Hawaii Five-0 season 8: How will Ian Anthony Dale’s Adam factor in?

Yesterday, there was some great news announced related to Hawaii Five-0 season 8, as Ian Anthony Dale will be a series regular! We’ve always been a fan of the Adam character, just as we know that Peter M. Lenkov has been looking to use him as much as possible the past several years. Alas, scheduling there was rather tough given that Dale always has a lot going on.

Of course, there is some obvious irony to the fact that right when Dale is on the show full-time, unfortunately, Grace Park is gone from the series alongside Daniel Dae Kim. While you’ll see far more from Adam than ever before, his wife Kono won’t be around.

How is the show going to write this story? It’s a good question, and the writers are clearly taking a big risk here given that with Adam around, it will remind them constantly that Kono is not there. Still, we admire the risk since if framed correct, it can help honor Kono and reference some of what she’s up to even if Park is not a part of the show anymore. The writers now just have to figure out how to incorporate Adam into the rest of the story because he has a very different path to most other characters. He’s an ex-con, so his career options are a little more interested and he carries with him a stigma. We would love to see the show use him more in some capacity to help stop criminals, especially since he may understand how they think and communicate in a way that is different than most. He’s a smart, resourceful guy, and we know that these are the sorts of people that McGarrett often does love having on his team.

Beyond all of that, giving Adam a bigger role could be useful in showing some of the struggles that real men and women go through after serving time. Everyone says that they want to see people rehabilitated and contributing to society, but it’s very difficult when options are limited and judgment is high. This is a story that another show at the moment in Suits is also currently working on. The one thing that we do know is that Hawaii Five-0 has evolved over time into a show that is very good at diving into its characters’ heads and showing their emotional journeys to go along with everything that they are dealing with in terms of the cases. That’s helping it stand out amidst a sea of other procedurals, and it should help it out rather tremendously in terms of continuing to get attention from its fans and from all of us in the media.

In the end, we’ll see what the future holds beyond season 8; we’re just happy to have Dale and the Adam character along for the ride.

As always, you can share your thoughts on this story in the comments. Meanwhile, be sure to also head over here to read more about some of the other new additions to Hawaii Five-0 for season 8. (Photo: CBS.)