NCIS: Hawai'i

Bad casting, bad plot and feels more like a cheap private detective show. The cast members look and act like those who didn't make the casting for other shows based in Hawaii. Prognosis - not good!

I tuned in because I'm a huge Hawaii buff! I loved Hawaii Five-O! I like Magnum quite a bit. This show didn't gel at all. They didn't even show a lot of Hawaiian landmarks or scenery to make it worth it. It's supposed to be in Pearl Harbor, I believe which I would have been great to really feature. None of the characters has any chemistry, romantic or otherwise. The acting was passable at best. I would have given this a lower score but like I said, I love the state of Hawaii!

I'm three episodes in and I'm trying to get into this show but just can't. Nothing about it is NCIS except the name. It has Hawaii Five-0 written all over it, except they dropped the original cast and brought in a weaker group with no personalities. I don't buy Vanessa Lachey as a competent or intimidating commander or agent for a moment. She's like an ex-supermodel who got tired of making Hallmark Christmas rom-coms (which is where she should have stayed) and wanted to try a more dramatic action role. It isn't working. When she isn't reading lines with her monotone delivery, she's standing around looking as if she's fighting to stay awake (I know how she feels). So far, the cases are pretty mediocre too. I'll give it a couple more episodes (don't ask me why) and then I'm out if it doesn't pick up. I'll just go watch NCIS and H5-0 reruns.

The pilot was pretty dissaspointing, all of the characters felt like poorly written, generic stereotypes. The shooting style and color grading was also almost unwatchable and ugly. A few scenes were obviously shot in front of a green screen and were super oversaturated. NCIS: New Orleans was far from perfect, but replacing it with this is insane.

The Pilot had a rushed feel to it, a plot with little 'story.' Contrast that with the first episode of NCIS, where the focus remained on Gibbs and one other character, a SS Agent about to join Gibbs' team. A person new to a storyline needs direction so they can find someone to identify with, and this first episode lacked that focal point. Too many character introductions, with ancillary characters attached to secondary ones, attached to . . . We need more than a recycled opening of a Jack Ryan story, and the typical token PC correct players Hollywood now thinks they must add to every show. Inclusion is a good thing, but not when that's getting jammed down our throats with every new entry in prime time TV. Can we have a normal mix of players that reflects reality, please? We don't need a same-sex relationship in every show we watch. We do need some genuine chemistry between characters, and you don't get that from wooden acting or dialogue that lacks any hint of spark.