Kenji the Gardener

[Pahonu]

Indeed. The housekeeper that is also in these scenes in Season 5 is interesting, because she so closely resembles the "Kumu" character in the Magnum Reboot. I think they have a Kenji in the reboot too?

I don’t even remember the couple of episodes of the reboot I watched several years ago before giving up. That’s pretty wild that there’s also a Kenji in it. What an obscure element of the original to use. Since I know next to nothing about the reboot, have any other characters appeared, like Agatha, Mac, Carol, or Maggie?

Ken Jeong played Luther Gillis and Ammie Masterson played Lt. Josie "Mac" MacReynolds. She was so blah I have no memory of what she did.
Jeong as Luther is possibly the most wrongheaded thing the reboot did in regards to channeling Classic Magnum, mostly down to him being the worst actor I have seen in 30 years. PU.
First off Jeong had absolutely no clue about Luther or even the series, he apparently decided to play Gillis as having a crush on Magnum - in subtext - as when he was riding behind TM on a bike,
holding on so tight Jay tells him to lighten up(I could be wrong but it seemed like Jay's reaction wasn't scripted). Jeong happily squeezes harder and nestles his face on Jay's back, purring "Safety first".
I think the producers left it in because it did come off as funny but it underlined that this new misfire version of Luther had nothing to do with the original wonderful character that was meant as
a commentary on the classic 1940's shamus types.
Whatever the New Luther was supposed to be it was a terrible off key acting performance by Jeong, who so ruined the character that after 2 appearances both Luther and Jeong were exiled from the show.
I have no doubt Jeong blackmailed the producers to get the part, they must have done something really naughty.

Sounds like a real missed opportunity with the Luther character. I’m surprised there weren’t more attempts at incorporating older characters.

Pahonu,
You would think it would be a natural thing to do to lure in Classic Magnum fans, but Lenkov was still in charge, focusing on having mass firefights every 3rd episode that in the real world would
have made the front page of every paper in America.
At least Roger got a last farewell part.

I wonder if CBS is casting about for another Hawaii set series to keep their production studios there in business. Hawaiian Eye would be a natural, and the Hawaiian Village is still there
if they wanted to locate the PI agency there again. I don't know about now but that hotel looked fantastic on the old series, and the version Warner Brothers built in Hollywood was striking.
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"I have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered on beaches all across the world. Maybe you've seen it"...Steven Wright

I agree. It could have pulled in many fans of the original to see what those older, well-drawn characters morphed into. Oh well, I suppose.

I would also think CBS would want to continue using Hawaii as an exotic setting for some kind of show, and utilize their production facilities. After all, as we know, that’s actually how MPI ended up there. Bellisario’s “Cutter” premise was set in LA like so many shows of the time… then H5-O ended production and voila!