The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the seventh season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
4%
9.0 (Excellent)
8
11%
8.5 (Very Good)
17
22%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
15
20%
7.5 (Decent)
12
16%
7.0 (Average at Best)
10
13%
6.5 (Not So Good)
5
7%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
3%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
4%
 
Total votes: 76

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Doc Fred
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#51 Post by Doc Fred »

Shermy wrote: My favorite moment occurs when Magnum notices that Phoebe has rearranged the furniture in the study. We then see Higgins sitting at his backwards desk, having resigned himself to simply accept the change. :lol: This also leads to a great exchange between Selleck and Hillerman, where they manage to convey understanding using nothing more than a cigar box. When those two guys were 'on', it was really hard for anyone else on the show to compete.
Yes, the more I watch the shows, the more I realize there was a great connection between Magnum and Higgins, despite the bickering that occurs... There's mutual respect, mutual admiration, although they don't always like to show it. But, when the need is there, they're there for each other.... a friend in need....
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Doc Fred
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#52 Post by Doc Fred »

SelleckLover wrote:They should have had Katherine Kelly Lang on more often. It looked as if she and Magnum had some "chemistry" there. LOL :D
I know I'd have very hard to have some chemistry with her... she was awesome.
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Doc Fred
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Re:

#53 Post by Doc Fred »

lutherhgillis wrote:Yea, Ms. Jones must have gone out for an annoyance break and a make me want to grit my teeth and hope to die refill...

:wink: :wink: :wink:
hahahahahahahahaha :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Doc Fred
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#54 Post by Doc Fred »

Jaybird wrote:Katherine Kelly Lang plays the hot maid, Lani, in this episode. She is a soap star these days and as hot as ever.

I am disappointed that, after all the "come hither" glances she and TM exchanged there was no kissing scene. I guess it wouldn't have been in TM's character.
Well, we don't know what happened once the show ended... :)
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Doc Fred
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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#55 Post by Doc Fred »

Carol the Dabbler wrote: If Sully had been Magnum's father's brother, his last name would presumably have been Magnum, so apparently he was not. He could have been Katherine's brother (was her maiden name ever mentioned?), but not necessarily.
I might be mistaken, but I believe I remember Magnum's mother's maiden name being mentioned as Sullivan. And, yes, Phoebe would have been married to Magnum's mother's brother. I think that's pretty clear to me.
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Doc Fred
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#56 Post by Doc Fred »

Tuan Vu wrote:
Carol the Dabbler wrote:I have updated my profile to show that I live in Honolulu. I have often wanted to just go and take photos of the exact locations (with the same camera angles if possible) of the scenes in the episodes just to show what it looks like now. But for the most part, things haven't changed all that much and would not be of much interest to anyone. Besides, the new Hawaii Five-O program uses many of the same places for filming.
Tuan, my wife and I will be taking a cruise to Hawaii in October and will spend a day on Oahu... I'd appreciate it if you'd arrange that the weather be perfect for us... thank you.

And, you talked about taking some photos, which is exactly what I plan to do our one day on Oahu... much to my wife's lack of happiness about it, we'll be renting a car and visiting some of the places I've seen on the show.... primarily the estate and beach in the back..

What a beautiful place to live! I've looked at houses online, but realize I just don't have the means to live up to the standard I'm accustomed to... such an expensive place to live. Sure wish I could.

Again, don't forget to arrange perfect weather for the first three weeks in October.
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Doc Fred
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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#57 Post by Doc Fred »

This show caused opposite reactions in me... Honestly, most of it, to me, wasn't great. Yeah, I loved Lani, loved Mag's time trying to renew his license, and of course the interactions with Higgins and TC. But, the main body of the story was just so-so to me. What really got to me was the dealing with Phoebe's Alzheimer's onset... very tragic, and very personal to me, since my wife's mother was taken at an early age by this horrible disease. Unless you've witnessed it up close, you have no idea how devastating it is to the victim, and even more to the family members. For close to 10 years, my wife was in tears and pain, as was her dad and brother; those of us related by marriage suffered, too, but clearly not to the same extent. When she died, it was a relief, though with the expected trauma, for everyone. At least we all knew she went to a far better place.

I thought Tom Selleck was excellent playing Pheobe's nephew; his emotions of pain and sadness were so well played... maybe the best acting I saw from him in the entire series.

I gave the show a 9 because of the handling of Alzheimers.....

