Death and Taxes (7.6)

[N1095A]

I noticed at the end when TM is getting on his surfski, he's not wearing the team ring or the bracelet. Unusual as we have seen him before without the bracelet, but this is the first time other than he's in bed that I can remember him not wearing the ring. I wonder if that was an oversight, or maybe he was trying to disassociate himself with Collins for a little while.

[Rutledal]

This is easily my all time favorite episode. I love the gritty plot, the suspens and how Genesis' "Mama" sets an absolutley perfect mood for the episode.

[A P Leyland]

Great episode. Season 7 is batting a high average so far!

Why is the episode only 43 minutes long? Is this an anomaly or only the region 2 DVD release? The only unusual thing about the eisode is there are no "additional credits" (episode title, guest stars etc) and I wondered if these were missing from the region 2 release for some reason.

Andy

[Lt. Cook]

Does anybody know what episodes the flashbacks in Death and Taxes are from, other than the scene with LeBule/Philippe (one is of Magnum chasing a dog). Or, are these past cases invented for this episode?

[Doc Ibold]

Does anybody know what episodes the flashbacks in Death and Taxes are from, other than the scene with LeBule/Philippe (one is of Magnum chasing a dog). Or, are these past cases invented for this episode?

I believe they were created for this episode

[lutherhgillis]

Lt. Cook,

I chased around all of the episodes over time and I am sure the 'flashbacks' of the Half Moon Bay Park car chase and chasing the dog around the corner into the alley were created for this episode. Laura and the wine are mentioned from the episode Fragments. You already know about Philipe from the pilot movie.

LHG

[Jay-Firestorm]

What else can I say… an excellent episode!

[rating=10]

With the rest of the gang away, Magnum plans to spend the 4th of July break doing his tax audit, but a crazed serial killer with a knowledge of Magnum’s past starts taunting him over the phone with riddles of who his next victim will be. A top notch episode..

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This review contains spoilers.

‘Death and Taxes’ is one of the most polished and most memorable episodes from the latter end of ‘Magnum, p.i.’s run. As many have already noted, it is pretty much “MPI does ‘Miami Vice’” – and thankfully, it works, coming off as an excellent story.

The influential ‘Miami Vice’ had been around for a couple of years by this point, and had overtaken MPI in the ratings, so the producers seemingly decided to try and emulate it in this episode. Thankfully though, it doesn’t come across as a straight rip-off of ‘Miami Vice’, instead taking some of the hallmarks from that show and working them into the MPI mix.

As soon as the episode begins, the style of filming, and particularly the incidental music, tells us that this episode is different from the standard MPI fare.
Also notable at several points in the story is the use of the Genesis song ‘Mama’, which really works in setting the tone. (Phil Collins of (later) Genesis was a memorable guest star on MV, as well as having a lot of his music used in that show, creating yet another parallel).

The rest of the gang – Higgins, T.C. and Rick – are away for this episode, appearing only at the very start of the story. But making her return to the series after a long gap, is Jean Bruce Scott as Lt. Maggie Poole, last season in season four’s ‘The Look’ – in the meantime, she had played Caitlin O’Shannessy in Bellisario’s ‘Airwolf’, which had finished (in it’s original version) a couple of months before this episode; with the end of ‘Airwolf’, JBS made a few return appearances in MPI.

Also of note in this episode is the first appearance of Joe Santos as Detective Nolan Page. Santos played Detective Dennis Becker in ‘The Rockford Files’, and would go on to make several more appearances as Page; personally, I always preferred Lt. Tanaka.

Anyway, the plot itself is a very good one. It starts off a little silly, with Mangum struggling, Arthur Fonzarelli-style, to say “tax audit” out loud, but thankfully, soon after, the main plot kicks in. It is gritty yet stylistic, and ‘The Ripper’ (played by Kenneth Tigar) really comes across as an unhinged madman.
And then, there is the red herring – how many of us expected the Ripper to be revealed as the reporter, Jeff Spangler? I certainly did. The ending is also very good too – very sombre, and with a lot of questions left unanswered.

The story has a very mature feel to it, and also, in my view, has a feel that they knew the end of the show was in sight (the series was originally to have ended at the end of this season, with Magnum being killed) and were willing to try new things before the end came.

All-in-all, this is a great episode, and one of the episodes that marks that the series, after losing its way for a couple of seasons, really found its feet again in season seven. I give this one a solid 10 out of 10.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* As with previous episodes with no opening trailer, I wonder if they originally had no trailer or it is just the DVD that misses it off (some other releases, such as ‘Knight Rider’ and ‘The A-Team’, have missing opening trailers but had them on original TV versions). When Five ran the series in 2002-3, all of the trailers were edited off, so I can’t compare to those versions.

* Higgins only appears in one scene in this story, as do T.C. and Rick.

