Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) Force of Waves (1970) User Reviews

The viewer will have this case solved even before McGarrett suspects the real killer.

[h-corbett · 5/10 · 21 March 2012]

After McGarrett narrowly survives a boat explosion that kills a friend of his, he and Five-O come to suspect that the man's widow and her lawyer may have been the ones behind it.

The first mistake the writers made with this episode was casting a very well-known actor as the killer. The second mistake was that his character has no importance to the rest of the storyline, he makes a few appearances every so often, but what he and Steve talk about has no significance to the investigation, that's a big give away. Sure, he and McGarrett are friends and he saved Steve from drowning immediately after the boat exploded, but scenes like these only serve as a smoke screen to try and distract the viewer so that they will suspect someone else, like the man who breaks into the dead man's office, or the man's widow and her lawyer, but, hopefully, the viewer knows better.

Murder, She Wrote used this ploy a lot and it's pretty obvious who the killer is in these types of story lines. A character who makes scattered appearances throughout an episode but has no real importance to the story, and that character usually ends up being the killer, and this episode is a good example of that.

A lotta psychological mumbo-jumbo

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 15 February 2010]

With all my graduate training in psychology, I am a horrible person to watch episodes like this one--I can spot psychological mumbo-jumbo when I see it! Now this aspect does not come into the episode until the end--up until then, it was a pretty ordinary episode. But the ending was so goofy, I just couldn't believe it.

McGarrett is on a boat with a friend--some rich guy who wanted to talk with Steve about gambling--though exactly what this is, Steve doesn't know. The friend says that he'll tell him more when they take their boat over to his yacht. But, on the way, the boat blows up--killing the rich guy and injuring McGarrett.

Because of the injury, Danno is in charge much of the episode. But, like all the other many episodes where Steve is nearly killed (and there are MANY), he can't stay still for long and returns to work--bandages and all.

The case has some red herrings involving gambling and a widow who might get nothing due to a prenuptial agreement. It turns out, however, that the killing has a lot in common with two other murders--one in Maui and the other in Singapore. In all three cases, rich men who left their wives for "trophy wives" were blown up...but who could be doing it?! When the answer is revealed, the show enters "the stupid zone"--with an explanation that makes no sense. Plus, and this is a serious problem, you KNOW who the villain is because the guy almost always plays villains in TV shows of the era!!!! Duh.

Overall, not one of the better episodes, that's for sure. You could certainly do better...and with 12 seasons to chose from, that shouldn't be hard.