Barbara Rush, as has been said by others, was superb in her role. And, I couldn't help saying to myself as I watched the show, that she was a beautiful women, even at the age she was when the show was filmed... around 60 I believe. She must've been a real looker as a young woman.
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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#58 Post by marlboro »

I thought he acting was very good. And I thought the twist was well done. But I still didn't love the episode. Since Aunt Pheobe only popped in for one episode a lot of the emotional impact was lost for me.And, truthfully, I found her kind of annoying for most of the episode.

If they were going to make an episode about Alzheimer's disease I think it would have had a lot more emotional impact if they had centered it around Magnum's mother.

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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#59 Post by EZiller »

Recently caught this on ENC, the only thing I had remembered was TSM's frustrations with the civil servants renewing his PI license. I think they had done this in another episode. It's not a typical episode, no big fights, shootouts, car chases, etc. It deals with Alzheimer's, although they don't beat you over the head with it and really doesn't even come up till the final 3rd of the episode. I lost my father to dementia, although he had a long life and it didn't really hit till quite late in his life. But you come away with a couple things...it's difficult and it just keeps getting progressively worse. In any case, I give it a 9. Good scenes between TSM and Higgins. Excellent performance by Barbara Rush but for me the highlight, other than Katherine Kelly Lang in the maid outfit!!!! [top ten MPI babe]
was Agatha doing the Blanche DuBois bit. Very well delivered!

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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#60 Post by Milton Collins »

I wasn't a big fan of this episode. It was a touching story in a sense showing how TM and his aunt had a special relationship and her illness was of course very sad. With that being said, the whole episode just felt out of character for Magnum PI. Barbara Rush did a fantastic job of playing the role of an alzheimers patient but I just found this episode to be more like a soap opera than anything. I did enjoy the interactions between TM and the hot maid, that was quite hilarious lol.

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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#61 Post by J. Rickley Schneider »

Robin's Nest could use a smoking hot maid.

So could my house.

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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#62 Post by SignGuyHPW »

I thought that this one was a really interesting episode. It was unique in that it was the only time that Magnum ran an investigation at the behest of a relative. It was also one of the few times where we saw the house hold staff inside of the estate (not to mention it was a temp).

There were a few issues I had with it. The scene with with Magnum at the Hall of Records was just really not realistic enough for me to be good comedy. The line closing with that many people in there just as Magnum was about to talk to someone allowing all of those people to rush to the other line ahead of him was dumb. Then you have a sailor starting a fight with a civillian just hours before going on duty which is possible, but not over the issue that caused the guy to swing first. I also questioned why Lani would've allowed anyone into the estate without Higgins allowing them in there. A temp letting someone through the gate that she didn't know without prior approval seems really, really odd. The old critic and the failed play writer conspiring to steal Pheobe's play was a bit of a stretch to me as well, but there had to be some kind of side plot involving investigating.

I thought the basic premise of the episode was really, really good. People may not recall how much of a topic that Alzheimer's disease was in the late 80s as it was starting to get noticed as an actual disease affecting older people. The acting as a confused Alzheimer's patient was great. A lot of times the people suffering can recall things that happened to them decades before much more clearly than things that happened in the most recent few weeks. Magnum's confusion as his Aunt didn't seem to know him or where she was would be a natural reaction in that time period as a lot of people didn't know much about the disease or how it affected people. Higgins and Magnum, seemingly, realising that Pheobe's mental state may not be totally rational without outright saying it was a great scene between the two of them. It was also interesting to see Higgins trying to accomodate Magnum's aunt despite his frustration with her putting heavy demands on him and his staff.

For the people debating the family relationship here is what I got from it (right or wrong): Phoebe was married to Thomas' uncle Sully which was his mother's brother. We know that Sullivan was Magnum's mother's side of the family. Sully is a common nickname for Sullivan so it's not surprising if most people referred to the uncle as Sully, including his wife. Magnum's middle name being the same as his mother's maiden name was probably a coincidence. It happens. My cousin married a woman whose last name was the same as his mother's maiden name despite the two families not being at all related. I'd also guess that Uncle Sully was much older than Aunt Phoebe considering he passed away in 1955ish and Phoebe was looking to be 55-60 30 years later. Could've been some kind of accident or something, but if he was 15-20 years older then a heart attack wouldn't have been out of the question at all.

