The multiple plots inside Peter Lenkov’s head must twist and turn like streets on a map, but somehow the executive producer of the re-imagined “Hawaii Five-0” knows where he is going at all times.
In this second season he’s killed off a double-crossing character, married off Chin Ho Kelly and kept fans guessing about the identity of the mysterious Shelburne.
But last week, as Episode 17 was being filmed, Lenkov took a break from supervising production and writing the season finale to discuss where the series is headed, how the show is doing and how Alex O’Loughlin went from a softie to an action hero.
Question: What’s the story arc for the rest of second season?
Answer:
The whole Shelburne thing comes back into play. That will come back and wrap itself up at the end of the season. There will be a big confrontation with Wo Fat that’s coming up. I think people are expecting something like that, especially since he escaped in Episode 10 (“Ki‘ilua,” Nov. 21). He does show up in Episode 21 in a story that is like a political-thriller episode, which is not really about McGarrett and Wo Fat. It is sort of Wo Fat’s agenda and we happen to want to stop him.
Q: What about the major players?
A: Yeah, everybody has a big story coming up. Especially Kono … There’s a little bit of a relationship that is going to happen and somebody from her past is going to come back to haunt her, literally but not as a ghost. And it plays into what the finale is going to be. Right now I am the most excited about James Caan and Ed Asner because I think both of them have great characters. Jimmy’s character is someone he sort of pitched … a character he wanted to play. He is not playing Scott (Caan’s) father, which I think everybody’s expecting. He is playing a real character with the potential of recurring if he wants to.
Q: Ed Asner is going to play a character he played in the original “Five-0”?
A: I know Ed from a “CSI: New York” (episode) I did a couple of years ago. We sort of stayed in touch and have dinner on a regular basis and I said, “When the right time comes I will get you in ‘Hawaii Five-0’ but I want to give you a special role.” So the idea was to just resurrect a character who in the original “Five-0” gets put in jail for murder and the idea is that he has served his 30-year sentence and now he is out. He’s sort of a mild-mannered ex-antiquities thief who we go to for some help in a case and it sort of takes a lot of twists and turns.
Q: How hard will this be to do?
A: We are not going to show any of the old characters. We’re only showing footage of Ed and we are using that as a flashback device. The only tie is that we are saying that the person who drove Ed Asner to jail when he was arrested was a young cop named John McGarrett — so he’s the father — and that Ed tried to bribe him on the way to jail that day and the father wouldn’t take the bribe. Shows you what kind of man he was. And that’s the only connection to anything with McGarrett’s past.
Q: Who is your audience and how does that influence how you treat your characters?
A: I know we have a lot of female fans and lot of them just want Alex (O’Loughlin) to walk around the show without his shirt on and they are begging me to have Daniel (Dae Kim) walk around the show without a shirt on. They’ve seen Scott once already without a shirt on so I think we’ve satisfied that need. For me, we watched it as a family so I feel like the same goes for this show, which is why I almost wish it was (on an hour earlier) because I do feel a younger audience sitting with their parents could watch the show. It’s not offensive. It’s entertaining. It has laughs. It has all those things you want from a show that can entertain everybody.
Q: What was it about Alex O’Loughlin that made you decide to make him Steve McGarrett?
A: The year before I wrote this pilot, I wrote another pilot for CBS. It was about a medical examiner. It was actually almost identical to what “Body of Proof” is now on ABC. It was about this great brain surgeon who, in this home invasion robbery, ends up getting shot through the hand and he can’t ever perform any more brain surgery or any kind of surgery because he has damaged the nerves in his hand. So he becomes a medical examiner because it’s the only place a doctor can perform on a body without needing malpractice insurance … . So it frustrates him. He ends up being a very hip Quincy. So (CBS Entertainment President) Nina Tassler liked the script very much and introduced me to Alex and said, “I want Alex to play this character.” So I met with Alex. Alex had just gotten off the plane. He had two days’ scuff on him and had on a leather jacket. We were sitting next to each other on a couch and I remember looking at him and thinking he is not a doctor. He’s an action hero. Ironically, he ended up that year playing a doctor on another show (CBS’ short-lived “Three Rivers”). So when I wrote “Five-0” and we started casting … we met and talked about it and I thought, “He’s the guy.” I knew right away.
Q: Has O’Loughlin developed the character the way you wanted him to?
A: Yes, I think he became McGarrett. Physically, everything. He says — and he swears to this and I believe him — that the day he left that meeting he started training because he wanted to look like a Navy SEAL. And he went down to Coronado and trained with the SEALs and he really became that character.
Q: What were you thinking with the Subway ad in the Jan. 16 episode? Some fans said it went too far.
A: I think our idea was to have some fun with it rather than just do a plug in the show … And it just seemed if we were going to do something with that brand, we would do it with Kamekona and we thought it was a fun scene. For people commenting about it, if there is any negativity, I don’t think they realize (product integration) is in every show these days.
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Mike Gordon covers film and television for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Read his Outtakes column Sundays in the Today section, and find his “Outtakes Online” blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
