hawaii Five-O that good guys only drive Chevy’s, it’s become apparent that bad guys only drive Fords. I wonder if the good folks at Chrysler feel left out?

Speaking of the Chevy’s, Episode 19 offers another “cargument” between McGarrett and Danno. It’s comparatively short, but does give us this gem:

• “You are a devourer of dreams,” Danno tells a skeptical McGarrett. “You know what I mean? Like … you eat them. You’re like a little Pac-Man in cargo pants.”

Also, the coroner, Max Berman (Masi Oka), uses Bing to search the Internet for information.

Guest Stars

The theme for Episode 19′s guest stars is actors from 1990s teen movies who pretty much disappeared while their costars went on to greater fame.

Kaye is played by Larisa Oleynik, who portrayed the younger Stratford sister in 1999′s 10 Things I Hate About You. That remake of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew set in a Seattle-area high school also starred Julia Stiles (the Bourne trilogy), the late Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun, 500 Days of Summer and Inception). D.B. Sweeney, who starred opposite Moira Kelly (One Tree Hill) and Terry O’Quinn (Lost), in The Cutting Edge (1992), plays a robbery victim. [To appease the TV Tyrant, I should note that Sweeney also guest starred in five episodes of Jericho, one of her favorite shows.]

Outside that theme, the Sweeney character’s wife is played by Perrey Reeves, Mrs. Ari from Entourage.

And last, but not least, Episode 19 gave us a “Book ‘em, Danno.”

###

Stu Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix.

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So, I wasn’t gonna write about 24 this week. Not because of anything with the show, but because I have been cranky, distracted and have got a to-do list a mile long before I move next week. But you what? 24 is almost over, and how many chances will I get to write about one of my favorite all time shows? So here we go with hour 10am – 11am.

I hate to nitpick the show, but those helicopters got in the air and caught up to Jack pretty fast, eh? I do love how Jack steals a heli just to fly over the river and land on a building in Manhattan. Shortest.hijack.ever.

I was worried that Chloe being in charge would put a wedge between her and Jack, and I am fairly desperate to see that friendship continue, seeing that Jack has almost no one to trust anymore. I was sure, for drama’s sake, they would have Jack be betrayed by her. Thank goodness they played it like they did, with Jack being wise to the trap, and not blaming her for doing her job.

Chloe is doing her job well, even though she still used a little of her tech-fu to get the location of the actual safehouse off of DB Sweeney’s phone so Cole had the info for later. (Hi DB!! I see playing an evil head of a private security firm on Jericho has stuck with you, even though on 24 you had a mustache instead of a goatee).

So Jack does what he does best, takes down a bunch of highly trained agents, and easily convinces Cole to go with him to expose the Russians and get Dana and whatever. Good. I wanted this whole season to be Jack and Cole together, a la Jack and Chase in the virus season. I will take them together for the last few hours.

The most unusual thing for me this episode, is my interest in what was going on with the Presidents Taylor and Logan. For me, the White House portion of the show has always been the weakest and/or most annoying bits. But put together Cherry Jones and Greg Itzin, and we get TV gold. Logan is one of the best characters ever on this show, and to have him back to his evilly goodness, and bending and warping a President who has such strong convictions is great fun to watch. Totally tragic to see it happen to her, and it is gonna get messy, and we may have lost our lovely and awesome Ethan in the process, but I can’t wait to see what they do with all of it. Cherry is totally earning that Emmy she won last year.

Michael Madsen showed up this week, perfectly cast too, as a shady, old friend of Jack. I am guessing he won’t be the last of the fun guest casting for the last few episodes.

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I went back and forth on whether I’d live-blog the Emmys tonight, mainly because, after all, this is a TV blog.

But then I thought about it.

Where’s Battlestar Galactica? Kings? Did Jericho ever get any love?

Sure, critical darlings 30 Rock and The Office, though relatively low-rated (compared with the CSI juggernaut, anyway) get lots of Emmy love – as they well should. But most of the best shows on television rarely get any attention from the academy, unless they’re on HBO. And even there, The Wire never got recognition and it was, bar none, the best show on television during its run.

And if nothing else, this blog is about quality television (OK, and sometimes Charles in Charge, but I was young, sue me). And the Emmy broadcast itself is not quality television. How does the Oscar ceremony win a freakin’ Emmy every year? (Though I have to admit, choosing Intervention for Best Reality Series is a teensy bit redemptive.)

