User Reviews

In 1970 and 1971, "Hawaii Five-O" had their best guest appearances when Hume Cronyn played the masterful gentleman criminal Lewis Avery Filer. Not only was he brilliant and took great glee in messing with the minds of the police, but oddly, despite being a criminal, he was a darn nice one--and had a delightful sense of humor. Well, three years later, the writers tried to resurrect a similar character but with a different actor (David Wayne) and a few changes here and there. But, like Filer, Mr. Horus (one of many aliases) had the same humorous theme music, the same sense of panache and daring and really enjoyed messing with the police. He also never physically harmed anyone--as he had an odd sort of code about him. So, with all these similarities and two actors of roughly the same age who change appearances very often, it's easy to mix these episodes up--thinking they are all the same character.

Now I am NOT complaining, really, as "30,000 Rooms and I Have the Key" is still a wonderful episode--and was a great way to end season six. Sure, there were a few plot holes, but the fun and cleverness of the plot made these seem insignificant. For example, how did Horus already have the rope attached in the target room when the police were waiting for him? Why didn't McGarrett or Danno fire when Horus refused to stop? And, didn't McGarrett apprehending the guy at the end seem a bit too easy--like the writers just wrapped it all up because they were running out of time? But, I guess I am a perfectionist at times--most really wouldn't dwell on all this and would just focus on the fun.

Fun, fun, fun! A nice and breezy way to end a pretty hard-hitting season.

Even though it's not as good as the classic "Over Fifty? Steal" (but then what is??) it's probably on par with the second Filer episode "Odd Man In". Or at the very least close to it. The interesting thing is that I saw this episode first - before either of the Filer episodes. I must have seen "30,000 Rooms" when I was in middle school (1994 maybe?) and instantly loved it. Of course it stood out for me because I knew Five-O as being a very serious show, so this one was definitely a departure. I loved the playful cat-and-mouse game between McGarrett and the witty crook. Then I saw "Over Fifty" when I was in high school (summer of 1997 for sure) and absolutely LOVED it! Of course in my mind I must have flashed back to "30,000 Rooms" because of the playful nature and the cat-and-mouse game and I then knew where they got the inspiration for the latter one. I didn't see "Odd Man In" until I was in college. All these I first saw in reruns, before the DVDs started coming out in 2007. I think close to 20 years passed until I saw "30,000 Rooms" again since my initial viewing in middle school. I didn't see it again until I got the season 6 DVD. I think that's the one I most looked forward to seeing on the DVD, in addition to "Nightmare in Blue" which I had never seen in reruns.

As for the music in this episode it's all stock music from previous episodes. You've got music from 3 different composers. The obvious one is the classic Morton Stevens piece from the Filer episodes ("Filer's theme"). But you also hear Don Ray's heist theme from "Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart" as well as Bruce Broughton's forgery theme from "The Finishing Touch" (when Norman Cargill was forging the bonds while being under surveillance by Five-O).