L.A. (1) (7.1)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the seventh season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
4
5%
9.5 (One of the Best)
10
12%
9.0 (Excellent)
8
10%
8.5 (Very Good)
17
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
15
18%
7.5 (Decent)
10
12%
7.0 (Average at Best)
8
10%
6.5 (Not So Good)
7
9%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
2%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 82

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IKnowWhatYoureThinking
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#16 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

Artie Canoe wrote:Did anyone else see the connection between the car pulling away after killing Marti and Det. McKee's car on the news are the same one? I'm guessing it's obvious and I should have realized it but it just helped me put the story together a little better. :oops:
I noticed that and you could see by the look in TM's eyes he knew as well. Hey, will all miss things here and there.

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N1095A
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#17 Post by N1095A »

I spent almost the entire episode suspecting Marti was killed by someone who actually paid to see her comedy show.

The office in the police station Where TM meets with Det. Mckee is the same office used by "Downtown Brown" through out the series run of Simon & Simon.
"But Higgins, I can explain."

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Jay-Firestorm
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#18 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Wow, am I really up to the seventh season already? Anyway, although I warmed to it slightly more this time around, I consider this to be the weakest of the feature-length stories…

[rating=7.0]

Magnum is in Los Angeles to issue a subpoena to a film company, but the young comedienne who befriends him is murdered. Meanwhile, a member of T.C.’s youth baseball team is in great danger. The weakest of the show’s feature-length eps…

-----

This review contains spoilers.

It is often said that ‘Magnum, p.i.’ picked up and found its feet again in its seventh season. And while this is true in many ways, there is still the odd dud offering – and this story ranks as by far the weakest of the show’s feature-length / two-parters.

All of the show’s other two-hour episodes are generally very strong and memorable (I in particularly like the second season’s ‘Memories Are Forever’ and season three’s ‘Did You See The Sunrise?’), but in the case of ‘L.A.’, I find the story to be with very little charm or warmth. Saying that, coming to re-watch it to review, I find it marginally better than I did first time around.

Marti, the young comedienne that befriends Magnum at the start of the story, is about as funny as toothache. Although it sounds a terribly callous thing to say, thankfully she is killed soon after – I was worried was worried we’d have to endure her for the whole story!

Probably the strongest point about this story is Dana Delany, who has a great on-screen spark with Tom Selleck. She is not one of my favourite guest stars from the show by any means, but is the only thing that is of any merit about this overall poor tale.

Meanwhile, T.C., Rick and Higgins have their own separate plot back in Hawaii, involving a young member of T.C.’s baseball team whose chop shop friends have been blown away by thugs. I found this story in particular to be without much interest or flair.
The only point of note here is that the young teen is played by Alfonso Ribeiro, who would go on to co-star in the 1990s sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’.

Without wanting to single one particular person out, this episode is written by one of the producers, Chris Abbott-Fish. She always seemed to want to take the show away from its roots as a drama-comedy-adventure series, into more straight dramas, and this one very much sums that up for me; it is quite a long way away from the MPI we knew in early seasons.

And after all this, I still have Part II to sit though. Oh no…

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Like other episodes with no opening trailer on the DVD, I wonder if the Region 2 version has the trailer intact?

* The title of this episode appears about 2/3 of the way down, in the centre, instead of the usual bottom left, and is a much bigger font than usual.

* Although he has been seen with an earring since season six, here T.C. wears a much bigger and more noticeable earring in his right ear.

* One of the shots shows Burt Reynolds’ star on the walk of fame; Magnum will be mistaken for Reynolds in Part II of this story.

* Marti is living a similar life to Magnum, living on the grounds of a millionaire (she even has a rubber chicken like him!). In the driveway we see a Porsche parked – when MPI began, the producers intended Magnum to drive a Porsche, but Porsche declined to provide the cars, so they opted for Ferrari instead.

* When Five in the U.K. broadcast this episode in 2003, it has the scene and follow-up news report with Kimberly McArthur. I believe this was not featured on the DVD version as they could not clear the rights to use her; similar happened on ‘The Fall Guy’ Season 1 DVD sets, when they could not secure the rights to feature Paul Williams, and had to edit around him. DVD rights are different to broadcast rights.

