[TV.com rating=9.5; Character development]
Magnum is sure that something is afoot when a pretty English woman brushes him off and instead goes for Higgins. Things get even worse when Magnum is attacked by a sumo wrestler and a dwarf and no-one believes him. A great comedy episode…
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After the serious proceedings of the feature-length / two-part ‘Memories Are Forever’, the light-hearted, comedy-based ‘Tropical Madness’ comes as the perfect antidote.
Things start off with a typical, stereotypical shot of ‘Leeds’ in England. Except Leeds in reality is a sprawling, bustling city, not the little village nestled in the hills that they’d like you to believe here.
In fact, the whole episode is a bit of a stereotype (yes, I’m a Brit); the pretty Jenny (Devon Ericson) is an archetypal posh, well-mannered English girl, of which you see plenty of in American series but are unlikely to meet in real life.
On the face of it, Magnum is a bit arrogant that he expects every woman to fall for him – and how dare one of them go for Higgins instead! But it is written for the purpose of the story, so is excusable I suppose.
This episode features the first two mentions of Magnum, in his narration, mentioning about the “book (or manual) on how to be a world-class Private Investigator” he’ll one day wright; this will become a recurring point in his narrations.
With Magnum on to Jenny and trying to work out what she’s up to, I was a little confused by the forced kiss. What was this trying to accomplish? Surely not one last attempt to make her fall for him? Either way, it leads to a very notable occurrence – Higgins punches Magnum. There are plenty of times in the series that they could quite easily whack each other, but this is the only occasion on which they actually come to blows.
The episode does very well considering its very minimal cast. Similar to ‘Dead Man’s Channel’ a few episodes previously, such a good story is woven that you barely realise that the cast is so small.
This episode is mostly played for laughs. I love Magnum arriving back at Robin’s Nest in just his underwear, having to use his jeans to wipe the oil off of the windshield (don’t ask me why!) after being beaten up by the sumo and the dwarf. The exchanges between himself and Higgins are terrific.
And then there is Higgins preparing for his date with Jenny as the peak of the story approaches. I won’t try and put it into words, but you have to see it; laugh out loud moment.
When I first got into the series, I only initially had a couple of episodes recorded, and of the few that I had, this was the one that I watched the most; it’s a really good one. (Of course, nowadays I have about four recordings of most episodes. Geek alert!)
All-in-all, a very pleasing story, and one of the best of the season.
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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* On the DVD version of this episode, there are no gaps between the acts where the commercial breaks would have been; the story plays right through.
* As mentioned in my review, this is the first time (actually, two times) that Magnum mentions the book on how to become a world-class Private Investigator that plans to one day write.
* This is the first of Higgins’ many “Oh… my… GOD”s in the series; this time as T.C. arrives at the house when he’s expecting Jenny.
* When Harcourt, the sumo and the dwarf let themselves into the house, look at the background behind them – there are a couple of real plants, but the main backdrop is clearly painted!
* I’ve mentioned on previous reviews about Channel 5 sometimes editing the “bloody”s, and this is one case when they did.
The first edit comes as Magnum arrives back in his underwear.
Higgins: “Magnum, you are clad only in your undershorts.
---begin edit---
“…Even for you I find that just a trifle casual.”
Magnum: “Of course I am. Of course. What do you think I used to wipe of the bloody windscreen – the windSHEILD – so I could drive the ruddy car?!”
---end edit as Jenny’s car honks as it approaches---
The second one comes at the end of the episode. I think Agatha here on the forum likes the final line so would be annoyed by this edit!
Magnum: “You know Higgins, that was a bit of alright”.
---begin edit---
Higgins: “Don’t hand me that retched understatement. I was bloody marvellous”.
---end edit--- Magnum turns to smirk at Higgins for a comment he apparently didn’t even make!
Yes, they were very contradictory in that some days they would leave the “bloody”s in, and on other times take them out. I wonder if on this occasion if it was partly due to the episode airing during the school summer holidays, when more children would be watching?
Oh, and as to the debate as to WHY the sumo and the dwarf were after Magnum, well I thought it was to try and get him out of the way, or to add to the feud between Magnum and Higgins that something was going on. Maybe a little of both. Hey, it doesn’t really matter in such a great episode!
Yeah you got me there. Priceless scene anyway.