So tonight, I’ll be watching the Curb Your Enthusiasm season premiere and the series premiere of Bored to Death. We’ll probably catch up with the season premiere of Fringe, which I was waiting for my husband’s return to watch.

The Emmys? I’ll probably glance on Twitter every now and again. Or maybe I’ll just wait ’til morning.

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UPDATED info at bottom of post

I have a special love for the show Jericho, which was, by the by, my entré into social media.

It was such a great post-apocalyptic drama, which CBS screwed up in scheduling and then canceled at literally the last minute, after the season finale aired. Fans rallied, sent tons of peanuts and created arguably the most active online fandom ever (maybe all the Whedonites combined are larger), in the end convincing CBS to give the show a second chance.

An abbreviated second season was aired, with the full season two storyline condensed into eight episodes with one helluva ending. There. I just got chills thinking about it.

Anyhow, the fans still didn’t give up. They’ve pushed for a season three, a movie, a comic book, anything to continue the story of an America riven in two by traitors with nukes.

So I happily read an e-mail from the Jericho Rangers group on Facebook, sent by Dawn Aker Braddock, who spoke with Gwen (Ratkeeper), who’s at Comic Con in San Diego.

Despite the fact that the show hasn’t been on the air for a year and a half, there was a Jericho Panel, with Dan Shotz, Karim Zreik, Matthew Federman, Stephen Chbosky, Jonathan Steinberg and Lennie James (go Hawkins!). Gwen reported that the room, which can hold more than 400 people, was three-quarters full.

Here’s the meat of the note:

The Producers said the movie is very much alive and that they are looking for the right story line that they can use to finalize the sale of the movie and the comic book is key to that.

There will be 6 issues not 4 and they will be monthly starting in October 2009. The book will be a bound set of the 6 comic books. Karim and Dan spent time with Gwen and her volunteers at the Jericho booth before and after the panel. They even signed some items for fans.

There was a woman from CBS with the group who was amazed at the Jericho fans organization and marketing. Gwen placed Devils Due stickers on the back of the Jericho business cards and DDP was getting large numbers at their booth.

The key to solidifying the movie will be comic book sales and our efforts to reach fans not online who want more Jericho. We will be finalizing Operation Comic Book and it will be launched next week.

Another comment made by Karim and Dan was the ratings for Jericho on the CW were very good, especially for re-runs on a Sunday night. The ratings have been noticed by the CBS executives and that is why the comic book is going forward with more episodes.

Rangers are needed to step into the breach and help raise awareness of the comics and movie, the note went on to say. If you’re a Facebook member and want to keep tabs on the news, you can join the Jericho Rangers group here.

The Rangers need volunteers for at least these following comic conventions: Atlanta, Philly, Chicago, London, Toronto, New York, Dallas, Orlando. Contact Dawn through the Facebook group linked to above if you can help out.

She points out:

Our show was cancelled 16 months ago yet they send the producers, writers and major star to launch the comic book. This is business and that adds up to a larger plan. CBS had a pr person there for the panel and that she, dan and karim stopped by the jericho fan table and signed things. They took the time to stop by the fan booth for Jericho, that is huge in the business.

Here’s a full list of of conventions, including many others beyond those listed above. Dawn wanted to specify that the volunteers would man fan tables. The conventions listed above are the most likely to get anyone from Jericho on panels or for appearances, though even that’s not guaranteed.

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I’ve fallen rather behind both in my television viewing and in my blogging, so I thought I’d catch up with a few things today, seeing as I don’t have access to HBO this weekend and can’t watch True Blood until tomorrow, at the earliest.

First up: Reaper.

I did so love this show.

I’ve said about 8 gazillion times how perfectly cast Ray Wise was as Satan, so I’ll try to keep that to a minimum today.

But I absolutely am going to miss seeing him with those piercing blue eyes, impeccably combed hair and blinding white smile, making mischief in people’s lives now that Reaper‘s off the air.

Like most of the shows I watch these days, I caught up with most of Season 2 in marathon viewings on my DVR. Over three, maybe four nights, I watched the entire season and enjoyed it as much as ever.

Ben’s relationship with Nina the demon was terribly sweet, on both their parts. Satan’s other son Morgan was a lot more like dear old dad, but man did he have no work ethic. Whatever you might be able to say of Beelzebub, he sure does work for a living. And he does appreciate Sam’s ability and drive to get the job done. Which, of course, is ironic considering he’s been a slacker his entire life and works as a clerk in some nameless conglomerate.

