The 23-episode 8th season of Hawaii Five-0 aired during the 2017/2018 season. This season was a fairly significant shakeup for the show. Notably, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park left the show after a pay dispute, essentially wanting to be paid the same as Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin, and the producers and/or network refused, using the argument that they were secondary characters. So, the characters of Chin and Kono were written out of the show based on their season seven storylines, with Kono following the sex-trafficking ring and Chin heading up his own task force in San Francisco.
To balance out their departures the show brought in Meaghan Rath, who plays Tani, a police academy washout with McGarrett-like tendencies, and Beulah Koale, who plays Junior, a former Navy Seal looking to get on to the task force. The series also upped Ian Anthony Dale to a series regular. The writers did not split up Adam and Kinon, instead, oddly keeping them married, with her gone for the entire season. The addition of the new characters breathed a bit of new life into the series and allowed the show to do the kind of character development it had not done for quite a while, given that most of the other cast members had been on the show for a long time. That said, it was pretty crappy that Park and Kim were not paid the same given that for the first few seasons, before the additions of Chi McBride, Masi Oka, and Jorge Garcia as series regulars, those four characters basically built the series.
The show kept the case-of-the-week format it used throughout its run and tied in longer arcs throughout the season. One of the longer arcs involved Adam, as did the season-ending cliffhanger. This season's notable guest stars included Joey Lawrence, James Frain, Randy Couture, and Vincent Pastore (who plays Danny's uncle in a few episodes). Michelle Borth and Terry O'Quinn also reprise their roles as Catherine and Joe White in different episodes. The show did a good job balancing out stories for all the characters, which was helped by Scott Caan's notably reduced schedule during the season.
The DVD set is a six-disc set. The extras include deleted scenes for select episodes spread throughout all the discs. The final disc has a behind-the-scenes feature (about 23 minutes), a short feature on the new characters/actors, an animated "cargument" between Steve and Danny, and a gag reel. So, the set includes a decent amount of bonus content, but not as much as was included in the sets for the first few seasons. And, of course, as has been the case from about the fourth season onward, there is no Blu-Ray release available, just DVDs.
Overall, while the show is getting a bit "long in the tooth" I would not say it is entirely stale. While the show does suffer a bit from the loss of Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim, the overall feel did not change much. If you have been a fan of the prior seasons, you will probably like this one. On the other hand, if you have not really liked the show up to this point, nothing about this season will likely turn you into a fan.
To balance out their departures the show brought in Meaghan Rath, who plays Tani, a police academy washout with McGarrett-like tendencies, and Beulah Koale, who plays Junior, a former Navy Seal looking to get on to the task force. The series also upped Ian Anthony Dale to a series regular. The writers did not split up Adam and Kinon, instead, oddly keeping them married, with her gone for the entire season. The addition of the new characters breathed a bit of new life into the series and allowed the show to do the kind of character development it had not done for quite a while, given that most of the other cast members had been on the show for a long time. That said, it was pretty crappy that Park and Kim were not paid the same given that for the first few seasons, before the additions of Chi McBride, Masi Oka, and Jorge Garcia as series regulars, those four characters basically built the series.
The show kept the case-of-the-week format it used throughout its run and tied in longer arcs throughout the season. One of the longer arcs involved Adam, as did the season-ending cliffhanger. This season's notable guest stars included Joey Lawrence, James Frain, Randy Couture, and Vincent Pastore (who plays Danny's uncle in a few episodes). Michelle Borth and Terry O'Quinn also reprise their roles as Catherine and Joe White in different episodes. The show did a good job balancing out stories for all the characters, which was helped by Scott Caan's notably reduced schedule during the season.
The DVD set is a six-disc set. The extras include deleted scenes for select episodes spread throughout all the discs. The final disc has a behind-the-scenes feature (about 23 minutes), a short feature on the new characters/actors, an animated "cargument" between Steve and Danny, and a gag reel. So, the set includes a decent amount of bonus content, but not as much as was included in the sets for the first few seasons. And, of course, as has been the case from about the fourth season onward, there is no Blu-Ray release available, just DVDs.
Overall, while the show is getting a bit "long in the tooth" I would not say it is entirely stale. While the show does suffer a bit from the loss of Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim, the overall feel did not change much. If you have been a fan of the prior seasons, you will probably like this one. On the other hand, if you have not really liked the show up to this point, nothing about this season will likely turn you into a fan.
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