Diary of a Gun

Obviously this was written by someone who was pro-gun control. At the time there was a campaign against small .22 or .25 caliber hand guns known as "Saturday Night Specials". A few months after this episode aired, the ever popular rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd hit the US top 40 charts with their song of the same title. The episode is actually quite realistic in showing that a gun in the wrong hands or someone with an unstable temper can be deadly. The postal carrier's marriage was a loveless one with her simply wanting more finer things in life and probably a man closer to her age (contrary to what's stated, postal carriers did make a decent salary and benefits) I didn't buy the scene of the beach shooter getting all scared and apologetic in McGarrett's office as he certainly wasn't that way when he committed the act. I used to belong to a now defunct Five-O fan club and this one was rated very poorly among the membership. But all & all there were worse episodes of Five-O than this one by far. This was the first season without Leonard Freeman as executive producer as he had passed away before the new season's filming had started in 1974. Although there were some good episodes in 1974-75 the quality was slowly diminishing by this time.

I usually don't review TV shows, but this one was so bad, I just had to. First of all, the script is atrocious. It feels like it was written by a high school student. The writer definitely didn't know much about human nature and how real humans act in the world. The reason this episode is so stupid is because of the writing.

For example, the fat father who gets shot by the teenager is really stupid. He should be given a Darwin Award. He's a lost tourist (I assume because if he isn't, he's even more stupid than I thought), and he pulls his car, with his family, into some lonely, isolated spot and asks a bunch of punks for directions. That's just plain stupid! Go to a gas station or a public area with lots of people around.

Another example is the mother of the boy that shoots himself. When he ran into the bathroom, why didn't she follow him in there and grab the gun? I thought the kid locked the door, but after she hears the shot, she runs over and opens the door. I don't think any "real" mother would be wasting time on the phone while her child was in the bathroom with a gun.

The last example is the "heavy-set" greasy guy that goes on a shooting spree with the hot chick in the halter top from the bar. This sequence is so unbelievable it made me cringe. He shoots the janitor over $7.50! WTF?!? Just punch the guy and run away, it's quieter. Then he goes to rob stores and runs out shooting the gun for no reason at all. This makes no sense. Why bring all that attention to yourself? Remember, this guy had been in jail before, and if he gets arrested again, his jail-time will be worse. He has a lot of motivation to lay low and play it cool. Lastly, he tries to fight the entire police force of Hawaii with a tiny, little pea-shooter. Yeah, right... It's all so stupid, it's insulting. Plus, if you count all the shots in this episode, there are more shots than bullets in the clip.

Another problem is the way these 70's cop shows always have fat, dumpy, middle aged men with hot, young wives. There's no way in hell that the postman could ever get his wife to talk to him, let alone marry him! If he was fabulously wealthy, I could buy it, but obviously he wasn't because of the way she was bitching about money so much. Plus, what about the "heavy-set" guy hooking up with the hot chick in the bar? This guy looked awful and had no money. Any woman that looked that good wouldn't give him the time of day.

I absolutely love 5-0. I think it's head and shoulders above any cop show from that era, but this is the worst episode from the first 7 seasons.

At this writing, I have seen the first seven seasons of Hawaii Five-O. This episode had an interesting concept, but I think a better title would be "Diary of the Dumb".

A letter carrier finds a gun in a mailbox. Anyone with at least half a brain would realize that it had been used in a crime and dumped there, and would immediately call the police. But our stupid letter carrier not only picks up the gun, putting his fingerprints on what could be a murder weapon, he takes it home to show his wife what a funny thing he found.

Later, Eddie the janitor picks up the same gun after a kid accidentally shoots himself with it. How could Eddie not know the cops would investigate that shooting?

Finally, Frito the bandito (sorry couldn't resist) is surrounded by cops with rifles and shotguns, and yet he tries to shoot his way out with a .25 caliber handgun Danno describes as "junk merchandise: unreliable, inaccurate."

Thankfully this episode is not representative of the quality of Hawaii Five-O in general, or Season 7 in particular. I would say "Diary of the Dumb", er, "Diary of a Gun" is the stinker of Season 7. It's the only episode of the season with an idiot plot, i.e., "a plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot."

1/10

P.S. Let me state for the record that my poor rating of this episode is NOT politically motivated. It is merely a reaction to the bad writing.

I don't think this was as bad as most of the other reviewers made it out to be. The problem as I see it was that too many shows of the period did this same exact storyline. As far as I'm concerned, Streets of San Francisco did it first (and BEST) with their take, "The Twenty-Five Caliber Plague".

Hawaii Five-O was a very innovative show, and it saddens me to see them play 'follow the leader', but hey, when was the last time Hollywood did anything innovative? And for all of you thought this episode stunk on ice, jump ahead another four years when they tried a similar episode, "Use a Gun, Go to Hell", during the final season. That one is as bad as you can get!

This episode is revealing of what the late Jeff Cooper called "hoplophobia" -- an irrational fear of guns. Most sensible people realize that guns are inanimate objects, with no will of their own, and while they can facilitate bad people doing bad things, it's also true that good people can defend their own lives and the lives of their loved ones with them. Like anything else, guns can be abused, but the blame belongs with the abuser, not the tool.

Unfortunately, Jack Lord was a hoplophobe, as were many others who worked on this show, and hoplophobes, having an irrational fear, cannot regard the gun as the inanimate object it is; instead, it becomes something sinister and altogether evil. In this episode, the gun around which the plot revolves is exactly like The One Ring from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy -- they are evil in and of themselves, and just as The One Ring inexorably corrupts anyone who possesses it, it mysteriously transform their bearers into agents of evil. In this episode, anyone who touches The Gun becomes a ticking time bomb, destined to cause death and destruction sooner or later, utterly powerless to resist the evil of The Gun. People who were ordinary, law-abiding citizens, who'd never hurt anyone, are transformed by the corrupting influence of The Gun into dangerous killers, endangering the lives of others through their malicious intent or their recklessness. I'm not exaggerating. That's how this episode portrays it.

Hawaii Five-0 was a good show, with top notch production values, incredibly beautiful locations, and a charismatic star. At it's best, it could be a great show. But when it gets preachy like this (not to mention irrational), it descends into farce.