If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to put the terrible ‘Novel Connection’ behind me and just try to move on! Lol
[rating=9.0]
After Magnum rescues a native Hawaiian girl who stumbles into the middle of a murder, he awakes to find himself on the natives’ ‘forbidden island’, unable to remember what has happened and with the inhabitants not allowing him to leave. A nice episode…
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This review contains spoilers.
After the terrible ‘Murder, She Wrote’ crossover, ‘Novel Connection’, the seventh season regains it’s footing with a decent episode in ‘Kapu’.
What I really like about this episode is how it deals with traditional Hawaiian culture, something that maybe could have been played up in a few more episodes – the only previous example that stands out to me is the second season episode ‘Dead Man’s Channel’.
This is a well-intentioned story, and must have looked great on paper. It comes over on-screen well, although doesn’t quite come off as the 100% classic that it might have been – maybe it isn’t quite polished enough for that.
Saying that, the episode is well shot, particularly the ocean shots of the natives on their boat; the scene of Magnum trying to escape the island, pursued by the natives, is particularly well executed.
The music of this episode is also good – particularly the slightly haunting theme used for the islanders.
One moment I particularly like is when back on the mainland when Rick is searching for the missing Magnum and looks out over the sea; Magnum, on the island of Kapu, does the same thing – maybe another sign of the gang’s psychic connection that is displayed in a few episodes (most notably the fourth season’s classic ‘Home From the Sea’)?
My main niggle with this story is the hitman and the final showdown. The story of the gunman never feels to be satisfactorily developed, and the final, inevitable shootout on Kapu between Magnum and the gunman is all to brief and over far too quickly; So much more could have been done with a shootout in this exotic setting.
All-in-all, I really like this episode. As I say, it doesn’t quite rank the status of series classic in my opinion, but is a very good episode none-the-less.
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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* Nothing else to note on this episode… other than, Shermy, when watching this episode I too was reminded of the third season ‘Star Trek’ episode ‘The Paradise Syndrome’! Moments of it also reminded me of the classic British series ‘The Prisoner’.