When this episode began, I was feeling a bit disappointed when I saw that it was another sports episode. In the past four seasons, there was a rather poor episode about boxing (season 1) and a bad two-parter (from season 3) about baseball. And, when I saw this was a boxing show, once again I was prepared to be disappointed. In some ways, this still was the case, but fortunately, the show had some wonderful twists at the end and it ended on a real unusual note--making me appreciate having seen it.
The show begins with an up and coming young boxer winning his fight. However, afterwords, as he's relaxing, a punch-drunk ex-fighter enters the room with a wrench and smashes the young man's fist. It turns out this attack leaves the boxer with a hand so shattered that he cannot box again...and his mobster boss from Detroit is mad enough to kill! Almost the entire episode consists of the mobster and his pretty-boy muscle trying to locate the punchy guy. This results in an amazingly mundane case for Five-O. Think about it--a special police unit drops everything to handle the case of a shattered hand! However, the show does take some interesting twists when the bad guys find the old ex-boxer--enough to make it worth seeing. I especially like how the killer actually gets away at the end of the show!! Now THAT is unusual! The only seriously negative portion of the show is the dumb scene where McGarrett tries to bring in the perpetrator. Considering that the old guy had been a great boxer in the past and had behaved violently, you'd think he would have brought lots of backup to arrest the guy. Yet, inexplicably, dopey McGarrett goes into the basement ALONE and leaves a couple guys in suits (Danno and Kono) in the alley. You'd think he'd take a couple cops with him to the basement and have a few more waiting upstairs--inside the building! Duh, Steve!! And not surprisingly, McGarrett gets slugged in the process.
By the way, the mobster is played by Albert Paulsen--a frequent guest star on various shows from the decade. I never saw him play anyone who wasn't evil and as soon as I saw him I knew he was up to no good! Also, the punchy old guy is played by Moses Gunn.
The show begins with an up and coming young boxer winning his fight. However, afterwords, as he's relaxing, a punch-drunk ex-fighter enters the room with a wrench and smashes the young man's fist. It turns out this attack leaves the boxer with a hand so shattered that he cannot box again...and his mobster boss from Detroit is mad enough to kill! Almost the entire episode consists of the mobster and his pretty-boy muscle trying to locate the punchy guy. This results in an amazingly mundane case for Five-O. Think about it--a special police unit drops everything to handle the case of a shattered hand! However, the show does take some interesting twists when the bad guys find the old ex-boxer--enough to make it worth seeing. I especially like how the killer actually gets away at the end of the show!! Now THAT is unusual! The only seriously negative portion of the show is the dumb scene where McGarrett tries to bring in the perpetrator. Considering that the old guy had been a great boxer in the past and had behaved violently, you'd think he would have brought lots of backup to arrest the guy. Yet, inexplicably, dopey McGarrett goes into the basement ALONE and leaves a couple guys in suits (Danno and Kono) in the alley. You'd think he'd take a couple cops with him to the basement and have a few more waiting upstairs--inside the building! Duh, Steve!! And not surprisingly, McGarrett gets slugged in the process.
By the way, the mobster is played by Albert Paulsen--a frequent guest star on various shows from the decade. I never saw him play anyone who wasn't evil and as soon as I saw him I knew he was up to no good! Also, the punchy old guy is played by Moses Gunn.