And how could we forget Sock’s stint as Wrenchy Bench, culiminating in him beating the crap out of his rival, who turns out to be an old woman? Ah, good times.

The whole storyline of Sam’s dad being undead (yet not a zombie, dammit!) and living in a freezer in their garage was, admittedly, rather odd. And Sock’s storyline of lust and love with his stepsister was … OK, it was downright weird and justalittlebit icky, though I can’t truly say why.

The dead end of Sam being able to get out of hell when Satan recaptures the one soul who managed to get out of his deal with the devil, then Sam’s dad going to the 8th circle and then Gladys (wait, why the hell didn’t they use her a lot more this season? That chick is FUNNY.) helping to translate and the demon who managed to make his way back to heaven having mistranslated it and then breaking Sam’s hand so he can’t win his bet with the very vain Satan. Sorry, it made me a little dizzy. Those sorts of storyline are always a little troublesome, as they would spell the end of a series if they ever came true.

But the series came to an end anyhow, sadly, though the very last few minutes made me scratch my head and say out loud, “WTF?” Except that I didn’t use the initials. I said the three words.

When Steve’s wings come out and he ascends to heaven, but first bringing a whole angel light show, I really didn’t know what to think. Was that really how they wanted to end it? Did they have something in mind? WHAT WERE THEY DOING? WTF????

Still, sad to see the show go. I totally enjoyed it and laughed out loud at least a couple times each episode.

OK, then we have Kings:

I still get angry when I think about the show’s cancellation. It’s a fascinating look at power and what it takes to be in power and Ian McShane could read a phone book and I’d be enthralled (I know I’ve said that previously, but it’s still true).

It’s only gotten more interesting as it’s gone on. We know that the king and his queen aren’t quite the happy couple they appear to be. The royal brother-in-law is a bad guy, mostly, but not totally. The princess is one of those do-gooder types, but seems to truly have her heart in what she does. The prince is actually gay, but he can’t be if he wants to be king, which he does more than anything else on the entire planet it seems.

And then we have our David, who somehow, just somehow, always manages to make the right decision, even in the midst of making the wrong decision. His belief in what he does and says is so pervasive and overwhelming that no one can really disagree with him, even when they totally disagree with him.

He is also the one anointed, it seems, by God to follow in the king’s footsteps. A footsoldier who managed to work his way up to the highest office in the land. And why? Because of the butterflies.

OK, I’ll admit, the butterflies are a bit … weird. Except that they are also a metaphor for transformation.

So what might have happened if Kings had continued?

I can’t even imagine that it wouldn’t have continued to be utterly enthralling. See my comment about McShane, above. And all the characters have so many layers, that it could have been so many things to so many people: a period piece on the price of power, an allegory for David & Goliath, a nighttime soap. A little bit for everyone.

Instead, NBC canned it and is giving us 5 primetime hours a week of Jay Leno, 3 of one of the Law & Orders, 2 of The Biggest Loser and a fourth season of Heroes, which is TOTALLY past its prime.

Sigh. At least there’s still The Office and 30 Rock on Thursdays, but c’mon, NBC.

And then there’s Harper’s Island:

I put it on my “to watch” list solely on the pedigree: It came from the good folks who brought us Jericho, and that made me want to give it a chance.

You know what? It was a heckuva lot of fun, lots of thrills and chills and suspense. The music was great, the casting well-done (virtually all new folks, only a couple of faces I even recognized, including Harry Hamlin – who, by the way, has aged quite a lot since LA Law).

I’m not sure what they would have done had it been renewed; my understanding was that it might have been another locale with a different backstory, but then I’m not sure how it would have still been called Harper’s Island.

But various Jericho folks have shows on the fall schedule: Human Target, written by Jon Steinberg, and The Forgotten, starring my favorite deputy, Bob Stephenson. The Jericho team is far too talented to be left behind for long, and each new show they create will have a built-in audience to start. Not every showrunner can boast that.

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As it is with every year, a whole bunch of science fiction-y shows were canceled at the end of the season, but I have to give it to the networks for trying a bunch of new ones next year.

It was so hard to keep track of the comings and goings during the upfronts, but SciFi Wire thankfully charted it all in a very understandable fashion.

The clear winner, IMHO, is Fox.

