Divisive Episodes

[Lt. Cook]

As I watch and rank each episode on the forum I've gotten curious - most episodes rankings cluster, in other words, most people really like a particular episode, or most feel it's just okay. What espisodes seem to split us MPI fans into love/hate?

[Carmen]

Hi Lt. Cook!! Can only tell you which one splits me apart. *ouch*
It´s "Resolutions P. 2" I love and hate that one.
No, don`t explain the meaning of that threat. I understood, how you meant it, just thought what I love and hate the same time maybe one episode which splits the fans also.
Forgive my stuttering, or even better - forget it, I have a headache today and it would be better not to sit here anyway...

[N1095A]

It´s "Resolutions P. 2" I love and hate that one.

Ditto!! I have to say that as a strong MPI fan, I really don't care for the way the show ended.

[Miss Q]

Ok, here's the rub....

I liked it, everything was tied up in a neat little ball. Yes I know, its very unrealistic that having everthing work out would really happen in real life...

Tell me WHY you didnt like it???

[N1095A]

Ok, here's the rub....

I liked it, everything was tied up in a neat little ball. Yes I know, its very unrealistic that having everthing work out would really happen in real life...

Tell me WHY you didnt like it???

I really didn't see TM as having longed for his days in the Navy to the point of re-upping. In fact, quite the opposite. It seemed he spent his whole life since resigning, keeping that part of his life in the past. Rebelling against it even. I could understand Rick marrying Cleo. he was always impulsive when it came to women. I thought it was a little late to introduce a family for TC. If he was going to have a family they should have been introduced much earlier than season 8. I don't mean to take anything away fron a great 8 years, I just feel that the series conclusion was a little out of sync (no pun intended).

[Lily]

Resolutions 2 would also be the episode which I would put into that love/hate category. While it was great to see Magnum end up with his daughter, other than that, I thought the last episode of this great series was extremely rushed.

[MPS]

Have the same feelings about Resolutions 2 as everyone else. The ending was too abrupt and too "textbook", for a show that had been on the air for eight seasons. I never understood the reason for bringing Linda Lee Ellison back in (Resolutions 1), and then finishing up her story in Resolutions 2. Magnum could have had to rush back to Hawaii, to deal with a crisis affecting one of his other friends. The time spent on her, could have been used to expand the end of series stories for the other characters.

I'm not sure fans would have been happy with any last show, just because it was the last one. JMHO.

[VM02]

I posted this quite a while back on the resolutions 1 thread:

***************************************
As much as I loved this episode:
Reunion with Lily
I do?
I lied.
Maggie Poole

I've aways struggled with some things:
What is TM doing with Lee? Out of Character. Is he suppossed to be choosing between her and Navy? Her and Lily?
TC subplot seems forced
Maggie Poole - If you would've kept investigating you would have endangered Lilys life thing. Huh?
Jim Bonnick -
Finally, He becomes a single parent and Re-ups all at once. Wouldn't this have been kinda hard to pull off? Hes a Seal/NI officer for goodness sake - Whos gonna watch the poor little girl while hes deployed? Wouldn't TM as a Single Father giving up a chance to rejoin the Navy be more in character?

My thinking is that the best series finale would have been "Unfinished Business."
********************************************

I still stand by this, it all seems very forced. I can buy TM ending up back in the navy, I can also buy him as a single parnet for Lilly. But not both and not really the way they jammed it all into two hours. Had they fleshed out that storyline thoughout season 8, I think it would have worked better. But then you loose the surprise ending, which for the writers, I think was the point...

[Doc Ibold]

I posted this quite a while back on the resolutions 1 thread:

***************************************
As much as I loved this episode:
Reunion with Lily
I do?
I lied.
Maggie Poole

I've aways struggled with some things:
What is TM doing with Lee? Out of Character. Is he suppossed to be choosing between her and Navy? Her and Lily?
TC subplot seems forced
Maggie Poole - If you would've kept investigating you would have endangered Lilys life thing. Huh?
Jim Bonnick -
Finally, He becomes a single parent and Re-ups all at once. Wouldn't this have been kinda hard to pull off? Hes a Seal/NI officer for goodness sake - Whos gonna watch the poor little girl while hes deployed? Wouldn't TM as a Single Father giving up a chance to rejoin the Navy be more in character?

My thinking is that the best series finale would have been "Unfinished Business."
********************************************

I still stand by this, it all seems very forced. I can buy TM ending up back in the navy, I can also buy him as a single parnet for Lilly. But not both and not really the way they jammed it all into two hours. Had they fleshed out that storyline thoughout season 8, I think it would have worked better. But then you loose the surprise ending, which for the writers, I think was the point...

VM02, not picking on you at all, its just that you listed every issue I had with the episode once I saw it again (first couple times around)..... Granted, it (Resolutions) does seem a bit rushed and what not, but it seems to have wrapped up everything as well as it could have (IMO).

Here goes:

"Reunion with Lily"

Doc's diagnosis:

Who WOULDN'T have wanted to see that? That was the really "out of the blue" scene of this whole episode. Its pretty much the only one of TM's family that has come back from the dead. Him walking out into the sunset with her is a pretty cool moment.

"I do?"

