Well… I didn’t care for ‘Murder by Night’, but I like this one. I seem to be going against most people’s likes / dislikes at the moment!
[rating=9.5]
T.C. is shot while teaching Magnum to fly, leading Magnum to uncover that it was a case of mistaken identity, and that a Mexican Mafia King is actually after HIM – and “Mac” (mk. II) is wrapped up in the middle of it all. I personally really like this one…
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This review contains spoilers.
I seem to be out of step with my MPI likes and dislikes at the moment – the previous episode, ‘Murder by Night’, many people seem to love, whereas I wasn’t really overwhelmed; similarly, this episode, ‘On the Fly’, doesn’t seem to be that popular, but personally I really like it.
It sees the return of Mac mk. II, a.k.a. Jim Bonnick, who hasn’t appeared in the series for quite a while (in fact, his last appearance was ‘The Love-For-Sale Boat’ back in the fifth season; he didn’t appear in the sixth season at all).
Some people don’t like the second incarnation of Mac, but I have to say, generally I find him good value for money – whenever he appears, he’s up to no good, and causing no end of trouble for our hero.
Another reason I like this episode is that it has a lot of action – latter episodes of the show’s run were often toned down action-wise, becoming more action-driven, but this one has some very action-packed sequences. Although I wouldn’t necessarily like to see this level of action in each and every episode, I do like it in this story. (I particularly like the siege / shootout at Robin’s Nest – surely one of the most bloodthirsty sequences of the show’s run!)
The only moment I’m not too keen on was the inevitable kissy-kissy sequence between Magnum and Maria – I feel that there is very little chemistry between the pair, and it just gets in the way of the overall plot.
But generally, I find this to be an underrated episode – it has a number of good twists to the plot, some good character moments, and as mentioned above, some good action sequences.
The latter portion of the story, with Magnum and the badly wounded Mac stuck up in the air, in an aircraft that Magnum can barely fly, is one of the things that most stuck in my head about the seventh season until I came to re-watch it on DVD.
So all-in-all, although some don’t like it, I find this to be a very good (and underrated) episode. I guess at the end of the day, a lot of it is down to how much you like the second incarnation of Mac.
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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* Another case of the DVD version having abridged act breaks – they do it just to annoy me!!
* When the car is chasing alongside the airplane just before it takes off, you can clearly see the roll cage inside the car, to stop the roof folding in when it turns over moments later.