If any series lurched from insightful, lean storytelling to the most outlandish ego-stroking nonsense (usually but not always stroking Lord's ego), it was H5-0...Lord was so annoyed by one of the best episodes of the series, about draft resistance and why it wasn't simple cowardice and stupidity, that he asked to have his role in that episode minimized as much as possible. After producer/creator Leonard Freeman(!)'s death, you can bet such libertarian themes disappeared as Lord got to throw his weight around to an ever-greater extent. Though the last episode of the series was a pretty damned good indictment of why SDI/"Star Wars" missile defense was a Really Not A Good Idea, as Wo Fat readies one (one of the brainwashed scientists he has working on it tells McGarrett at one point, "The laser can destroy any number of missiles...or a city, but Wo would Never do that!")..but that was in 1979, and Reagan hadn't yet been elected, much less latched onto that fantasy/kickback bonanza (among so many kickback bonanzas of his spendthrift admin). Avallone was the perfect tie-in veteran for that series, and I'm not so surprised he did a good job with his ?2 novels...(David Vineyard, on FaceBook, faintly remembers there were two novels from MA, and not too shabby.)
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If any series lurched from insightful, lean storytelling to the most outlandish ego-stroking nonsense (usually but not always stroking Lord's ego), it was H5-0...Lord was so annoyed by one of the best episodes of the series, about draft resistance and why it wasn't simple cowardice and stupidity, that he asked to have his role in that episode minimized as much as possible. After producer/creator Leonard Freeman(!)'s death, you can bet such libertarian themes disappeared as Lord got to throw his weight around to an ever-greater extent. Though the last episode of the series was a pretty damned good indictment of why SDI/"Star Wars" missile defense was a Really Not A Good Idea, as Wo Fat readies one (one of the brainwashed scientists he has working on it tells McGarrett at one point, "The laser can destroy any number of missiles...or a city, but Wo would Never do that!")..but that was in 1979, and Reagan hadn't yet been elected, much less latched onto that fantasy/kickback bonanza (among so many kickback bonanzas of his spendthrift admin). Avallone was the perfect tie-in veteran for that series, and I'm not so surprised he did a good job with his ?2 novels...(David Vineyard, on FaceBook, faintly remembers there were two novels from MA, and not too shabby.)
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