* …Anyway, when Five broadcast this episode, they took the feature-length version and edited it into two halves themselves. (They did not seem to shorten it as they sometimes did with the feature-lengths). Part I finishes at a strange point, at night as Cynthia’s car pulls up at the house for Magnum to sneak inside. Instead of the instrumental piece used over the closing credits, Five substituted the opening theme.
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#19 Post by MrMoustache »

This was actually the first MPI story that I had trouble watching. there was really something "off" about the episode that failed to draw me in and I actually stopped it to go to to sleep, which has never happened before :shock: I also had to keep rewinding it as I wasn't getting some of the minor plot points. I think they were going for a "big time" feel with it but they just didn't pull it off for a number of reasons. I think mostly it failed in feeling too "forced"; maybe because the writers were operating outside of their comfort zone. Problems I had in no order:

Editing flubs - there were a few, but the most notable was after the shootout at the safe house, it cuts in the middle of the action cutting of a guy jumping in mid air and the music. the comedy / gun fight overlap was in poor taste. the routine about zombie hookers and the guys trying to kill the kids..maybe they were trying to be hip there..

TM pausing when comedienne look alike walks by during "lovers quarrel" - strange. We know her murder is something that would bother TM, but it's not substantiated in the episode. It didn't seem to bother him when it happened or during the investigation.

Dental Lawyer turns entertainment lawyer - I dont get it.

There were specific lines I had trouble with as well, like they were artificially injected into the script to add drama, but IMHO failed:

"I know I usually miss all your birthdays" - when the lawyer hands him the present. They didn't know each other when TM served her the litigation. It was such an obvious continuity error it ruined my suspension of disbelief.

"I had no where else to go" - TM shows up at the lawyers house after the gunfight at the safe house. Did I miss something? was the lawyer supposed to be an old girlfriend? He was there, more or less on Robin's behalf, and yet he had no money for expenses? No rental car, no hotel room? It was obviously wedged into the script to provide a romantic backdrop, but I don't think it worked.

"You're in too deep, you're coming with me" - TM is usually very direct about his clients safety, even though they do manage to tag along or show up unannounced. I think the line was to make him look more like a tough guy to fit the "bigness" of the episode, but it really doesn't work for the TM we've all come to know and love.
Last edited by MrMoustache on Thu Sep 17, 2009 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

MrMoustache
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#20 Post by MrMoustache »

"The only point of note here is that the young teen is played by Alfonso Ribeiro, who would go on to co-star in the 1990s sitcom ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’. "

I agree, but don't forget he was also in "Silver Spoons" as a regular during almost the same time period as this episode.

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IKnowWhatYoureThinking
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#21 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

And we all know who else was in Silver Spoons....

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Little Garwood
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#22 Post by Little Garwood »

I voted "Not so good." Some of the editing/pacing was off and did Cynthia know the cop, Frank? She sees him on the bench undercover and they just start chatting. I probably wasn't paying attention.
The real problem here is that there is absolutely NO CHEMISTRY between Magnum and Cynthia.
Gotta disagree. I'm by no means a Dana Delany fan, but she and TS do just fine together. However, her character is way wrong for Magnum and their proposed marriage seems tacked on.
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Carol the Dabbler
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#23 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

MrMoustache wrote:There were specific lines I had trouble with as well, like they were artificially injected into the script to add drama, but IMHO failed:

"I know I usually miss all your birthdays" - when the lawyer hands him the present. They didn't know each other when TM served her the litigation. It was such an obvious continuity error it ruined my suspension of disbelief.
She was joking. Magnum seems taken aback for a split second, but then he sort of plays along.

Hubby & I really enjoyed this two-parter, BTW.
Carol

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Styles Bitchley
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#24 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Lots of strong opinions about this episode - mostly negative, it seems.

Thus, I'll go ahead and counter with my 'thumbs up'. I didn't think Cynthia had perfect chemistry with Magnum, but it wasn't terrible. Truthfully, I don't really like Dana Delany as an actress, but in this episode I ended up really engaged with the relationship. And the marriage proposal was surprising, out of character, yet somehow believable. The comedy act was embarrassing to watch, but that's pretty standard fare for this scenario. it was just a short sequence to establish that she's a comedienne. It was bad. Whatever. You now have all the elements in place for the story line though.

I don't know why, but I seem to like the episodes that take Magnum out of his normal environment. Not that I'd like to see the character relocate or anything, but I think this episode and "Going Home" (6.7) broaden the character and I feel like I know him better.

Overall, a very enjoyable two-parter.
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#25 Post by J.J. Walters »

This one has grown on me, as well. It has a high production quality and a really great Post/Carpenter score. You can tell they must have spent quite a bit of time on it. And Dana Delany. Dana Delany. :)

Something interesting caught my eye. At the 7:06 mark, just before we see Marti's comedy routine, a brief shot of a large mural is seen.

