My Top 25 Magnum Episodes article on Medium.

[Magnum4eva]

It's not easy counting down 25 of what I feel are the best Magnum had to offer. Of course I could've made this a top 50 or top 40 list, but then it'd be longer than it already is.


https://kendallrivers.medium.com/my-top ... 475e259039

[JungleBird]

Thanks for posting! I feel it's indeed hard to come up with a definitive list but you have listed some great ones there for shure!

[Magnum4eva]

Thanks for posting! I feel it's indeed hard to come up with a definitive list but you have listed some great ones there for shure!

Thanks for reading! And ugh, I can't tell ya how hard it was narrowing it down. Some great ones I couldn't even get in there like Sense of Debt, Distant Relative, Black on White, Past Tense etc.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

It's not easy counting down 25 of what I feel are the best Magnum had to offer. Of course I could've made this a top 50 or top 40 list, but then it'd be longer than it already is.


https://kendallrivers.medium.com/my-top ... 475e259039

This is your list? Wow, great work!! I enjoyed reading it. Of course I had to skip reading those that I haven't seen yet, lest there be spoilers.

I can tell you that my top 4 would be: Did You See the Sunrise, Memories are Forever, Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii, and Death and Taxes.

[Magnum4eva]

It's not easy counting down 25 of what I feel are the best Magnum had to offer. Of course I could've made this a top 50 or top 40 list, but then it'd be longer than it already is.


https://kendallrivers.medium.com/my-top ... 475e259039

This is your list? Wow, great work!! I enjoyed reading it. Of course I had to skip reading those that I haven't seen yet, lest there be spoilers.

I can tell you that my top 4 would be: Did You See the Sunrise, Memories are Forever, Don't Eat the Snow in Hawaii, and Death and Taxes.

Well, thank you! let me tell ya it was NOT easy lol.

[eagle]

Great list. I'm not sure I could come up with my top 25 like that, but the pilot movie was my favorite, or one of my favorites anyway.

[80s Big Hair]

It is strange that your top show, All For One (S05E15-16), did not even crack the top 40 in the poll results from this site. Personally I really liked it and it would be somewhere in my top 25, probably somewhere in my top 10.

It is obvious that you put some thought into your list which is kind of rare now. Most "best of" lists found on the internet are seemingly random. Good work.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

It's not easy counting down 25 of what I feel are the best Magnum had to offer. Of course I could've made this a top 50 or top 40 list, but then it'd be longer than it already is.

https://kendallrivers.medium.com/my-top ... 475e259039

Hi Magnum4eva,
Terrific job on your list, I only disagreed on one point.

I feel quite strongly about an episode you omitted, namely "Way of the Stalking Horse" from season six.
I put it in the top 3 episodes by a wide margin, for what it illustrates about Magnum the man.

It also shows what a great director can do to elevate material, you have to really pay attention to all the visuals and think about them.
This episode is largely about the series premise, that of a haunted Magnum trying to put behind him his wartime past, he wants a new life and forget/erase the
efficient killing machine he had to become in the service.
Note the cross shots of Driscoll and Magnum both healing from their wounds, part of the many uncomfortable parallels between the two opposites.
Both are tall with mustaches, one dark and one blonde. Magnum has taken over Driscoll's old room at the hotel to recover in, as Driscoll had.
Both received vital help from Mary Elizabeth when they needed it most.
Both have pain in their left arms from a gunshot. Driscoll is a pro, totally focused on getting his kill, he is the first hit man in 10 years to get to Theo Wolfe,
so focused he violates the "rules" as Ice Pick terms them.
In a previous episode Tyler McKinney(Robert Forrester) once lauded the same focus in the also (continuously) rules breaking Magnum, he tells a stone faced - haunted - Magnum
that "he had no equal in bringing back the scalps."
While Driscoll and Magnum both possess the intangibles that make for good assassins, at least with Magnum there was/is a moral dimension to his killing,
though that is a fine point.
When Magnum goes back to the estate guesthouse to get his gun, he finds TC had already beaten him there, TC being more hip to Magnum's demons
than anyone else. And Magnum knows it, "what are you doing here" he coldly barks at TC.
There is no need really for TC to explain, so as Magnum tosses his extra ammo clips in a bag, TC says "Your going to open that wound again, aren't you", referring
both to TM's present gunshot wound and the physic one from his wartime "scalp hunting."
Again, the whole series is about Magnum and pals recovering from their painful past, so I think this scene is one of the best in the series, both actors doing
much with just a few words.

Magnum opens the drawer next to his bed and finds his pistol missing. He chillingly gives TC a "if looks could kill" glare that speaks volumes.
His wounded arm dangles at his side, symbolic of his moral, physical and spiritual regression.
TC fights for the better angels of Magnum's nature, "You simply cannot go after him."

Magnum has for years lightheartedly BS ed his pals for his own ends, but this time he turns his back to TC.
Because this time he is going to betray their friendship with an outright whopper of a lie and he can't look TC in the eye -

"I never said I was, I'm just looking for a change of scenery. A change of location till I can recuperate. That's all."

TC knowingly sighs, then tosses Magnum's gun on to the bed.
Quick cut to sleazy streets with hookers leaving the hotel Magnum is staying in, a visual comment on how low he has sunk, as Magnum's voice over comments,

"There are some things you'd think you never get used to in life. Like being lied to.
Or being shot. But I noticed over the years that left to it's own devices the mind has an amazing capacity to accept the unacceptable.
And I never wanted to let that happen to me. At least not without putting up a good fight."

