Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) Blood Money Is Hard to Wash (1977) User Reviews

Fairly Good, But Uneven

[samwa-27311 · 7/10 · 24 July 2019]

Dane Clark is all right, but in every episode on the series, and in other shows, he lacks the personality of a crook, and it shows.

Usually, in weakness, or in things not planned well. I can think of at least 3 other 5 O episodes, in which he appears.

The real problem, is that by this season, the scripts are no longer tight and excellent. Good, but nothing like season 6 or before.

All episodes in season 9, have a very weak ending. No follow up, nothing of a real conclusion, and the crook does not say anything.

Further, the grave problem here, is the writers making three separate main themes, instead of one. This is hazardous in filmmaking.

You have the idea of him buying the football team ( it was assumed that that would be the story), then other attempts on purchasing other businesses; then the whole matter of his partners in SF, ( which was never fully dealt with), then suddenly out of nowhere, the matter changes to what he wants to do, with McGarrett, all jumbled into one episode.

A couple of notes: In the goods section, someone says that there is a TV crew member behind the door in a restroom. I watched that scene four times, paused, etc, and there is no crew member.

The other is a review stating about the office being back at the palace, ranting about how this deceives the viewer.

It's common knowledge that the Palace was closed for a few months or so, so 5 O was temporarily in another place, but now was back to the Palace after the renovation.

Still, in this season, episodes were good, but not great.

Far too many goofball plans between Dane's character, and his stooge.

Aloha!

Another "McGarrett vs. The Mob" story, this one very poorly written.

[FloridaFred · 6/10 · 2 December 2023]

SPOILER ALERT.

Other reviewers have already laid into this one. Let me just pose a lot of questions:

What happened to the football team? What happened to the nightclub? How can Chen be at the bottom of a hill hiding in a van with a video camera, but the film footage is close-up straight on video of the bad guy?

And McGarrett was shot at point blank in broad daylight, but later that same day he is all happy to see a "present" delivered to his office? And Dano just puts the thing on a shelf? When the bomb blows up, doesn't the Rescue Squad have a fire extinguisher? They don't seem to care that the building is going up in flames (but when the trash can at the hospital catches fire, the cops guarding McGarrett leave their posts and rush into the ladies room to put out that fire!).

When Dano is in the hospital, standing in the hallway, he hasn't washed his face or taken his gun off? And Duke has a cast on, but the medical staff didn't bother to cut off his burned and dirty clothing?

And how many episodes of H5-0 use that same "revolver with a silencer" (which is not scientifically possible)? Yes, as someone else pointed out in the goofs section, there is a crew member hiding behind the Women's Restroom door (freeze frame, you will see them).

And finally, how can the Bad Guy know what hospital and which floor McGarrett is on?

No, no, and no! This is a mess. 6 stars is being generous.

A familiar theme--and sloppily handled

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 22 August 2012]

Dane Clark plays Jovanko--a mobster with muscle who has come to the islands to buy a sports team so he can launder money with its box office receipts. The idea is to give away tickets to fill the stadium--then claim the tickets were all paid for by the patrons--thus making illegal money seem legal. But when McGarrett gets wind of this, he decides to pressure Jovanko hard---so hard that he'll think twice and return to the mainland. At first, Jovanko acts like he's gotten the message, blowing his top again and again when Five-O keeps tailing him and recording his meetings. He then announces to McGarrett that he's leaving Hawaii and will give up his plans--but he secretly plots on rubbing out McGarrett in revenge. Now considering practically every season has at least one episode where crooks try to kill or frame McGarrett and the plots ALWAYS unravel, you'd think Jovanko would plan something different! Heck, if Wo Fat couldn't stop McGarrett, what do you think Jovanko's chances are?!

Well, the familiarity of the theme turns out NOT to be the big problem with episode. Instead, Jovanko (who is supposed to be a very successful thug) begins acting too stupid to be realistic. You'd think he'd hire a GOOD hit-man but the guy hired is sloppy and blows it. Then, Jovanko handles the killing himself but leaves MANY ways to trace it all back to him. I thought the idea was to kill McGarrett to make way for their illegal business, not get Jovanko in prison for murder! He personally goes to a Children's foundation and identifies WHO he is--so the bomb (which was supposedly from the foundation) could be traced back to him. Then, he gets himself admitted to the hospital where McGarrett is being treated (the bomb doesn't kill him--only injures him)--and wears a medic-alert bracelet with his name on it! They find him unconscious and admit him--under his own name and so naturally the police are alerted! And, finally, the final attempt on McGarrett is just sloppy, sloppy, sloppy--as if done by a brain-addled amateur! This all really ruins what COULD have been a decent episode. One of the worst of season 9.

By the way, watch for the ridiculous camera angle. Chin is out filming Jovanko while he's golfing. Chin is clearly way DOWN a hill--filming upwards. However, the footage he shows to McGarrett is straight on--like he was standing next to Jovanko! Sloppy...and pretty funny.

Lack of Execution and Believability

[RedbirdCraig · 4/10 · 29 July 2023]

Any of us 5-0-heads who do things like write reviews on the shows will find this to be familiar ground. Cartoonish monster comes from Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland to expand business in the islands only to be foiled by McGarrett and crew. We've seen this show before- I think it was just this type of show that Kam Fong was thinking of when he left the show because the stories were repetitive.

This episode had the chance to do something a little different but the main thing that's different is how stupidly the protagonist acts. I thought in the first 10 minutes when he is trying to buy a football team to launder his money and breaks the QB's shoulder as a warning to the owner was going to lead somewhere. All it led to was Chin putting him on surveillance at a golf course where Jovanko goes ape-crap crazy when he sees it, then getting more angry when he's working out some other deal and spots the boys on his tail.

All I could think of was, this guy is supposed to be some stone-cold mobster and he freaks out every time he sees a cop watching him? I'm sure the Cleveland PD must have spent at least some time in surveillance on him, but he acts like he's shocked a cop might be eyeing him.

Also, the end where he tries to kill McGarrett was almost laughable. He checks in the hospital under his own ID and expects no one will notice that the guy who just tried to kill every 5-0 cop happens to be admitted to the same hospital? Being a monster in Cleveland must not have an entrance exam.

5-0 Headquarters??

[jmgajdowski · 5/10 · 27 July 2014]

Yeah, typical 1970's TV show filming. But if you watched episodes in succession you notice this episode HQ is back at the palace. Typical 70's filming- directors and producers think viewers are dummies and wouldn't notice the obvious.

This is just another typical 70's crime TV episode where viewers have to fill in the gaps with their "dumb" imagination. Actually, some modern shows seems to have adopted this type of thinking by producers. Almost like, the shows of the 70's laid the groundwork for modern day plots on TV. I don't know about you all, but sometimes I feel like producers of shows make a mockery of our intellect when they produce a show. Serves them right if the show flops!!