Sexier than Jack Lord, but can they book ‘em?

The breathtaking Hawaiian landscape served as a beautiful but mainly passive backdrop for “Hawaii Five-O,” the Jack Lord police drama that racked up a 12-season run on CBS (1968-80).

NBC appears to have other plans, however, with “Hawaii,” the network’s new police drama in which the culture and society of the island state are more prominent. Filmed entirely on location, “Hawaii” premieres Monday.

While Lord’s “Hawaii Five-O” character, Det. Steve McGarrett, actually reported to the governor of Hawaii, the cases on “Hawaii” are worked by the ethnically diverse cops and detectives of Honolulu’s Metro Police Department.

Michael Biehn (“The Terminator”) stars as Sean Harrison, a veteran detective who has just been partnered with John Declan (Sharif Atkins, “ER”), a recent arrival from Chicago who, among other drawbacks, can’t swim.

Also feeling their way as a new team are Det. Christopher Gains (Eric Balfour, “Six Feet Under”), a laid-back local trying to keep hotheaded partner Danny Edwards (Ivan Sergei) from offending everyone they encounter with his brash attitude. The cast also includes Aya Sumika as Officer Linh Dias, Peter Navy Tuiasosopo as Linh’s cheerful Samoan partner, Officer Kaleo, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Capt. Terry Harada.

Series regular Balfour says it is different from other crime-show dramas.

“I think what makes this show special is that it’s not just ‘procedure, procedure, procedure,’ where a lot of cop dramas are,” he says. “This show has a young cast, a sexy cast, and it’s got a lot of action and adventure and comedy. It allows for the show to go in a lot of different directions. We’re going to deal with these detectives and police officers as people, as well.”

Series creator Jeff Eastin says it was Chris Conti, the head of drama development at NBC, who called to invite Eastin to do a cop show based in Hawaii.

“It was just a tremendous opportunity,” Eastin says. “Part of it was going back and looking at the old ‘Hawaii Five-O’ shows. Obviously, there’s some parallels there, but we’ve sort of taken the show in a different direction.”

The show “is much more of an ensemble show ... and other than just the setting, we don’t share a lot of similarities -- but we like the occasional homage,” he says.

Eastin is hoping to tap into the aspects of the Hawaiian culture that might give a new spin to police stories. Melding island quirks and attitudes with crime drama conventions is turning out to be easier than he had thought.

“It’s a rich culture,” Eastin explains. “The tag line NBC is using is ‘the other side of Hawaii,’ which I like quite a bit.... This is a paradise, yet it sits on top of a volcano, something that could erupt at any time. And Hawaii is sort of the place where East meets West.”

That “crossroads” aspect of Hawaii also makes it a throughway for drugs, Eastin adds.

“The drug trade is incredible,” he says, “because you’ve got it coming from East and West. So just in terms of finding unique stories about drug smuggling, it’s easy to do that in Hawaii and give it a new twist.”

“Honolulu is a major metropolis, like any other big city,” Balfour adds. “It has all the problems and dynamics of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago -- but not only do you have this urban environment, but five minutes away you have rain forest and beach, which makes it more exciting.”

The show also incorporates into the look of the series a real-life quirk about Honolulu police detectives -- many police personnel drive unconventional cars.

“In Hawaii, they don’t have a huge budget for the regular blue-and-whites,” Eastin says, referring to standard police cruisers. “So what they do is allow all the cops to choose seized vehicles, so if you go to Honolulu, a majority of the vehicles out there are things like T-Birds and Corvettes and things that these guys would like to drive.”

“When Sharif and I went for ride-alongs with the officers, we had a choice between a souped-up minivan with 20-inch rims or, I think, a GTO,” Balfour recalls.

OK, OK. If pressed, Eastin cheerfully admits he may be pushing the envelope a bit with the cool convertible Harrison and Declan travel in.

“We may be playing a little loose with reality there. Convertibles were a question mark, but we figured it was at least playing within the rules.... You know, Harrison, Michael’s character, has been there for a few years, so we figured that the department would cut him a little slack and let him have the convertible.”

John Crook writes for Tribune Media Services.

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‘Hawaii’

When: Premieres 9 to 10 p.m. Wednesday; regular time slot

8 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays

Where: NBC

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under 14)