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Re: The Aunt Who Came to Dinner (7.20)

#63 Post by charybdis1966 »

This was a curious episode, as others have already stated it seemed like a usual “(almost)never heard of before relative turns up requiring TM’s help yet the story side stepped into a completely different direction at the end.

While the peril for Aunt phoebe situation was the foremost plot consideration I found myself inexplicably thinking the extremely photogenic and eye catching maid was a plant for Phoebe’s stalker due to the camera lingering on her – I even thought she may have poisoned the scones as TM seemed to be toying with his rather than eating them; shows how much I misread the plot!

I liked how there were hints of Phoebe’s Alzheimer’s - when she said “How am I ever going to get this place sorted” or words to that effect in relation to her room at Robin’s nest. I thought that was a bit cheeky, rearranging your room when you are a guest.

Then the rambling trains of thoughts later in the episode however I could relate to her angst about getting bad reviews or not being able to write material of the quality that would come to her own high standards.

I have a writer friend who goes through the agonies of writers block and frustration of negative reviews when her plays are premiered. I would often ask her why she puts herself though it if it causes so much grief but it seems the creative urge over rides the self-preservation that non writers have when deciding whether to carry on doing something that can be hurtful.

This episode was probably one of the earlier instances of Alzheimer’s affecting a character and it reminded me of a more in depth exploration by the TV adaptations of another one of my favourite crime characters, the Swedish detective Kurt Wallander. It’s best to look at the latter half of the thirds season of the Swedish TV adaptations (Avoid the BBC Kenneth Branagh versions like the plague, I can’t stand them!) here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907702/epi ... t_eps_sn_3

Overall, an average seeming episode initially improved by the sombre ending.

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Re:

#64 Post by K Hale »

Croix de Lorraine wrote:
wilko wrote:On reflection, I was somewhat surprised that Higgins did not reprimand Lani for showing Dennis Parker all the way into the house when they were having tea without checking first to see if Phoebe wanted to see him.
Well, Lani was Phoebe's employee, not Higgins'. It would have been out of character for him to reprimand her.
No, she was a temp who Higgins hired to replace the regular housekeeper, Keo, who was visiting her sister on Maui. I thought Lani was going to figure into the plot and turn out to be spying for whoever was stalking Phoebe, but it just went nowhere. As to why Higgins didn't reprimand her for bringing Parker to the tea table, a good employer does not rip into their employees in front of other people, it's humiliating. I would like to think he said something to her later about not letting every Tom/Dick/Harry into the house, however. Plus how did Parker get onto the estate in the first place?

This is one of my least favorite episodes. I found Phoebe really annoying with the way she swept in and took over the place. Yes I get the dementia thing. Both my parents. But Phoebe had a dismissive, irritating air to her even when she was lucid. Magnum didn't think it was out of character so we can only presume that is just her personality.

Total downer episode saved by Higgins' discomfort at being railroaded into having sappy poetry read to him in front of all those ladies (the poem Higgins replies with is all about being hunted by one's enemies) and Agatha's Blanche du Bois impression. Best line though was when Magnum found out he had been expected to read the poetry aloud: "You wanted me to READ it? I thought you just wanted me to READ it!"
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Re:

#65 Post by Steve-O »

I liked the episode. It was somewhat different in that it stands out from what we have come to expect from MPI by taking on a serious health issue. Tackling a topic like this kind of came out of nowhere and the same tack was never really taken again. Barbara Rush executed well. The unspoken humidor interaction between TM and Higgins was very good— and the unspoken interactions between TM and Lani were an amusing study of modern primal behaviour.
SelleckLover wrote:They should have had Katherine Kelly Lang on more often. It looked as if she and Magnum had some "chemistry" there. LOL
Yes, I agree. But based on the flirty chemistry here, might the knock-on effect have caused Thomas and the decorum of the show to regress? :wink:
I loved the expression on Higgins' face when Lani leaves him without more tea after offering Magnum some. Not to mention Thomas' self-satisfactory smirk after she has left.

With regard to the use of Sullivan, perhaps TM's parents just chose the surname of Phoebe's husband to be Thomas' middle name. It would make TM's middle name not coincidental and satisfy the idea that Phoebe's "Sully" was not a blood-relative. Further, TM resembling Sully could easily be as coincidental TM resembling Burt Reynolds: all are not blood-relatives (and btw, Sully must therefore resemble Burt Reynolds as well).

I think some of the better scenes showing the tidal pool, beach and wall area were shown in this episode.

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