Sure, Fox canceled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, better known as TSCC because it’s a lot freakin’ shorter. But it did keep Dollhouse around for at least another 13 episodes. (Side note: This comic is probably a bit too close to reality for comfort when it comes to how the decision was made.) I’m thinking that Fox didn’t feel like incurring the wrath of the Whedonverse again, whereas TSCC ended at a spot that could full well be the series’ end. (Not that I wouldn’t have loved to see where it would have picked up in the fall.)

Fox also kept Fringe, which is one of my favorite shows. So the net gets brownie points for that. It’s also picked up Human Target and Past Life, each for 13 episodes and for midseason.

Human Target is based on a D.C. comic book and focuses on a guy who goes undercover, basically, as his clients whose lives have been threatened. It was written by Jonathan Steinberg, who was the co-creator of the late Jericho.

I’m not sure I completely understand the premise of Past Life, and the description on Zap2It didn’t help much, but from what I can tell, it’s about a bunch of investigators who solve crimes by dredging up their clients’ long-lost memories. Whether that means memories of dead clients or memories of past lives for solving cold cases or just stuff people have forgotten, I’m not quite clear on. I’m guessing it’s one of the first two, otherwise the whole “science fiction” aspect of it is lost on me.

NBC is second in the science fiction Olympics, though it canceled more sci-fi-ish shows from this season than it has old and new ones put together. Off the schedule: Knight Rider, My Own Worst Enemy, Kings (I still haven’t forgiven them for that decision) and Medium (which CBS decided to pick up).

But it decided to renew Chuck (midseason) and Heroes (really? Talk about a show past its prime, despite it having been around for only 3 seasons) and has three new shows, though two of them are summer series: Day One, The Listener and Merlin.

Day One sounds the most promising to me, what with its post-apocalyptic Melrose Place-ian-ish-ness. Of course, that means it stands an excellent chance of not succeeding.

The Listener is about a paramedic who can read minds, it seems. And Merlin – well, if you can’t guess what it’s about, you need to go back and read King Arthur.

ABC lost more than it’s gained, but it has one of the best sci-fi shows ever: Lost. This is the show’s last season, though, so hopefully one of the new shows will pick up the mantle. Canceled were Cupid, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars (which is the only one of the four I cared about; I tried to like Pushing Daisies, but it was just too precious for me).

But it has V, a remake of one of my favorite miniseries ever. I’m sorry the guy originally responsible for it isn’t involved, and I’d sure like to see Michael Ironside in it, but what is he now, 65, 70? I have great hopes for it, especially if they redo the hybrid alien baby and don’t use a really lame puppet.

ABC also is trying out Eastwick and Flash Forward.

Now, Eastwick is based on the John Updike novel The Witches of Eastwick, which was quite memorably adapted into a movie starring Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson. I tried reading the book at one point but it was a bit too dated and I just couldn’t hack my way through it. I’m willing to give the show a shot, though.

Flash Forward has a lot of promise, though, with a premise in which the entire world blacks out and glimpses 2 minutes and 17 seconds of an undetermined time in each person’s own future. It’s based on a book, whose author is even writing one of the episodes. It’s being written as if it will be five seasons of 22 episodes apiece and could become a worthy successor to Lost, if it catches on.

CBS gave up on two shows: Eleventh Hour and The Ex-List, but kept Ghost Whisperer and snagged NBC’s cast-off Medium. That’s all.

The CW kept Smallville and Supernatural. Though this season is likely to be the final season of SPN, that’s great news they decided to keep it on. But it killed Valentine and Reaper, the latter of which I mourn deeply. I still have three or four episodes on my DVR, so I still have more Reaper to see.

It’s airing the new show Vampire Diaries, though, which I’d imagine might be a good pair with SPN. It’s based on a pre-Twilight series of books, The CW would like you to know, thankyouverymuch. It’s about a girl who can’t decide between two vampire brothers – one good, one evil, of course. They’re battling for her and the souls of all the people in her small town.

So that’s it. Of course, there will be some shows on SyFy, USA, FX, AMC and a whole other slew of acronyms, but these are the big five, so to speak.

Which shows are you looking forward to, and which ones will you miss the most?

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OK, I guess the TV seasons before most people had televisions were worse, but this season was for the birds, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The four major networks (that’d be CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox – sorry CW) lost an average of 16 percent of viewership in the coveted “demo” – adults 18-49. That includes DVR use.