But you just did that - accept being lied to - with the lie you told TC, because you wanted to go hunt your mirror image who had not only lied to you(to get at Wolfe)
but shot you as well.
As for Mary Elizabeth, she minsters to both Driscoll and Magnum's needs, sustained them both at their lowest in a hot sheets hotel, like a gutter
guardian angel helping two sinners.
I wonder if she was there to help save/redeem them, she saves Magnums life at least and then at the end leads him out of the dark underground nether world
he had sunk in to. In a old 1940's flick she would have been an angel, she'd be the kind of angel TM would get.

Direction, writing, acting, stripping the series hero down to his bones, this episode has it all.
There might be episodes more important to the series overall sojourn, but none better produced.

In my humble opinion at least.

[Magnum4eva]

Great list. I'm not sure I could come up with my top 25 like that, but the pilot movie was my favorite, or one of my favorites anyway.

Definitely one of the all time great pilots ever in my humble opinion. Thanks for reading!

[Magnum4eva]

It is strange that your top show, All For One (S05E15-16), did not even crack the top 40 in the poll results from this site. Personally I really liked it and it would be somewhere in my top 25, probably somewhere in my top 10.

It is obvious that you put some thought into your list which is kind of rare now. Most "best of" lists found on the internet are seemingly random. Good work.

Thanks. I work pretty hard to put some real thought and depth into my articles because I know what I like to read and my favorite types of articles like these go into some detail and put that extra care into it which I always strive to do, though imo not always successfully lol.

[Magnum4eva]

It's not easy counting down 25 of what I feel are the best Magnum had to offer. Of course I could've made this a top 50 or top 40 list, but then it'd be longer than it already is.

https://kendallrivers.medium.com/my-top ... 475e259039

Hi Magnum4eva,
Terrific job on your list, I only disagreed on one point.

I feel quite strongly about an episode you omitted, namely "Way of the Stalking Horse" from season six.
I put it in the top 3 episodes by a wide margin, for what it illustrates about Magnum the man.

It also shows what a great director can do to elevate material, you have to really pay attention to all the visuals and think about them.
This episode is largely about the series premise, that of a haunted Magnum trying to put behind him his wartime past, he wants a new life and forget/erase the
efficient killing machine he had to become in the service.
Note the cross shots of Driscoll and Magnum both healing from their wounds, part of the many uncomfortable parallels between the two opposites.
Both are tall with mustaches, one dark and one blonde. Magnum has taken over Driscoll's old room at the hotel to recover in, as Driscoll had.
Both received vital help from Mary Elizabeth when they needed it most.
Both have pain in their left arms from a gunshot. Driscoll is a pro, totally focused on getting his kill, he is the first hit man in 10 years to get to Theo Wolfe,
so focused he violates the "rules" as Ice Pick terms them.
In a previous episode Tyler McKinney(Robert Forrester) once lauded the same focus in the also (continuously) rules breaking Magnum, he tells a stone faced - haunted - Magnum
that "he had no equal in bringing back the scalps."
While Driscoll and Magnum both possess the intangibles that make for good assassins, at least with Magnum there was/is a moral dimension to his killing,
though that is a fine point.
When Magnum goes back to the estate guesthouse to get his gun, he finds TC had already beaten him there, TC being more hip to Magnum's demons
than anyone else. And Magnum knows it, "what are you doing here" he coldly barks at TC.
There is no need really for TC to explain, so as Magnum tosses his extra ammo clips in a bag, TC says "Your going to open that wound again, aren't you", referring
both to TM's present gunshot wound and the physic one from his wartime "scalp hunting."
Again, the whole series is about Magnum and pals recovering from their painful past, so I think this scene is one of the best in the series, both actors doing
much with just a few words.

Magnum opens the drawer next to his bed and finds his pistol missing. He chillingly gives TC a "if looks could kill" glare that speaks volumes.
His wounded arm dangles at his side, symbolic of his moral, physical and spiritual regression.
TC fights for the better angels of Magnum's nature, "You simply cannot go after him."

Magnum has for years lightheartedly BS ed his pals for his own ends, but this time he turns his back to TC.
Because this time he is going to betray their friendship with an outright whopper of a lie and he can't look TC in the eye -

"I never said I was, I'm just looking for a change of scenery. A change of location till I can recuperate. That's all."

TC knowingly sighs, then tosses Magnum's gun on to the bed.
Quick cut to sleazy streets with hookers leaving the hotel Magnum is staying in, a visual comment on how low he has sunk, as Magnum's voice over comments,

"There are some things you'd think you never get used to in life. Like being lied to.
Or being shot. But I noticed over the years that left to it's own devices the mind has an amazing capacity to accept the unacceptable.
And I never wanted to let that happen to me. At least not without putting up a good fight."

But you just did that - accept being lied to - with the lie you told TC, because you wanted to go hunt your mirror image who had not only lied to you(to get at Wolfe)
but shot you as well.
As for Mary Elizabeth, she minsters to both Driscoll and Magnum's needs, sustained them both at their lowest in a hot sheets hotel, like a gutter
guardian angel helping two sinners.
I wonder if she was there to help save/redeem them, she saves Magnums life at least and then at the end leads him out of the dark underground nether world
he had sunk in to. In a old 1940's flick she would have been an angel, she'd be the kind of angel TM would get.

Direction, writing, acting, stripping the series hero down to his bones, this episode has it all.
There might be episodes more important to the series overall sojourn, but none better produced.

In my humble opinion at least.

Hi, Luther. Boy, you sure do make a great case for that episode, which I admit didn't even cross my mind, but most definitely like you said a very strong one that illustrated the entire premise of the series quite excellently. That shows how much talent was in front of and behind the camera of this show, where even in episodes that don't get recognized or talked about as much there are strokes of brilliance that make them memorable.