Hawaii Five-0 has one of the most distinctive title sequences and theme songs in the history of TV, so right from the start, the 2010 re-imagination had a lot going for it.
While Alex O'Loughlin has little of the old-school charisma and screen presence that Jack Lord did, the basic template remains the same: Crime-solvers fight crime in one of the most beautiful and distinctive tropical locations in the world. The music is jazzier, the colours sharper, the action more frenzied and the morality more opaque, but the premise is the same.
And while the new Five-0 team members may seem morally conflicted on occasion, again that's a reflection of the times. No one is going to confuse the Dark Knight, as performed by Christian Bale, with Batman, as imagined by Adam West.
In tonight's episode, originally shown in February, the crime involves a dead body dressed as a traditional warrior. Crime with a side of culture.
Hawaii Five-0 is not going to win any Peabody awards or drama Emmys, but it has proved surprisingly durable.
10 p.m., CBS
Three to See
? Looking back, House's second-to-last episode had hints of what was to come in the series finale, but they were hints only. The episode, Holding ON, finds House's (Hugh Laurie) parole being revoked following a prank gone wrong: He'll spend the next six months in the clink, serving out the rest of his sentence. Or maybe not. A twist at the end throws a wrench into his bucketlist plans with Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), but that was never in the cards, really.
The finale, when it came, was full of surprises. This episode has its moments, but it's prologue in name only.
9 p.m., Global
? Sometimes a late-night talk show is worth staying up late for - or recording, anyway. Tonight on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson, one of late-night TV's most charming, disarming hosts sits down with the Master of Horror himself Stephen King, and it doesn't take much to get the Master to laugh.
12: 35 a.m., Global, CBS
? Why do the chef-testants on Hell's Kitchen insist on making that nice man Gordon Ramsay lose his temper? Such language, too.
Tonight's back-to-back repeat episodes from last month feature grits, collard greens and fried chicken.
What could possibly go wrong?
8 p.m., Fox