Doc's diagnosis:

Textbook Rick - getting all fired up abut marriage, then waffling at the end with the rest of the gang saying "Ummmmm, you going to put us through all this and then you won't commit?" The fact that it leaves it out in the open is pretty much indicative why the writers understood the characters so well. Would any of us really believe that Rick would get hitched?

"I lied."

Doc's diagnosis:

The very basis of the Higgins/Magnum relationship. While they eventually became friends, the Higgins and Magnum relationship couldn't survive without them messing with each other. One final nod that would keep everyone guessing. Now, with all of us on the site, if we knew Higgins was Robin Masters all these years later, we'd view each episode as "Oh yeah, he's doing that because he's Robin Masters". To have Higgins end up as Robin Masters really would've cheapened the Higgins character (in my opinion). Although I can see arguments to the contrary.

"Maggie Poole"

Doc's diagnosis:

I do agree that the "chasing her would've endangered Lily" argument was somewhat forced, I think it was really the only way they could've reintroduced Lily and make any semblance of sense, as the US Navy was the only way Lily could've been concealed after the events of "Unfinished Business".

I've aways struggled with some things:
What is TM doing with Lee? Out of Character. Is he suppossed to be choosing between her and Navy? Her and Lily?

Doc's diagnosis:

I think Lee was the only one who really could've made sense. Cynthia Farrell made her departure in "Out of Sync" and L.L.E. was the only recent love interest that Magnum would have gone back for. Most of TM's love interest's tend to end up dead or are criminals of some sort.

"TC subplot seems forced"

Doc's diagnosis:

Agreed, but TC's affection towards children was VERY well documented throughout the series, plus his childrens inclusion (while forced) were a part of the last two seasons, so its not THAT out of the question. Makes sense that at the end of it, he finally has his own kids back.

"Jim Bonnick"

Doc's diagnosis:

Agreed, but it was a reunion of sorts, so you'd have to have a cameo with him, i.e. Buck Greene. (Why we're EITHER of them at the wedding, especially with Rick's disdain for "Mac"


Finally, He becomes a single parent and Re-ups all at once. Wouldn't this have been kinda hard to pull off? Hes a Seal/NI officer for goodness sake - Whos gonna watch the poor little girl while hes deployed? Wouldn't TM as a Single Father giving up a chance to rejoin the Navy be more in character?

Doc's diagnosis:

My take (and I said this somewhere far ago, in a thread, far far away) that I think Higgins would take care of her during the days. The last couple of seasons were about Magnum growing up, and as you can see throughout the series, Magnum does a lot of maturing as the series goes on. Its been discussed in several threads, but Magnum was spot on as a Naval officer, but one day he realized he lost his youth and then quit the Navy. In "L.A.", Magnum himself remarks that Martie was sponging off the good graces of a good natured benefactor until she decided what to do with her life - a not so subtle nod to Magnum himself (complete with Rubber Chicken). My take is that once TM decided he had Lily back in his life, and that he was a father, he couldn't be a private investigator anymore and had to "grow up" again.

I also believe that TM, Lily, Higgins TC, Rick and the rest of the gang all still ended up staying in Hawaii - NOT returning to Tidewater, because those people were pretty lame.

There's nothing to say that TM couldn't have requested Pearl - I think the Navy owed it to him considering all the favors he did for them...

Just a very longwinded post (and not a knock on VM02's post AT ALL - just hindsight recollections after thinking about the final episode)

Discussions - begin!

[Steve]

I may be completely wrong, but I have sensed that folks seem to love or hate the Luther H. Gillis episodes. I fall into the love them bracket as the very first "first run" Magnum, p.i. I ever watched was a Luther episode and I was hooked. I had always thought (wrongly of course) that the show as just another PI/detective/cop show that were all over the TV in the Seventies and early Eighties and was pleasently surprised at the humor, the characters and the writing........

[Lily]

Agree Doc....my thoughts are like yours, that TM rejoined the Navy and was stationed in Pearl..why not? Also that Higgins, TC and Rick stayed in Hawaii, as all had good employment and would never have found such great jobs on the mainland. This now makes me feel better about the ending of Resolutions 2

[J.J. Walters]

Based on the episode votings, "Birdman of Budapest", "Let Me Hear the Music", "Old Acquaintance", "All Thieves on Deck" and "Solo Flight" (to name a few) seem to be pretty divisive.

[lutherhgillis]

Many of the hokey or campy episodes are divisive since some love and some hate them. The Resolutions epis just made no sense based upon the prior seasons of the show. It was almost like they sat down at the last minute and made up an ending to the show.

Come on, Magnum spent all previous 7 years talking about how he was glad to be out of the Navy and we all know he had no love for the structure of the service anymore. Then all at once, he re-ups...

Then Michelle dumps the child she would never have told him about unless her butt was in trouble in his lap and he becomes Mr. Dad?

TC gets back together with his wife and kids (which is cool) that we only recently found out existed after many seasons of not mentioning them at all...

Higgins get his memoirs rejected and decides to take a new tack by injecting personal feelings and perspective... Higgins did not have personal feelings...

Higgins is and then isn't Robin Masters afterall...

It seems to me that once they found out the 8th season was happening they should have had a meeting and planned out the season by drawing everything together slowly instead of dumping it all at the end.

Just my two pence...