The show begins with the editor of a peace magazine being shot to death in front of a crowd of his followers. Someone is responsible but Five-O seems to have few leads and the peace-loving youth don't trust the police and offer little in the way of support.
This episode was a huge letdown following the wonderful two-part episode "Once Upon a Time". Most of this is because the high quality and excellent writing of "Once Upon a Time" made it all the more apparent that "Not That Much Different" was one of the poorer episodes of the first season.
There are many reasons this was a bad episode. The most serious was how the writers tried (in vain) to convince us that Steve McGarrett was kind of cool and could relate to the disaffected youth of the day--when it was so obvious he couldn't. As a result, McGarrett behaved in ways that were so obviously phony and transparent. For example, after talking to the protesters about the murder, in the next scene he is sitting in his office strumming a guitar!! From where did that guitar magically materialize?! Was it simply there to remind us Steve-o was cool?! Then, at the end, Steve gives a lofty and rather fake soliloquy in which he talks about those wild and crazy kids! He tells Danno, "All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today." I think we got some pretty good seeds in those other kids, Danno, don't you?". Yeah, sure...dream on hippie boy.
In addition to McGarrett seeming like a phony, the other main problems about the episode were the police involvement and the actual solving of the crime--which seemed secondary at best. Instead, the youth all try to solve the murder and work together for a common good. Booorriiinnngg!! Where is the police work and fine officers of HPD? Oh, and while I think about it, there is one other silly and unforgivable problem in the show. At the end, the bad guy is shooting again and again at McGarrett but McGarrett does not return fire until after the guy had unloaded eight unanswered shots at him. The problem is that the bad guy is firing a .38 caliber pistol--and it only holds six shots and the guy never reloaded!!!!!!! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!
This episode was a huge letdown following the wonderful two-part episode "Once Upon a Time". Most of this is because the high quality and excellent writing of "Once Upon a Time" made it all the more apparent that "Not That Much Different" was one of the poorer episodes of the first season.
There are many reasons this was a bad episode. The most serious was how the writers tried (in vain) to convince us that Steve McGarrett was kind of cool and could relate to the disaffected youth of the day--when it was so obvious he couldn't. As a result, McGarrett behaved in ways that were so obviously phony and transparent. For example, after talking to the protesters about the murder, in the next scene he is sitting in his office strumming a guitar!! From where did that guitar magically materialize?! Was it simply there to remind us Steve-o was cool?! Then, at the end, Steve gives a lofty and rather fake soliloquy in which he talks about those wild and crazy kids! He tells Danno, "All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today." I think we got some pretty good seeds in those other kids, Danno, don't you?". Yeah, sure...dream on hippie boy.
In addition to McGarrett seeming like a phony, the other main problems about the episode were the police involvement and the actual solving of the crime--which seemed secondary at best. Instead, the youth all try to solve the murder and work together for a common good. Booorriiinnngg!! Where is the police work and fine officers of HPD? Oh, and while I think about it, there is one other silly and unforgivable problem in the show. At the end, the bad guy is shooting again and again at McGarrett but McGarrett does not return fire until after the guy had unloaded eight unanswered shots at him. The problem is that the bad guy is firing a .38 caliber pistol--and it only holds six shots and the guy never reloaded!!!!!!! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!
