Scott Caan Shares (Slightly Fuzzy) Hawaii Five-0 Memories, Embraces Role as ‘Screwed-Up Dude’ on Fox’s Alert
A “missing” person has been found, as Scott Caan returns to TV this weekend with his first role since Hawaii Five-0 wrapped its run in April 2020.
In Fox‘s Alert: Missing Persons Unit — premiering this Sunday at 8/7c (following NFL on Fox), before moving to its Mondays-at-9 time slot — Caan plays Jason Grant, a former cop turned private military contractor who, while on the job in Afghanistan, gets word from his wife Nikki (Devious Maids‘ Dania Ramirez) that their son Keith has gone missing.
Jason races home, albeit to what proves to be a marriage doomed by Keith’s devastating, unsolved disappearance. With the action jumping forward six years, Nikki is heading up the Philadelphia Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit (MPU), whereas Jason’s world is still a bit asunder.
“Nikki has a much better head on her shoulders than I do [as Jason],” Caan tells TVLine. “I’m kind of a mess at the beginning of the show. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life….”
Losing Keith “drove Nikki to continue to help people, but with my character, it drove me to check out and fall apart,” Caan adds. “The difference is it got her focused, and it messed me up.”
Jason regains some of his focus when the separated couple receives a proof-of-life photo that suggests Keith is alive and still out there somewhere — though Jason and Nikki, along with their teen daughter Sidney (Fivel Stewart), have trouble arriving at a consensus.
Upon chasing this first lead on Keith, Jason winds up joining Nikki’s team at the MPU, alongside Nikki’s current love interest Mike (Only Murders in the Building‘s Ryan Broussard) and forensics whizzes Kemi (Adeola Role) and C (Petey Gibson). But whereas Five-0‘s Detective Danny Williams was pretty spot-on with his instincts and execution, Jason is… not.
“In a lot of procedural shows, everybody does the right thing all the time — they have no flaws and they’re perfect,” Caan observes. “But when I read this, I was like, ‘This is a flawed, screwed-up dude who does not always do the right thing.’ To me as an actor, that’s my favorite part of the character, but that’s also probably his weak point. He’s a hothead and doesn’t always take other people’s feelings into consideration.”
Speaking with Caan for the first time since Five-0 ended its 10-season run, we had to invite this generation’s erstwhile “Danno” to reflect on his time on the series, and the ohana that formed. (Keep in mind, Caan aggravated an old knee injury while filming Season 1 and required ACL surgery, and a few seasons in, he began “missing” a handful of episodes each year.)
“Look, obviously some of it was difficult, some it was easy, but at the end of the day, man, I look back at with with nothing but appreciation,” Caan shared. “I made some close friends — Alex O’Loughlin and Meaghan Rath, they’re like my brother and my sister — and the crew in Hawaii is like family. In fact, one of my buddies I worked with for 10 years, a guy from the art department, just stayed at my house for a week.
“Hawaii will always be a special place to me for the rest of my life,” he attested.
We also invited Caan to weigh in on how some H50 fans seemed to take issue with his aforementioned occasional absences, even framing him as some sort of “reluctant” cast member.
“To clarify that, I could’ve [been in all episodes] and made a lot more money,” he responded, “but I chose not to, so I could spend more time with my family. That’s all that was about.
“If you notice, the first three years when I didn’t have a wife and kid, I wasn’t out of any episodes; that only happened as I started to make family.”
And as for his thoughts on how Five-0 eventually ended, with a planned series finale? Um….
“Honestly, I could not even tell you what it was. That’s how long ago it was, how many episodes of it we did,” he admitted. “The only thing that would shock me is if you told me I died.”
When we quickly recapped that, no, Danny merely took a bullet from a baddie, Caan rightly quipped, “Do you know how many times I got shot on that series??”
Want scoop on Alert: MPU, or for any other show? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
5.0 was a toxic mess behind the camera it’s no wonder he didn’t want to say much
Facts behind that statement?
Just look up Peter Lenkov (exec producer).
Looking forward to seeing Scott on TV again. Jason sounds like a messed up character so that will be fun to watch.
So not surprised he doesn’t remember the Hawaii Five-0 finale. Probably best. Glad he mentioned Alex and Meaghan.
Agree: Glad he mentioned Alex and Meaghan. Meaghan is in a new show already. I miss Alex on screen.
The show Scott Caan is starring in now sounds interesting. Might watch it.
I would watch this show if Dania Ramirez wasn’t in it. Her acting has been awful in everything I’ve ever seen her in.
5-O was my Saturday morning go-to show. Still miss it.
It’s on for 12 hours every Friday on Ion. 🌊
He was my favorite character on 5-0 initially, but he was merely “phoning it in” on the back half of the run.
I didn’t see it as him ” phoning it in” more like lazy writing and not giving him much to work with when he was there.
That seems like kind of a dumb way to frame it. I don’t remember specifics, but wasn’t he already making more money than everyone else on the show (except maybe Alex O’Loughlin)? So for that to be his defense (especially when we lost two better cast members due to them being underpaid) just reeks of arrogance.
They get paid by the episode so by choosing to be in less episode he made less ( by choice) its simple math. He choose family over money. Giving him crap for that is just so not cool.
Yeah, and it’s nice that he was making enough money that he could make that kind of a choice. Nothing you said changes my opinion that it was arrogant of him to frame it that way. Maybe if he had left out the part about how he could have been making more money and just mentioned wanting to spend more time with his family it would have came off better, but as is it still sounds arrogant to me (especially considering his co-stars pay situation).
Chin & Kono were grossly underpaid. The H50 show suffered in losing them. While I like Cann as an actor. I can’t see him as a leading man. He makes a fantastic supporting role.
Dania Ramirez is a terrible actress! 😣
I look at him and see his Dad/maybe because I just came off a New Years binge of Las Vegas. I rarely watch stuff on Fox (no real reason) but looking forward to this.
That was a series I hated to see go off the air. It never seemed to get dull or uninspiring. Ironically…I also follow NCIS but I cant get into the NCIS Hawaii show. So it isnt the location. It was the cast. For a fan, they were Ohana to me. And they meshed wepl with the Magnum PI cast and the CSI Los Angels cast.
So happy to see Scott again. Like his style. Watch because of him, but don’t care for rest of cast.
I honestly believe the on screen chemistry I Hawaii 5 O was amazing. I can’t honestly those 2 nailed it.And the 10 yrs shows it..
Also can’t can’t leave out SUPERNATURAL. 15 yrs the Winchester brother Dean and Sam were perfect together. I cant say enough great things that came out of those 2 series except THEY WERE AWESOME