This is why I can't have nice things
OK, so. Hawaii Five-O. Gay as the day is long and cracky hilarious but also blissfully free of procedure or reality. And I'm alright with that, reality is often a downer anyhoo, I don't go to my TV shows for accuracy.
But there's an episode that starts with a man covered in blood, waving a knife, screaming, threatening. He takes hostages on the USS Missouri, demands that the police find out who killed his wife. CREDITS. The investigation reveals he's a Navy SEAL, been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder following a gunfight (I can't remember which war torn country this is meant to have taken place in) in which some civilian children were accidentally killed.
Here were the first warning bells, that it was children dying, not, I don't know, anyone else dying, or just exposure to dying, or just the boredom and tension and violence within the ranks that did it.
This guy, he's been violent, suffering blackouts, might have killed his wife without realising it and is now using his training to scare tourists. I thought, oh good, they're finally going to represent a returned service man as in a condition other than McGarret's boy-scout-hyper-functionality or mercenary villian. They might actually say something about war being bad!
Ah, but, then, it turns out the villains were Russian mobsters. RUSSIANS. Also, military-hero-McGarret takes a moment out from his hostage situation to talk about the glorious fallen of Pearl Harbour with a man who is a plot device.
And then he promises his daughter he's going to get better soon.
Just, fuck. Just. Steve is not how soldiers are, OK? Not the ones I know. The crazy guy is. The one who doesn't know what's going on and thinks maybe he might have killed his wife. Not a bad representation of a PTSD panic attack, but RUSSIANS. Since when have we needed fucking Russians to be the fucking villains, is it the Cuban Missile Crisis?
It's not like I'm going to stop watching the show. In the latest episode, Steve covers himself in make up and talks about feeeeeeelings while constructing a jungle trap, and Danny beats up a city councilman while on the verge of tears, so. Y'know.
Also, Daniel Dae Kim's collar bones. And Kono at all times.
Also, I found an episode of the original, from 1970, starring a twenty something Christopher Walken. He's only on screen 12 minutes of a 50 minute show and it was totally worth downloading. Fun fact: before the eighties hit, Christopher Walken could act. Really well. He's still got that breathy sliding register we love him for, but he's also imitating human emotions fairly accurately. It's a surprise, is all.
But there's an episode that starts with a man covered in blood, waving a knife, screaming, threatening. He takes hostages on the USS Missouri, demands that the police find out who killed his wife. CREDITS. The investigation reveals he's a Navy SEAL, been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder following a gunfight (I can't remember which war torn country this is meant to have taken place in) in which some civilian children were accidentally killed.
Here were the first warning bells, that it was children dying, not, I don't know, anyone else dying, or just exposure to dying, or just the boredom and tension and violence within the ranks that did it.
This guy, he's been violent, suffering blackouts, might have killed his wife without realising it and is now using his training to scare tourists. I thought, oh good, they're finally going to represent a returned service man as in a condition other than McGarret's boy-scout-hyper-functionality or mercenary villian. They might actually say something about war being bad!
Ah, but, then, it turns out the villains were Russian mobsters. RUSSIANS. Also, military-hero-McGarret takes a moment out from his hostage situation to talk about the glorious fallen of Pearl Harbour with a man who is a plot device.
And then he promises his daughter he's going to get better soon.
Just, fuck. Just. Steve is not how soldiers are, OK? Not the ones I know. The crazy guy is. The one who doesn't know what's going on and thinks maybe he might have killed his wife. Not a bad representation of a PTSD panic attack, but RUSSIANS. Since when have we needed fucking Russians to be the fucking villains, is it the Cuban Missile Crisis?
It's not like I'm going to stop watching the show. In the latest episode, Steve covers himself in make up and talks about feeeeeeelings while constructing a jungle trap, and Danny beats up a city councilman while on the verge of tears, so. Y'know.
Also, Daniel Dae Kim's collar bones. And Kono at all times.
Also, I found an episode of the original, from 1970, starring a twenty something Christopher Walken. He's only on screen 12 minutes of a 50 minute show and it was totally worth downloading. Fun fact: before the eighties hit, Christopher Walken could act. Really well. He's still got that breathy sliding register we love him for, but he's also imitating human emotions fairly accurately. It's a surprise, is all.