Fox was on top, followed by CBS, ABC and NBC. But “on top” still includes a steep drop.

Why is this?

A whole mess of things.

First off, a lot of people are watching online – legally and illegally (Hulu an example of the former, BitTorrent an example of the latter). I know some folks who don’t have televisions, even, and only watch what they like online.

Second, a lot of people watch on DVR, but not within that 7-day window included in ratings. For example, my husband and I haven’t watched Season 2 of Damages yet. The entire season is sitting there on our DVR. We just finished up the entire first seasons of Dollhouse and Better off Ted in a few days in marathon viewing sessions. (I’ll be writing about BoT in a couple days). I still have episodes of Reaper, the season finale of Supernatural and Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad on my DVR, waiting for me to have a chance to sit down and watch ‘em.

Then there’s the whole DVD experience, too. A few years ago, we caught up on the first two seasons of Alias by borrowing them from the library. I’ve been watching Season 1 of Torchwood on DVD, a Christmas present.

The ratings were as of Wednesday night, which marked the “official” end of the TV season. Did you even know that? Didn’t think so.

There is no such thing as a TV season anymore. We just were treated to a third season of Burn Notice this winter, and another one is coming this summer. Some shows never start until “midseason” (24, American Idol, Lost). Others bounce around the scheduling calendar (Battlestar Galactica, Kyle XY).

Yet the ratings system, other than adding the DVR and DVR+7 ratings into the mix, hasn’t changed in forever.

It’s time to change. We’ve lost too many good shows (Jericho, Kings) to the poor way ratings are measured. All the networks own multiple stations now; if the ratings for Kings are too low for NBC proper, why not send it on over to USA or even SyFy?

C’mon. The Nielsen ratings are so … 1980s.

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I was predisposed to liking Harper’s Island for a variety of reasons.

First, it was a good murder mystery in the vein of the finest Agatha Christie.

Second, it was being exec produced by Jon Turteltaub, who was part of the team that brought us Jericho. Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik are co-exec producers – two names also known to every true fan of Jericho. Add to that a score by David Lawrence – he also scored … Jericho – and all that’s missing is Skeet. And Sprague, but she’s busy on 24 right now.

Whatever the case, I caught up with the first two episodes on Sunday and I was very pleased.

It’s creepy, it’s funny, it’s surprising. Absolutely everyone is a suspect until he or she dies, and they’ve thrown in a little supernatural bit with that little girl who seems to be communing with the dead.

Similar to Jericho, you have the prodigal daughter returning home after a self-imposed exile and the old friends who are thrilled to see her return.

I honestly can’t imagine how this could go past one season, but if anyone can figure it out, it’s this crew.

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The anxiously awaited news about Jericho finally came out today, and it’s pretty much what I expected: A new comic book series based on the show.

Believe it or not, I couldn’t actually find the news on the CBS website, but thanks to my Jericho buddies on Facebook and The Futon Critic, I was able to get the info.

Basically, Devil’s Due Publishing will publish a new comic book series that “will pick up where the television program left off.”

That, of course, would be at the start of the Second American Civil War, with Jake & Hawkins convincing Texas to join the right side.

The really amazing thing is that Dan Shotz, Jon Turteltaub, Carol Barbee, Karim Zreik and Jon Steinberg will all be involved in the development of the comic book. How awesome is that?

Said Shotz:

Jericho is alive and well, thanks to the amazing fans who’ve driven us to find new and fresh ways to tell the Jericho story.

And then DDP President Josh Blaylock:

I can’t tell you how cool it is for DDP to be able to continue the Jericho story in comic book form. We plan to give fans the story they’ve been craving. This is going to be epic stuff.

Sounds pretty great to me.

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More hope that there could, indeed, be a Jericho movie.

IGN reported today that there might indeed be a chance for us to see the Second American Civil War in action.

Karim Zriek and Dan Shotz said they’re definitely in talks/development for a movie about our favorite post-apocalyptic not-so-distant future, but that there will be an announcement VERY soon (maybe this coming week) about “another avenue” they’re going to use to “continue telling the Jericho story.”

My money’s on a comic book/graphic novel, as there’s been lots of chatter about that ever since Jericho was brought back the first time. But I’d be really happy for a movie. I wanna see Skeet (Ulrich) and Lennie (James) back in action, and that’d be awesome on the big screen (or small, if it’s a telemovie).

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