New on TV: Hawaii 5-0 and Detroit 1-8-7

So these are the two new hour-long shows I've started watching, though neither is exactly new.

Hawaii 5-0 is an update of the original rather than a continuation. The basic premise is the same: Steve McGarrett leads a special unit of the Hawaiian state police, though this time the group's charge is a bit more nebulous, allowing them to venture into cases that touch upon national security and terrorism. I see how this allows the show more freedom with plots, but it also opens the door for this to become a 24-lite, and who wants that?

One notable difference between the original and the remake is that the newer show delves much more deeply into characters and their back-stories. McGarrett is a Naval intelligence office who agreed to head up 5-0 to catch the man who killed his father (and inherited an apparent investigation into police corruption). Danny Williams is a divorced dad who moved to Hawaii to be near his daughter. Chin Ho left the Honolulu PD under suspicion of stealing money from crime scenes, and his cousin, Kono, is a brand new officer (and, in this case, a woman).

I do like that there's more personal involvement with the characters, and that we get to see them grow as a unit. I'm less happy with the way the show handled bringing over some of the conventions of the old series (less so with the explanation of the nickname Dan-o, more so over how the team got the 5-0 name, which is kind of ridiculous). I'm most happy that the original theme survived, even if in cut-down form.

And if I'm going to nitpick, I'd like to complain that (a) there's not enough location shooting with the principal characters; most of what we see of Hawaii is B-roll, and (b) the effects used to simulate driving when McGarrett and Danny talk in the car are awful.

There's nothing special to point out about the acting. Scott Caan stands out as much as anyone does for his portrayal of Danny. I expect Daniel Dae Kim is missing the Lost writers about now, and Grace Park is surprisingly life-like. Alex O'Loughlin is inoffensively generic as McGarrett, running at about 75 percent of Jack Lord.

The new Hawaii 5-0 isn't perfect, but it's enough of a change from the cookie cutter procedurals to make it watchable, and with the location in the title we're less likely to get a spinoff like Hawaii 5-0: Phoenix.

Detroit 1-8-7 is a new show, but I liked it better when it was set in Baltimore and called Homicide: Life on the Street. It's hard not to compare when you have two shows set among the murder police of a decaying American city, and at best you can say that Detroit 1-8-7 doesn't force Jon Seda on an unwitting public.

Michael Imperioli plays Louis Fitch, a New York transplant who is kind of quirky and is having issues breaking in a new partner (hello Frank Pembleton). His partner, Damon Washington, is newly transferred into homicide, and at the end of their first case he's shot when the suspect gets a gun out of a police officer's holster (hello, Junior Bunk). The other pairs include a veteran closing in on retirement (part Bolander, part Giardello as he's an African-American who speaks Italian) and, in what might be a first, a partner of Indian descent, and a young female detective whose a Detroit native (part Lewis, part a much more competent Ballard) who is partnered with a new transfer from narcotics. There's some involvement with their commanding lieutenant and an assistant DA (Giardello and Danvers, respectively).

There's nothing about Detroit 1-8-7(except maybe the music) that's up to Homicide's level, but that's a pretty high bar to clear. It's at least as good as its contemporaries, and scores points for not being set in New York or Los Angeles. It's not pulling in Hawaii 5-0's ratings, but I think Detroit 1-8-7 is the better show. Stupid name notwithstanding.