Season 2 of HAWAII FIVE-0 is all about change.   The team has to repair their relationships with each other while new characters drop into the fold.   Steven McGarrett is helped by his old mentor/ trainer from the Navy Seals, Lt Commander Joe White (Terry O’Quinn), to find out who Shelburne is and why Wo Fat wants to find this person (as McGarrett wants revenge and bring Wo Fat to justice for killing the Governor of Hawaii and Steve’s father).   Meanwhile the Lt Governor takes over as the new Governor and appoints Lori Weston- a woman from Homeland Security- to be his eyes and ears on Hawaii Five-O.   Meanwhile, Detective Fry (Tom Sizemore) of IA is investigating Five-O, but he is more interested in going after dirty ex-cops.

Season 2 was an enjoyable action crime show as I watching it due to the action and the actors.   The actors play characters we want to care for or hate.   I wish Tom Sizemore’s short-lived cop series ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION would make its way to DVD and any show adding Terry O’Quinn is a good thing.   It doesn’t hurt that the main cast of the show are faces I recognize from other shows like MOONLIGHT (Alex O’Loughlin), LOST (Daniel Dae Kim), BATTLESTAR GALATICA (Grace Park), and Masi Oka (HEROES) and the show was created by guys who write genre movies like STAR TREK and TRANSFORMERS in addition to having their hands in other shows beforehand.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentaries for

HA’I’OLE (UNBREAKABLE) by Alex O’Loughlin, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, and Peter M Lenkov

KI’ILUA (DECEIVER) by Peter M Lenkov and Paul Zbyszewski

Deleted scenes for nine episodes which features some interesting character scenes, and some scenes thankfully cut for time or would have changed the dynamic of the character storylines in some instances.

NCIS: LOS ANGELES Crossover episode is included on this release so you don’t have to track down the latest NCIS: LOS ANGELES season release to get the full crossover between the two shows.

Featurettes-

SHORE LINES: THE STORY OF HAWAII FIVE-0 SEASON 2- cast and the writers/ producers talk about the various characters and storylines in the second season including the one episode which was a sequel to an episode from the original series.

ALOHA ACTION! SEASON 2- a behind-the-scenes look at how they accomplished the stunts they filmed for season 2

BECOMING A SEAL: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST TRAINING- video and photos illustrate what type of training Navy Seals go through after a short introduction about how the writers and Alex O’Loughlin work closely with military advisors to make sure Steve McGarret’s character is accurately portrayed as a cop who was trained as a Navy Seal

HAWAII FIVE-0’AHU: An Interactive Guide to Season 2 Locations braches out to behind-the-scenes featurettes relating to shooting at the various locations.

A funny gag reel rounds out the extras.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  HAWAII FIVE-0 Season 2 rocks due to the action and the great cast of actors.   The extras are in abundance on this set and I suspect the addition of Scandinavian subtitles means this set can be played in Europe (making it Region Free blu-ray or encoded for Region A and B).

This review is (c)9-23-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com