Image

This was the "Legends of Hollywood" mural, created by artist Eloy Torrez. It used to cover the entire wall of a building at the southeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Hudson Avenue. Further to the right, just off camera view, is the great James Dean. It was unfortunately destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A little bit of Hollywood history preserved in a Magnum episode. :)
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#26 Post by AmandaByNight »

I already wrote my feelings in the part two section of this forum, but since the comedian who gets killed in the first half, I thought I'd post about her here...

I sort of like the character, but her standup routine is SO horrible. It's always a little fascinating and hilarious when I watch television shows that either try to write music for musician characters, create fashion for designer characters or write comedy for comedian characters. I don't know why it's so hard, but a lot of time, it just fails.

While the jokes are horrible, the way they intersperse the scenes from her act to the boys being killed in Hawaii is kind of brilliant. I am always amazed at how a bad standup act can be so friggin' effective with a shootout!

Also, anyone else notice how tiny the actress' waist was? Wow!

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#27 Post by MaiTaiMan »

I was somewhat disappointed with this season premiere. All the other 2-part premieres had been awesome...this one just never quite makes it.

The plot, and subsequently the episode, just sort of jumps around all over, and is even bizarre in other parts. The possibility of Magnum marrying the Dana Delaney character was strange and seemed very "forced".

Dana Delaney is a beautiful actress and was enjoyable to watch in this episode/s. There was some decent action and suspense scenes too. But, other than that...this one was a "dud" for not only a 2-parter but as a season premiere too. :?

(I put this same review for Part 2)
"It was more ironic than a Robin Masters novel--she thought he was dead, he thought she was dead...and only the chauffeur knew the truth! He should have been the butler!" "Lest We Forget"

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Carol the Dabbler
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#28 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

Styles Bitchley wrote:The comedy act was embarrassing to watch, but that's pretty standard fare for this scenario, it was just a short sequence to establish that she's a comedienne.
AmandaByNight wrote:While the jokes are horrible, the way they intersperse the scenes from her act to the boys being killed in Hawaii is kind of brilliant.
I never thought of that before, but you're right, Styles. When there's a comedian character -- even in a comedy show with good writers -- their act is typically pretty lame. And Amanda makes a good point, that the act was included here partly as contrast to some violent scenes.

It occurs to me that "acts" of this kind are probably sort of blah on purpose. If one was genuinely funny, we'd be annoyed if all we heard was snippets of it as background to the main action. We'd be disappointed if the act only lasted a couple of minutes before the plot took up again. And if the act was used as a counterpoint to any sort of unpleasantness, the contrast might be too stark. With a lame act, all those problems disappear. In fact, we're quite relieved when it ends!
Carol

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#29 Post by miltontheripper »

N1095A wrote:I spent almost the entire episode suspecting Marti was killed by someone who actually paid to see her comedy show.

The office in the police station Where TM meets with Det. Mckee is the same office used by "Downtown Brown" through out the series run of Simon & Simon.
Ha ha yes! That comedy show was horrible! The LA episodes are not bad but are missing some of my favorite elements of the show (TM in Hawaii, TM's friends, estate, ferrari, etc). And the seperate story lines of TM in LA and TC, Rick, and Big Hig in Hawaii made for a less than stellar story. With all this being said, TM's relationship with Diana D. Made for an interesting "love interest" and I like the episode coming up where she visits Hawaii.

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#30 Post by Braddah Kimo »

Watching the ep now.... waiting, for about the only reason for me to own a telly, Sons of Anarchy...

Detecitve sez the usual out of scriptwriting 101. "That's all you got?"

Wot, Thomas is gonna say, "Nah. I was joking. I actually saw the whole thing go down!

Annoying ep. With the car talking to TM telling him what to do.
the wierd stage act of the blonde.
the haole argumentation on the peoplemover at the airport... jeez.

On set in L.A., he tells the PA 'well to tell ya the truth we were high school sweetheats...." he lies.
Dana is so cute; "hey c'mon. We're havin a fight here." I like her sensitivity. She knows somethings wrong and has empathy for TM.

I remember that "Legends of Hollywood" mural...

The live female newscaster on location at the home/uzi/wrentawreck explosion while the camera shows footage of the car burning says; This rental car which was 'photographed' earlier this evening... wotda hell THAT mean? 'was photographed'? weird.

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