Missing Melody (7.11)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the seventh season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
4
6%
9.0 (Excellent)
8
12%
8.5 (Very Good)
8
12%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
20
29%
7.5 (Decent)
10
14%
7.0 (Average at Best)
12
17%
6.5 (Not So Good)
4
6%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
3%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 69

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Jay-Firestorm
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#21 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Wednesday / Thursday’s review. A hard one to rate IMO.

[rating=7.0]

T.C. is excited about his two children, Melody and Bryant, paying a visit. But arriving at the airport, Melody is kidnapped, and Magnum must join T.C. in trying to track down the abductor. A middle of the road episode…

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This review contains spoilers.

‘Missing Melody’ is the first and only TV script (co)written by Roger E. Mosley, and maybe it is little surprise that the story revolves around T.C.

This episode introduces T.C.’s two children, Bryant and Melody, as well as his ex-wife Tina. It does stick out a bit that T.C. having a family was never previously mentioned in the series – why were they never mentioned before? We also get little explanation as to why T.C. and Tina split up, other than one line from Tina about T.C.’s “nightmares and moods”, seemingly caused by post-traumatic stress from T.C.’s time in Vietnam.
Either way, Bryant (played by Shavar Ross, who played the much recurring Dudley in long-running sitcom ‘Diff’rent Strokes’, which had ended a few months before this ep) returns in several subsequent season seven and eight episodes; Tina and Melody also make a return appearance in the series finale, ‘Resolutions’.

Also making a brief appearance in this story is Alfonso Ribeiro as Kenny, who had previously appeared at the start of the season in the feature-length / two-part ‘L.A.’. In its last couple of seasons, MPI started to add much more continuity with recurring characters and such.

Anyway, the story itself… I find it quite a hard one to rate. It is hardly one of the best, but at the same time has some good moments. The characters do seem to have a run of bad luck in the series – I mean, something as innocent as T.C.’s children visiting, and one of them gets abducted, leading to a whole new adventure! But I suppose we need these occurrences else there would be very few stories to make up the series!

There is a good red herring about three quarters of the way through – how many of us thought that Tina’s new partner was the culprit, only to be proven wrong?! This one really caught me out.

I’d probably sum this one up as ‘middle of the road’, as it is neither outstandingly good nor bad; it doesn’t stand out from the season, but at the same time I can think of a number of far worse episodes from the show’s run.
Its main flaw is that it feels rather dragged out, with the story stretched to fill the episode’s run time. And although I would have loved to have seen the show continue for a few more seasons, I have to say that with an episode such as this, it does at times feel like the show had started to run its course.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Am I the only one who got confused with this? – watching the episode for the first time (a few years ago now), I thought that the woman who arrived with Melody and Bryant at the airport was their mother. It wasn’t until Tina actually appeared later on that I realised it wasn’t!

* Part of Magnum’s voiceover dialogue early in the episode, about being scared of monsters under his bed when he was six, is very similar to that heard in the fourth season’s ‘Home From the Sea’.
JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!

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Carol the Dabbler
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#22 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

golfmobile wrote: 5. I've always wondered why the bad guys never figured out that a helicopter flying over them and following them WAS after them.

9. And, oh, yes, one more thing: When Tina and TM are walking on the beach at the end, the beach seems much narrower than it was in the early episodes. Already the beach erosion is showing its effect?
A helicopter flying directly over or slightly behind a car cannot be seen from the car. True, it will still make a good bit of noise, but as you already pointed out, helicopters are pretty common around Honolulu.

As for the skinny beach -- high tide?

And several people are wondering why we've never heard TC talk about visiting (or even phoning) his kids. Child custody used to be a much more cut-and-dried thing than nowadays. Usually, the mother got sole custody, and the father got to visit every couple of weeks. But if Tina presented evidence that TC was not a fit father (due to post-traumatic stress), then he might well have been denied ANY contact with his kids.
Carol

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J.J. Walters
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#23 Post by J.J. Walters »

Carol the Dabbler wrote:And several people are wondering why we've never heard TC talk about visiting (or even phoning) his kids. Child custody used to be a much more cut-and-dried thing than nowadays. Usually, the mother got sole custody, and the father got to visit every couple of weeks. But if Tina presented evidence that TC was not a fit father (due to post-traumatic stress), then he might well have been denied ANY contact with his kids.
That's true, but certainly we should have seen T.C. talking to Magnum or Rick about them once or twice? A picture of them from his wallet. Something.

By the way, welcome back Carol! It's great to have you around again.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Carol the Dabbler
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#24 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

Thanks for the welcome-back, James! I suspect things are about to get pretty busy here again, so you may not be hearing much more from me for a while. But I'll be back eventually!

Back to TC's kids, I'm thinking that -- under the circumstances I conjectured above -- maybe it just hurt him too much to talk about them, or even think about them. That's why he moved to Hawaii, so he wouldn't risk running into them (only to have them hustled away by Tina), or keep being reminded, oh, that's the playground where I used to take the kids, there's their school ....

As he said, he did what he had to do.
Carol

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snp389
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#25 Post by snp389 »

I like this ep. Another one where we find out about the 'guys' past, and how it is impacting on them in the present.
I loved the use of another Hughes 500.
And I especially love the way that we, the audience, are teased again of the possibility that JQH is really Robin Masters.

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#26 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

IslandHopper wrote:Another weird thing was that TC's son actually called TC by his name (TC). I think this happened when they were at TC's business and TC was loading supplies onto the chopper. I don't know if this was a flub, or if it was the writers way of showing the alienation-of-affection between TC and his son. I think it was probably the latter.
This is done on purpose. Actually there's a moment when they make peace where Bryant says "TC......Dad".

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#27 Post by classic1968 »

Hi!

