Magnum Mania!

So, what is the best season/s, and what are the weakest seasons?

For me...best seasons in this order.

S2
S1
S3
S4
S7

Weakest

S6
S5
S8

Without a doubt, seasons 5 and 6 were the least enjoyable to me.

I posted a couple of similar threads on this:


Seasons 1-4 are Superior to Seasons 5-8
http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2686

The Absolute Worst Episodes
http://magnum-mania.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2697


I think I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 the most but it's hard to put it into any order because there are winners and dogs throughout the eight seasons.

2
3
7
1
4
5
8
6

2
3
4
1
7
5
8
6

3
2
1
4
7
6
5
8

2
3
4
7
1
8
5
6

My reflections:
2
3
1
7
4
5
8
6

2
3
1
7
4
5
6
8

Hi guys,

Don't get me wrong I love this site and respect your decisions comments and opinions. Love the fact that we are enabled by JJ to still express our opinions 30 + years later. For me however Season 1 will always be my favourite. I watched the series back in '80's from episode 1 as the majority of us did.. It was new, innovative and exciting following in the footsteps of the Rochford Files breaking the mould of the formula of the genre.

I accept there are possibly better episodes / seasons etc but not for me . Season 1 is number 1 always .

terryfromkerry wrote:Hi guys,

Don't get me wrong I love this site and respect your decisions comments and opinions. Love the fact that we are enabled by JJ to still express our opinions 30 + years later. For me however Season 1 will always be my favourite. I watched the series back in '80's from episode 1 as the majority of us did.. It was new, innovative and exciting following in the footsteps of the Rochford Files breaking the mould of the formula of the genre.

I accept there are possibly better episodes / seasons etc but not for me . Season 1 is number 1 always .

I'm with you. There's something about the vibe of season one to me that, while there were many other excellent seasons and episodes, there was that certain magic about season one that will always stand apart.

ConchRepublican wrote:

terryfromkerry wrote:Hi guys,

Don't get me wrong I love this site and respect your decisions comments and opinions. Love the fact that we are enabled by JJ to still express our opinions 30 + years later. For me however Season 1 will always be my favourite. I watched the series back in '80's from episode 1 as the majority of us did.. It was new, innovative and exciting following in the footsteps of the Rochford Files breaking the mould of the formula of the genre.

I accept there are possibly better episodes / seasons etc but not for me . Season 1 is number 1 always .

I'm with you. There's something about the vibe of season one to me that, while there were many other excellent seasons and episodes, there was that certain magic about season one that will always stand apart.

I'm in too. The first season just has a different feel to it that's hard to describe, and the pilot is still my favorite episode with its classic opening scene.

All of us here have S1 placed no lower than fourth and I know that I have several favorites from that year. (Plus the DVD image is among the best in the entire series!)

I think we've all been fair-minded and level-headed with our picks, which is representative of the Magnum-Mania denizens on the whole. Way to go, guys and gals.

Little Garwood wrote:All of us here have S1 placed no lower than fourth and I know that I have several favorites from that year. (Plus the DVD image is among the best in the entire series!)

I think we've all been fair-minded and level-headed with our picks, which is representative of the Magnum-Mania denizens on the whole. Way to go, guys and gals.

Garwood, your comment about the DVD image quality of season 1 got me thinking. I've mentioned it before, but I think the first season had much better cinematography than the others. By this I don't mean image quality (and I agree with you about that), but rather the composition of the shot. This might simply be a natural outcome of filming series television. Early on the cinematographer has a blank slate as to how to film things. They experiment and play around with the composition of scenes and the transitions between them. As the episodes tick off, the creativity is more limited. For example, how many ways can you film the guest house or main house. Later episode usually just show a stock shot of the exterior then cut to the set interiors. I think this creativity in cinematography makes it more like films, which might be that "feel" others have mentioned.

A few of these great shots come to mind:

The Ferrari reversing down the drive and sliding toward the gate in the pilot opening scene.

The shotgun opening from Skin Deep.

The transition from the Tong killing the shopkeeper to Higgins practicing martial arts in China Doll.

I have other examples, but I'll shut up now.

Anybody else have particular scenes that you think looked visually very interesting? Share what you liked about it.

I don't want to get off topic with my usual moronic rambling but I will say that for the most part, 1980s TV shows were conservatively shot, edited, and musically scored. This was no doubt a reaction to the late 1960s-to-early-1970s use of handheld cameras, "Fish Eye" lenses, "sunburst" cinematography, and quasi-psychedelic musical underscore.

One of the best things about Oahu is that in many places it feels like you have one foot in Asia and one foot in America, all while standing in Hawaii. I thought season 1 did an excellent job of capturing that feeling. Plus the cinematography from Season 1 was movie quality. Often times it was like Magnum, not James Bond, was after the Man With the Golden Gun. By Season 2 they had changed the direction and it often felt as if Hawaii was a British colony. Hawaiians and Hawaiian culture were almost always relegated to a plot device. I understand why all this was done, they were trying to make a show that would get the most viewers. But Season 1 will always be my favorite for that exotic feel. I'm leaving for Kauai this afternoon to meet up with my kids. They live on Oahu. While Kauai has an Asian presence to it, it's nothing close to Oahu. On a cloudy day Kauai could pass for parts of Oregon or Washington.