Another good, if not classic ep.
[TV.com rating=9.0; Another Great Instalment]
At the King Kamehameha Club, where a surf-ski competition is planned, a Kahuna places a 'curse' on the club. Soon, a member dies, a number of 'accidents' occur and Rick falls ill, but Magnum is sure there’s a more logical explanation. A good episode...
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When I think of great first season episodes of MPI, 'The Curse of the King Kamehameha Club' is one that I always tend to overlook. Which is somewhat unjust, as it is a good episode, if one not to be taken too seriously.
This episode is the last time that we hear the original Ian Fairbairn-Smith theme on the opening credits (the more familiar Mike Post and Pete Carpenter theme had been on the closing credits since 'The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii' a few episodes previously). Although Post and Carpenter’s theme is the more iconic, I really liked Fairbairn-Smith’s theme, and think it suited the early episodes really well.
This episode takes place completely away from the Robin Masters Estate, centring around the King Kamehameha Club (obviously). The story also acts as more of an ensemble, as Higgins, T.C. and Rick also get a lot of screen time together with Magnum (incidentally, this is the first episode where Magnum is called "T.M.", by T.C.).
In fact, there are a lot of first and lasts in this episode, and it really feels as if the show is making the transition into a on-going series: It is the first time we see Magnum on his surf-ski, which will be seen MANY times in the series; it is the last time we see Moki (Remi Abellira), an early recurring KCC barman; and we get our first mention after the Pilot of Rick’s disco, which seemingly went bust before he took over running of the Club.
To look out for, playing pushy news reporter Christine Richards, is Gretchen Corbett, who played the recurring attorney Beth Davenport in that other classic detective show, 'The Rockford Files', for the first five seasons. Corbett reappears as a different character in 'Magnum' in the fourth season's 'The Look'.
The story is a bit silly in places but still a good one, and there are several red herrings as to who might be behind all of the trouble at the Club. The final outcome is a pleasing conclusion, and well played. This does stand out as one of the times that Magnum gets his judgement seriously wrong at one point though (boy was he hard on that poor old man!)
Overall, as I say I tend to overlook this episode, but it’s still a good one. I hadn't watched it for quite a while until I came to review it, and I really enjoyed re-watching it. Not an all-time 'Magnum' classic, but a fair example all the same.
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Other notes, bloopers, and misc.:
* As already mentioned in my review, this is the first episode to take place completely away from Robin’s Nest, instead centring around the King Kamehameha Club.
* Also as mentioned above, this is the first time in the series that T.C. addresses Magnum as “T.M.”. As a side note, many of the early promotional literature that went with the series referred to Magnum as often being nicknamed ‘T.S.’ (Thomas Sullivan), but this was never used in the actual series.
* When Henry, Magnum’s rival surf-skier dies, watch carefully – his surf-ski continues forwards in the ocean and hits the camera, causing it to wobble slightly!
* As with ‘Never Again… Never Again’ and ‘The Ugliest Dog in Hawaii’, the DVD version has the first commercial break abridged (as in, it doesn’t have a gap). The subsequent ad breaks have a gap.
* Several shots of the sugar cane fields burning are quite clearly pre-existing stock footage.
* This one has already been mentioned, but watch the scene in Rick’s office where a storm is blowing outside – close ups of both T.C. and Magnum show the weather to be calmer outside!
* On the closing credits, there is a shot of Magnum looking up and smiling at the camera, from the aforementioned scene with the storm in the background; this shot was not used in the actual episode.
By the way, I’m not sure if I’d class this as a Rick-centric episode; yes it does feature him, but doesn’t centre around him, much more time is spent with Magnum and T.C.