* When Five broadcast this episode in 2003, they edited out some of the shots of the Ripper’s knife – which was a bit pointless, as it could be clearly seen in some other shots. They didn’t edit out the word “whore”, which they would do on other occasions.

[Little Garwood]

This will sound strange, but "Death and Taxes" was the episode that got me away from MPI during its original run. I was 15 when the episode aired and I vividly recall being seriously bothered by it! At the time, I hated it; it was more Miami Vice than Magnum.
Looking back on it now, it's still a dark, disturbing story but in 1986 I don't think there was too much on mainstream network TV that had such disturbing content. I only saw the episode once until two years ago, yet its imagery was burned into my memory. Though I had become accustomed to Hotel Street as a location in past episodes, it never seemed so scummy and unsafe as it did in "Death and Taxes."

I also weigh in the fact that this was a departure for MPI, which made "Death and Taxes" all the more effective. This definitely wasn't the MPI of the forst four seasons! "Where was Tanaka?" I said to myself back then. Having Santos there and not any regular cast members made it clear that this episode was something intense. I had known about the Genesis song "Mama" from a few years prior and liked it, but its inclusion here "reinvented" the song and it really does help create a mood and tell the story.

Incidentally, Hawaii Five-O has a sixth season episode, "The Listener", which features a psychopath taunting McGarrett and co., and the major similarity with "Death and Taxes" is the filming of the villain in the same manner as Milton Collins is. That's the only stylistic comparison, but I had just watched the Five-O ep a day before, so I had two phone-abusing psychos in a short period of time! "The Listener" has some seriously twisted imagery and content as well, so perhaps that and "Death and Taxes" share a kinship.

[Thomas_Magnum_IV]

This is my favorite episode. The music playing with The Ripper's maniacal laugh is amazing

10! Perfect Episode!

[MACattack]

Interesting episode. It has a great soundtrack, creepy plot considering Magnum goes head up against a modern day jack the ripper, and the villain has a very annoying voice. That was the only setback in an otherwise enjoyable episode!

[Carol the Dabbler]

I also found the Ripper's voice very irritating. I understand the writers wanted this guy to sound demented, but it was very annoying to me

I fully agree with all of you who made this point. One thing that really bugs me about some movies (in particular) is that the villains are so darn creepy and disgusting. I believe it would not only be more watchable, but also more true-to-life, to have a villain who comes across as fairly normal -- just consider all those news items after they finally catch some heinous brute, and the guy's neighbors are all saying, well, I just thought he was a little shy.

I still think that Milton Collins had to have known Magnum from Vietnam. He had a 'team ring', he knew about Felipe being Le Boule, and he knew that Magnum had worked the case that ended with La Boule being killed. How could he have known this and how did he get the ring?

I kept thinking the killer had to be someone from Magnum's "team" in Vietnam, because that handful of men were the only ones with The Ring. But the more I thought about it afterward, the more I figured that was just another manifestation of the killer's obsession with Magnum -- witness his driving a similar (maybe identical) car, dressing like Magnum, etc. We know that he had seen Magnum in person at least twice, and had an extensive collection of photos of Magnum -- so he could very easily have had a "team ring" made for himself.

As for knowing about Philipe, maybe he had been able, with his service connections, to talk with some members of the team, just swapping old war stories. They might not have had a clue that they were feeding the obsessions of a psychotic. And Philipe's death was probably in the newspaper.

[steveadl]

Lt. Cook,

I chased around all of the episodes over time and I am sure the 'flashbacks' of the Half Moon Bay Park car chase and chasing the dog around the corner into the alley were created for this episode. Laura and the wine are mentioned from the episode Fragments. You already know about Philipe from the pilot movie.

LHG

I'm with you Luther - I'm positive that Half Moon Bay chase/crash flashback was from a prior episode, but can't recall which.

This is one of my favourite episodes, really resonated with me. Dark, intense, interesting and different story line. Really thought the producers nailed it by having Genesis 'Mama' song throughout the episode - really set the right mood/tone.

Also as LHG pointed out earlier - I really enjoyed seeing so many shots of the estate from different angles and view points. I think this episode and one a few earlier in Season 7 I watched the other day (or perhaps it was towards the end of Season 6 - maybe 'Who is Don Luis Higgins'?) really give us the best views of the guest/boathouse and it's immediate surroundings.

Cheers
Steve

[MACattack]

Nice soundtrack.

[miltontheripper]

I love this episode, best ever in my opinion!

[J.J. Walters]

For a gritty strip club, Hotel Street's legendary Swing Club sure has some strict rules...



No Soliciting
No Weeds (plural?)
No Loitering
No Blocking Entrance
No Table Ho... (Hogging?)
No Loud Talking (??)
No Gambling
No Dancing

I guess you're just supposed to sit there quietly and enjoy the show.