Magnum Mania!

The main thing that always puzzled me about Magnum was that he seemed to, fairly often, goof off when being serious was in order and vice versa. He'd be using full scale Navy Intelligence day skills and be extremely serious when he was trying to solve a non paying case. If someone gave him a paying job where they thought lives were in danger he'd act like it was a big game and barely take the client seriously.

Some examples: In "Forever In Time" Magnum was supposed to run a simple errand for Higgins. That was it. There was no case. Nobody hired him for his investigative services. Yet, he became obsessed with solving a mystery that he stumbled upon for reasons never made clear. He was even putting Rick in danger to try to dig deeper into this mystery which was not really any of his business anyways. In "The Elmo Ziller Story" Higgins and his niece want to hire Magnum because it was thought that Higgins' half brother was being targeted for murder. Magnum acted like it was some kind of game that he and Higgins were playing and he didn't take it seriously until very late in the episode. A paying client is talking about someone attempting to murder her father and Magnum's laughing and amused by the situation.

My question is, did this ever seem really peculiar to anyone else?

SignGuyHPW wrote:The main thing that always puzzled me about Magnum was that he seemed to, fairly often, goof off when being serious was in order and vice versa. He'd be using full scale Navy Intelligence day skills and be extremely serious when he was trying to solve a non paying case. If someone gave him a paying job where they thought lives were in danger he'd act like it was a big game and barely take the client seriously.

Some examples: In "Forever In Time" Magnum was supposed to run a simple errand for Higgins. That was it. There was no case. Nobody hired him for his investigative services. Yet, he became obsessed with solving a mystery that he stumbled upon for reasons never made clear. He was even putting Rick in danger to try to dig deeper into this mystery which was not really any of his business anyways. In "The Elmo Ziller Story" Higgins and his niece want to hire Magnum because it was thought that Higgins' half brother was being targeted for murder. Magnum acted like it was some kind of game that he and Higgins were playing and he didn't take it seriously until very late in the episode. A paying client is talking about someone attempting to murder her father and Magnum's laughing and amused by the situation.

My question is, did this ever seem really peculiar to anyone else?

I have noticed that TM sometimes does not take things as seriously as he ought, but usually it's for a pretty good reason. In "The Elmo Ziller Story" he took it seriously once Higgins and his niece leveled with him as to what was going on. He laughed about it early on because he thought the whole thing was a prank set up by Higgins and that there was no Elmo Ziller, it was really Higgins in disguise. I don't think he ever really believed Elmo was not Higgins, even when the ex-wife showed up, and since he didn't believe that part, it would be easy for him to believe the whole thing was a ruse/joke/prank. Once they told him the truth including the story of what happened to the real Elmo, he took it very seriously from that point forward.

I think this is one of the major flaws of the show. Some writers just can't get the balance right. The best episodes have the right balance - mostly serious, but with realistic funny moments at appropriate times. Then there are utterly stupid episodes - usually in the later seasons - where Magnum is far too jokey when he should be deadly serious.

What leaps to mind is in "Holmes is Where the Heart Is," where Magnum inexplicably will not leave Higgins alone even though it's obvious that all he's doing in the study is typing. But Magnum seems convinced something mysterious is going on. I realize he wanted to borrow something but he went to absurd lengths to get Higgins to open the door, including smashing a cabinet in the wine cellar!

Mad Kudu Buck wrote:I think this is one of the major flaws of the show. Some writers just can't get the balance right. The best episodes have the right balance - mostly serious, but with realistic funny moments at appropriate times. Then there are utterly stupid episodes - usually in the later seasons - where Magnum is far too jokey when he should be deadly serious.

Yep. What's weird about the later seasons is that they made him more childish while also frequently beating the audience over the head that he is getting old.

K Hale wrote:What leaps to mind is in "Holmes is Where the Heart Is," where Magnum inexplicably will not leave Higgins alone even though it's obvious that all he's doing in the study is typing. But Magnum seems convinced something mysterious is going on. I realize he wanted to borrow something but he went to absurd lengths to get Higgins to open the door, including smashing a cabinet in the wine cellar!

Because Magnum knew Higgins wasn't just "typing". He knew that there was more going on than just that. He knew he wasn't himself, he's routine was off. He knew he needed a friend, so that's what he did. That's one of the many things that makes Magnum such an endearing character. He will do anything to support a friend in need.

J.J. Walters wrote:

K Hale wrote:What leaps to mind is in "Holmes is Where the Heart Is," where Magnum inexplicably will not leave Higgins alone even though it's obvious that all he's doing in the study is typing. But Magnum seems convinced something mysterious is going on. I realize he wanted to borrow something but he went to absurd lengths to get Higgins to open the door, including smashing a cabinet in the wine cellar!

Because Magnum knew Higgins wasn't just "typing". He knew that there was more going on than just that. He knew he wasn't himself, he's routine was off. He knew he needed a friend, so that's what he did. That's one of the many things that makes Magnum such an endearing character. He will do anything to support a friend in need.

You think so? He certainly hid that concern behind a lot of joking. I like your theory though!