Why Some Hawaii Five-0 Fans Were Upset With The Ending

When CBS's successful reboot of "Hawaii Five-0" came to a conclusion in April 2020, it truly represented the end of era. For nearly ten years (almost as long as the original "Hawaii Five-O" series which aired from 1968 to 1980, according to IMDb), the Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan-led version of the series captivated audiences with the stories of various criminal investigations on the Hawaiian Islands.

For most of its run on CBS, the series remained popular among viewers, often performing well for the network, regardless of the night it aired. For the first few seasons, "Hawaii Five-0" aired on Monday nights, but was shifted to Fridays in its fourth season (via IMDb). Even though Friday is often referred to as the "Friday night death slot" (via TV Tropes), "Hawaii Five-0" managed to maintain a stable viewership for most of its remaining time on television (via TVByTheNumbers). 

While many fans appeared to be pleased enough with the series to continue watching to the end, the final episode proved somewhat controversial among fans. As is usual for any modicum of controversy, disgruntled fans took to Reddit to voice their opinions. So, why did some fans have problems with the finale?

While the series concluded on April 3 of 2020, some fans got a head start talking about the finale in a post made to the r/Hawaii50 subreddit in February of that year, around the time CBS announced that the series was canceled (via Deadline). In the initial post, u/julianH4 said that the cancelation hit "like a ton of bricks" and noted it "sucks so bad that Chin and Kono won't appear." Indeed, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park departed the series in 2017 and did not return for the last episode of the series (via TVLine). While the original poster was clearly saddened by the news, other complaints in the thread noted that while the series had plenty of "eye candy" in "the stars and Hawaii itself," it lacked a story bible and "hardly anybody's character arcs [made] any d*** sense."

In April 2020, a post to the r/Hawaii subreddit by u/TropicalKing indicated that at least a few fans had a positive view of the ending. Writing the day after the finale aired, u/TropicalKing called the last episode a "fitting ending" and took time to note the strength of the on-screen goodbyes, in particular Steve's (Alex O'Loughlin) farewell to Danny (Scott Caan). The user also called Steve's goodbye to Junior (Beaulah Koale) "touching," noting "they practically had a father and son relationship."

However, several responses to u/TropicalKing's positive post made it clear that other fans had been eagerly awaiting the final credits for some time. U/Mmadchef808 simply said, "For f***'s sake finally!" U/Haiduti had an even shorter initial response, "Spoiler: Terrible," though the user later admitted that they didn't even bother to watch the finale. U/ben_vito commented that while the finale wasn't the worst they'd ever seen, it was "definitely in the top 5 worst."