Three Minus Two (2.22)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the second season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
6
6%
9.0 (Excellent)
6
6%
8.5 (Very Good)
21
23%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
30
32%
7.5 (Decent)
10
11%
7.0 (Average at Best)
13
14%
6.5 (Not So Good)
3
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
3
3%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 93

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J.J. Walters
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#16 Post by J.J. Walters »

I just noticed this, but similiar to "No Need to Know", this episode features a rare peak inside the boathouse via the lanai door....

Image

There is definitely some stairs that lead down to the lower level.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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rubber chicken
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#17 Post by rubber chicken »

Personally, I think they added the railing to make it seem like there were stairs there, but the railing just goes into the (second) floor of the boathouse. That's my take on it at least, after looking at a number of those quick shots. :?

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Carmen
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#18 Post by Carmen »

Noticed something odd when I searched for the "Fourth wall breakings":
When Thomas and T.C. are searching for clues on the blown up car a police car is passsing by, they both get down to hide, but they lay next to the car on the left side, police car drives by and we can see the front of the wrecked car. To hide they`d have to crawl behind the car, what they didn`t and there was nothing between them and the policecar. How blind are those officers supposed to be??
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

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Jay-Firestorm
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#19 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Friday’s second review; I never really cared for this ep. I’m looking forward to starting the third season next week, which is, along with the fourth, considered as the show’s “golden age” by some.

[rating 7.0] I accidentally rated the ep on this thread’s poll as 9.5, grr!

A leading fashion designer hires Magnum when one of her partners is murdered, and she fears that she and her remaining partner are next on the list. A weak and disappointing closing episode to the season…

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As mentioned elsewhere, this episode, despite being shown last in the season, has signs of being one of the first produced for the second year, evidenced by a number of shots in the story that have been used on the opening credits all season (most notably the famous ‘snorkelling girl shot’).
As I mentioned on my review for ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’, that wonderfully silly episode would have been a great finale to the season, whereas ‘Three Minus Two’ is very much a dull and unengaging affair. It feels like a leftover episode tacked on to the end of the season; perhaps the ‘powers that be’ didn’t like it any more than I do, and didn’t select for it to be screened earlier.

The episode is the only entry in the series to be written by Robert Van Scoyk; although he has some other detective show writing credits under his belt, he doesn’t feel to be really at home with MPI, and maybe this is one reason why the episode doesn’t come off too well.

Fashion designer Jan Kona is played by Special Guest Star Jill St. John. Although she’s not terrible, she doesn’t really bring much to the part in my opinion, and the role could just as easily been filled by a standard guest part actress.

The story feels to be very padded, and – as I’ve said about several episodes in the second season – could really have done with a b-plot to round things out a bit more. I found the murder plot to be dull and uninteresting, and found the final revelation as to who the killer was to be somewhat unconvincing. In some ways, this feels like a ‘filler’ episode used to bump the season’s episode count up.

Saving this episode from an even lower rating than I’ve given it, is a few saving graces – a couple of nice locations (Magnum and Jan by the ocean, and Magnum and T.C. in the Police impound yard), and some nice character touches, such as T.C. taking the photos, and a couple of good Higgins moments.

All-in-all, not really one of my favourite episodes. Why oh why couldn’t they have finished on ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’?

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Other notes, bloopers, and misc.:

* The shot of Magnum taking the expensive camera and (pretending?) to nearly drop it is edited different in the episode to the opening credits. On the credits, he pretends to drop it, and flips the equipment case lid down. In the episode itself, he goes to drop it, and we cut to some close-up reaction shots, with the lid heard to close off-camera. Trivial? Very!

* On the DVD version of this episode, all commercial breaks except for the third one are abridged.

* Also, with regards to the Ferrari looking orange, one possibility (assuming it wasn’t being watched on DVD) is that it was an old film copy; Film can age and make colours look different to intended (some old ‘Star Wars’ film copies make Darth Vader look navy blue, for example!); I’ve got a few MPI episodes repeated by ITV from when the film was aging, and the Ferrari does indeed look orange here and there. …Just thought I’d mention it!