This my first post. Glad to be here!

I just recently catch a little FLUB:

TC was told to send someone to the Sea Palms Hotel, room 401 (1st room at 4th floor). But when Magnum enters the room, you can see the front door has the room number 1202 (so he's at the 12th floor).

Any way, IMHO, one of the best episodes of the series...

Mahalo!

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#28 Post by Stelth »

I liked this episode very much. The way they piled all of the problems on top of poor T.C. was very convincing and then the team helping him solve those problems was very satisfying.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#29 Post by masterengineer »

Just a quick note, I'm a junkie for "N Numbers"
N Number N9267F is a Hughes
Model: 369HS
Year built: 1975
Construction Number (C/N): 1150778S

This Helicopter appears in the flashback portions of the episode "Dream a little Dream" S 4, Ep 20. as the Ken Enderlin charter craft T.C. Pilots before he was able to save up and buy His Hughes 500D for Island Hoppers charter service.

Additionally the same craft appears much later in Season 7, Episode "Missing Melody" S 7 ep 11when T.C.s kidnapped daughter is recovered, Albeit sporting a different paint job.

The Craft has been owned by Heli-Logistics in Hawaii for many years. and is possibly a production craft that many of the areal shots of N1095A (T.C.s Island hoppers bird) were shot from.

Another side note I found funny, Hughes 500Ds were what Jean Bruce Scott flew in the first few episodes of Airwolf as a Texas state highway patrol officer, and she played Mac's replacement after he was killed in season 2 or 3. On Magnum she played Navy LTC. Maggie Poole.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#30 Post by SignGuyHPW »

I enjoyed this one overall. Watching "Paradise Blues" in an earlier year, you could make a case that TC was conflicted between staying with his wife and going off with Alexis which eventually lead to the divorce. If Tina was awarded sole custody and TC relocated to Hawaii to start over then it'd make sense he'd not see the children too often. It'd also explain his son's hostility towards him as he'd probably understand what caused his parents to split.

The one thing I really enjoyed was the twist on whom had set up the kidnapping. It made a lot of sense in the end, but the character was set up as if it were a really minor one. The main thing that always baffled me about this episode was how TC left for the airport in his regular clothes, but arrived wearing a suit. If he was already late then it'd not make sense that he'd stop to change.

Higgins offering up the ransom money and then being so forceful with the banker on the phone was a great part for Higgins. He displayed quite a bit of emotional range in this episode.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#31 Post by .45caliber »

Great episode! I gave it a nine. The story was great and I love when they all rally together to help each other, what a great group of friends. It makes the best episodes when we see everybody pulling together and the bonds they have.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#32 Post by Milton Collins »

I just couldn't get into this one whatsoever, a 6.0 for me. While I did like the guys pulling together to help TC (especially Higgins ranting at the banker to wire him the funds:)) I just thought this was a strained and rather ridiculous episode:

- I really don't enjoy the addition of children into MPI. Whether it's basketball Willy, Tran Quac Jones, or TC's very annoying son Bryant I don't think kids added to the episodes or were a good fit for Magnum PI. Lilly Catherine was the only one that I didn't mind.

- The acting just seemed really strained to me, especially by Robert Mosley. Given that it was a "TC Centric" episode, I was dissapointed to see this. He went in and out from barely seeming grief stricken at first (shaking Bryant's hand in the car), to ragefully angry (the scene with Big Jim and a couple others, totally overdone!) and back to calm way too many times. Just my opinion but I thought this detracted from the episode. Also, the fight scene at the end with between 3-100 consecutive karate kicks from TC (lollollol) and then a ridiculous repeated fist pump while holding his daughter - was just terrible. Funny, but terrible nonetheless.

- Tina's boyfriend (the dude who gets blown away in the opening scene of Dirty Harry:)) actually did a decent job of throwing some suspicion and putting a twist into this one. But I ask this: Tina is serious engough about him to bring him to Hawaii with her but then just drops him instantly? Maybe she was back into TC (which is slightly implied) or didn't want to deal with his gambling issues etc. but just another weak plot line in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I love TC as a character but I just thought this was a very poor episode in an EXCELLENT season 7. Didn't feel like Magnum PI to me at all.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#33 Post by charybdis1966 »

I agree with Milton Collins, the over extended fist pumping from TC when he got his daughter back did look odd and was unintentionally funny.
This episode had its moments and Higgins showed admirable loyalty in his reaction to the abduction but this doesn't make up for the weak story and inconsistent character behaviour of TC.

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#34 Post by thechickinthemiddle »

This wasn't a particularly memorable ep for me (though I prob wasn't bothered by the acting at the time), aside from the twist and the inclusion of Albert Popwell, who, I should clarify, wasn't "blown away" in Dirty Harry so much as incapacitated. I can't say the same for his characters in Magnum Force and Sudden Impact, unfortunately. (And I thought Magnum really reused actors :P )

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Re: Missing Melody (7.11)

#35 Post by KingKC »

I am not surprised that this episode gets a somewhat low rating of 7.7. I think it was just a way to get TC's past into the show. We knew a lot about Higgins past from his visitors and stories, a lot about Rick's past from his relationship with Icepick and, of course, Magnum's past as he was the star of the show. I think this was just TC getting more of his role identified. I think it shows that TC had an impression upon Higgins which gave him an "one of the gang" image in Higgins eyes. Maybe it had something to do with building up to TC possible getting back together with his family in Resolutions as I think that was hinted at. It gave us a little more about his PTSD and his anger issues which made him a little more realistic and maybe explained some of his "attitude" throughout the show. Maybe he overacted some scenes a little but come on...fathers just might tend to overdo things upon seeing their ex and kids for the first time in years. Overall I liked it but don't rate it as a great one...just a little more memorable than some.

KingKC

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