Could ‘Hawaii Five-0’ ever go on without Alex O’Loughlin?

Given that this week marks the first one without a new episode of “Hawaii Five-0” for a rather long time, now does seem as though it is the best time to pose the question in the title — especially with the news of Alex O’Loughlin’s future on the show being put out into the universe in a rather big way over the past couple of months.

If you missed it, the actor said recently that following the show’s eighth season, provided of course that the series is renewed for a season 8, he would be departing the show for several reasons, with the primary one being the demands in particular of shooting such a physical show with a large episode count and long hours. It’s one thing to commit to the level of physicality when you’re in your early thirties, which O’Loughlin was at the start of the show. He’s now 40 years old, and understandably he may be looking to shift gears ever so slightly.

Who knows? Maybe at some point within the next year and a half Alex could change his mind or convinced into sticking around, but for now, this quote reminds us somewhat of when Steve Carell said long in advance that he would leave “The Office” at the end of his contract, knowing that this would give the writers time to figure out the bet way for the show to move forward.

We want to get back to the question within the title of this article, mostly because it’s a tricky one. If O’Loughlin does in fact want to leave next season, the show cannot force him to stay. Meanwhile, if they want to keep going and the ratings are still good, they do have the right to do that. The show employs countless people in Hawaii, and to keep that going helps to do a lot for the economy. The challenge comes finding a way to do this while confronting an obvious void within your cast. Alex is incredible, and you can’t just “replace” him in the way that you would any ordinary performer on TV. His banter with Scott Caan is one of the reasons why this show works so well, and it’s probably the closest thing that we have to “Psych,” one of our favorite shows on TV, right now in terms of two guys who are friends and care about each other, but spend a great deal of time squabbling every step of the way. It’s funny, and you need that lightness.

The show’s obviously got a lot of time to figure this out if they need to, and we don’t think it’s a priority anytime soon. One way that they could resolve it would be bringing in someone new to fill the void; or, they could just choose to assign one of the other characters currently on the show to go out into the field with Danny instead. While there’s no replacing Steve, we’re liking the Danny – Grover dynamic more and more now that their kids are dating. That could be fun to explore further. If they bring in someone new, we’d prefer them to introduce the character next season so that we’ve got some time to get to know them before we do end up seeing McGarrett depart, that way we already have an understanding of the relationship. Think what “NCIS” tried to do prior to the departure of Michael Weatherly, but on a far grander scale.

No matter what happens with this cast (we do also want to remind you that Masi Oka is leaving later this season), this is a show that can be successful as long as they remember some of what makes it special: The action scenes and the mystery are a big part of it, but it is the characters that make the wheels turn. They’re funny at times, but they also have plenty of heart and over time, we come to care about them. So long as the show doesn’t ever mess this up, we figure that we’ll be reasonably happy in the end.

Provided that “Hawaii Five-0” made all the right decisions in regards to continuing the story, would you watch it without McGarrett? Be sure to share in the attached poll, and head over here for more news regarding what’s next. (Photo: CBS.)