-----
Second season overview.
Well, the second season certainly is a mixed bag. After starting with the disappointing 'Billy Joe Bob', it has its greats (maybe none more so than the feature-length / two-part ‘Memories Are Forever’), but also suffers from a noticeably dip in the middle, with a string of silly and weak episodes.
Other highlights for me include ‘The Woman On The Beach’ (including Magnum’s first brush with the supernatural), ‘Italian Ice’, and the oft overlooked ‘Texas Lightning’, as well as out-and-out comedies such as ‘Tropical Madness’ and ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’.
However, as mentioned, the season also has its poorer offerings, such as the dull ‘The Sixth Position’, and the just plain daft ‘Ghost Writer’.
The season also marked the arrival of a new recurring character, Lt. Tanaka (Kwan Hi Lim), who would liven up many future episodes. (Glenn Cannon also began his minor recurring role as Doc. Ibold).
MPI can be split in two halves – the first four seasons, and the final four seasons. I like the first four best, but of those four, I’d have to say the second season is the most uneven, and with the lowest hit rate. But that’s not to say it doesn’t have its hits.
JAY FIRESTORM

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J.J. Walters
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#20 Post by J.J. Walters »

"Snorkel Shot" Desktop Wallpaper (1360x768)

:)

Thanks Jeff!
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#21 Post by Tuan Vu »

This episode was just so-so. I couldn't get interested in the story, but it was neat to see Julia Nickson-Soul, who starred in Rambo II a couple of years later (you can see one of her best scenes with Sylvester Stallone here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeU25_zA ... re=related). In this episode, she played Lani, one of the swimsuit (um, I mean, fashion) models.

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#22 Post by charybdis1966 »

I just saw this on DMAX today and while it's not a stand out episode it had some nice touches characterisation wise.
What got me was some of the commentary given by the first victim a few minutes before he got shot was so dated and non-pc. He couldn't get away with saying that kinda stuff today, but then most mainstream TV channels no longer show "Beauty pagents" over here in the UK anymore where that sort of commentary is de riguer.

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#23 Post by zebra3 »

I just saw Rambo III, and upon researching the movies, apparently the girl (I believe she was supposed to be Taiwanese) from Rambo II was also in this episode. It's been a while since I've seen it, but now I want to hear her voice again and see her in this role. Her name is Julia Nickson
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Styles Bitchley
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#24 Post by Styles Bitchley »

zebra3 wrote:I just saw Rambo III, and upon researching the movies, apparently the girl (I believe she was supposed to be Taiwanese) from Rambo II was also in this episode. It's been a while since I've seen it, but now I want to hear her voice again and see her in this role. Her name is Julia Nickson
Don't remember her in Rambo or in this episode, but if you like her, you have to check out the excellent Noble House miniseries!
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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miltontheripper
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#25 Post by miltontheripper »

I have to say I think this is an excellent episode. Great guest star with Jill St John and nice scenes with the swimsuit models!

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#26 Post by MaiTaiMan »

In all honesty the plot of this episode is somewhat silly and even predictable.

However, I love the interesting cast choices including Jill St. John from the 007 movie "Diamonds Are Forever", and Beverly Garland who I'll always remember as Kate Jackson's mother in "Scarecrow & Mrs. King".

This episode also includes several scenes noteably remembered in the opening montage during the starting theme song, including: the exploding old white Buick, T.C. as the goofy photographer, and of course the famous one with Magnum staring at the butt of the girl in the ocean while helping her learn how to snorkel. :wink:

These are actually what make this episode enjoyable and this was a good season finale--ending on a humorous and "light" note. :)
"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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#27 Post by TheLads »

Jay-Firestorm wrote:As I mentioned on my review for ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’, that wonderfully silly episode would have been a great finale to the season, whereas ‘Three Minus Two’ is very much a dull and unengaging affair. It feels like a leftover episode tacked on to the end of the season; perhaps the ‘powers that be’ didn’t like it any more than I do, and didn’t select for it to be screened earlier.

All-in-all, not really one of my favourite episodes. Why oh why couldn’t they have finished on ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’?
Season 1 ended on a similar note, with "J. Digger Doyle" running as the second-to-last episode to "Beauty Knows No Pain," when it really should have been the season closer.

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Flub?

#28 Post by RamblerReb »

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is a flub or not. When the announcer guy is backshot at the beginning (with the usual incorrect "thwip, thwip" sound effects-- suppressed fire is still fairly loud, it just doesn't sound like gunshots), the slide of the pistol (looks like a Walther P-38 ) locks back after the second shot. Either the killer was extremely confident in his marksmanship or the armorer only put as many blanks as the scene called for in the magazine. I've seen it before in other shows, but it still jars me out of the suspension of disbelief.

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#29 Post by Seaver41 »

ho hum episode. Finally finished season 2

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Re: Three Minus Two (2.22)

#30 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

I noticed a few flubs:

1) When Higgins stands in front of a collection of yearbooks in the study, the yearbooks are not ordered by year, but placed totally at random. That's very unlike Higgins.

2) When Higgins meets Jan Kona, he congratulates her on her current swimwear collection. Again, being interested in swimwear fashion is very out of character for Higgins.

3) When the cops are questioning Jan by the sea wall, Magnum mentions the car bomb. The cops never mentioned anything about a car bomb, at least while Magnum was present.

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