The Hawaii Five-0 Continuity Errors Fans Can't Ignore

2020 has been a pretty brutal year for a lot of reasons, and for fans of the sunny CBS crime procedural Hawaii Five-0, it has been especially hard. The popular reboot came to an end in April 2020 — largely propelled by Alex O'loughlin's impending departure from the show — with a tearful goodbye from the DPS task force. However, sometimes a crisis is also an opportunity.

Without new episodes coming out on Fridays, fans are reliving all the oceanfront drama by re-watching old episodes. While doing so, though, some have been taking special note of the continuity errors that are nearly as common on the show as seeing Scott Caan in a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. These astute viewers have been posting in a recent Reddit thread full of errors that drive them nuts.

Of course, Hawaii Five-0 is hardly the only series with some oops moments — even our favorite shows aren't perfect 100% of the time. But for the time being, we're turning our critical eye on the successful CBS reboot. Here are some of the biggest continuity errors from Hawaii Five-0 that fans can't ignore, and now you won't be able to unsee.

It's no secret that movies and TV shows often reuse sets (and sometimes even props) for convenience and budget-stretching reasons. This is what Reddit user Sehkho411 noticed during their recent rewatch of Hawaii Five-0. Except, instead of the show using sets from other shows, it was reusing sets that had already been used earlier in the series.

In a post on the topic, they pointed out, "I've noticed that anytime a basement scene is on screen they use the same basement with different angles." One example of Hawaii Five-0's basement similarities is in the season 5 episode "Ho'oilina" and the season 7 episode "Ka hale ho'okauweli." At the beginning of "Ho'oilina," we see many shots of Jerry (Jorge Garcia) and his friends packing up his basement as he's getting ready to move. Meanwhile, in "Ka hale ho'okauweli," we're following a detective investigating a supposedly haunted house. When he goes down into the basement you'll notice that even though the decor is totally different, the layout is the same, with the large staircase down the middle of the room giving it away.

That blunder is actually more of a clever sleight of hand, as most viewers probably wouldn't notice the similar basements unless someone pointed it out to them. But the breaks in continuity aren't all about reused locations. Sometimes a genuine mistake finds its way into the show.

Hawaii Five-0 aired a total of 240 episodes during its run, and like the basement sets, at least one comedy bit has gotten reused on the show. This might seem like a more egregious offense than most, but who among us hasn't gone to tell a friend a joke, only for them to reply that you've already told it to them before?

One specific example comes courtesy of a fan submission on MovieMistakes.com. In the season 6 episode "Na Pilikua Nui," an anonymous user pointed out that, "Steve explains to Danny that a 'klick' means a kilometre, 0.62 of mile, to which Danny replies: 'Oh, thank you, G.I. Jerk, for the pedantic, uh I know what a klick is.'"

As it turns out, a similar exchange happens in the season 7 episode "Ua malo'o ka wai." In that episode, Steve (Alex O'Loughlin) once again uses the term "klick," to which Danny responds, "You know, no one can understand you when you say stupid things like 'klicks.'" Just as though he hadn't been through all this a year prior, the group once again explains to him exactly what a klick is.

Sadly for Danny, that's not the only time he was involved in a big continuity goof-up.

One of the defining characteristics of Detective Sergeant Danny Williams (Scott Caan) is his love of cars. More specifically, Danny is known for driving a sleek Chevy Camaro throughout the series, which he occasionally upgrades to a more current model. Most fans of the show wouldn't think twice when seeing Danny and his Camaro, but some astute viewers have noticed that the car on screen doesn't always match the model he's allegedly driving at the time.

On Reddit, user dgerov03 pointed out that even after Danny updated his 2014 Camaro to a 2019 model in season 9, the former model kept making appearances on the show: "in the last season they showed old shots of the 2014 Camaro and then randomly the new one appears."

These slip-ups were confirmed on a Camaro enthusiast's forum called Camaro6. There, user Lazerbrainz2k3 noted that they had also clocked some discrepancies: "They've gone back and forth between refreshed 5th gen & refreshed 6th gen a couple times this past season, even within the same scene. It's something only Camaro enthusiasts would notice, of course."

Whether you're a hardcore Camaro fan or just an eagle-eyed viewer, it's hard to unsee continuity errors like car models changing between shots. But at the end of the day, that's just how the TV sausage is made. As much as these detail-revealing rewatches uncover errors in the show, they are also proof that Hawaii Five-0 is worth binging, even with a few continuity missteps and unanswered questions thrown in the mix.