Texas Lightning (2.18)

[Styles Bitchley]

Lastly regarding the cheap rye whiskey, I have a cultural question. In Canada we call Rye what you yanks call 'Canadian Whisky'...CC, Crown Royal etc., definitely not the cheap stuff. I know better when I travel south than to ask for Rye, because it makes you sound like a hick. So what's with Higgins' comment? Also some old movies and songs like Don McClean's American Pie reference Rye. I've seen the odd bottle of Beam labelled Rye. So, what is the American connnotation of RYE?

And any Brits can weight in if it means anything in Old Blighty.

My understanding of rye has always been that it's Canadian whiskey - what bourbon is the to the US and what scotch is to Scotland. I'm no expert though, so I'm happy to be corrected. Still, I know that single malt scotch snobs often turn their noses up to anything other than a wee dram from Robbie Burns' land - maybe that's what the reference is?

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

In the Southern United States it is Bourbon. To be considered a Rye Whiskey it must be distilled from at least 51% Rye. I hope this helps, and I'm not sure that I really understand it. I just consider it my job to drink it.

[J.J. Walters]

Bourbon is mostly corn-based. Whiskey is mostly rye.

When Higgins is referring to "cheap rye whiskey", he's referring to the old American "straight rye whiskey" of yesteryear, probably ones that havn't been aged appropriately (i.e. "the cheap stuff" on the lower shelf). In the old days, rye was king.

Magnum: My underwear!? What happened to my underwear?!
Higgins: Probably another lost and sordid night with a chorus girl from the Kit Kat Club. Please stand down wind, I'm sure you simply reek of cheap rye whiskey!

[Coops]

I have to agree with the earlier post about this episode. Up until the bittersweet ending I thought this was no more than an average episode. When Selleck gets into the ending monologue, he says the words with such conviction it hits you squarely in the gut. And that, as they say, is the hell of it.

The ending alone raised this one from an average episode to a damned good one.

[Doc Ibold]

Drunk Rick is always entertaining.

[charybdis1966]

I have to agree with the earlier post.....he says the words with such conviction it hits you squarely in the gut. And that, as they say, is the hell of it.

The ending alone raised this one from an average episode to a damned good one.

I liked that closing piece of narration so much that I ripped it off to use on one of my sports blogs as the closing line also.

It's here if anyone is interested : http://arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com/201 ... frenchman/

[zebra3]

I feel like most that can be said about this episode already had been. I notice that there seems to be a major split in the ratings on-site for this one. I thought that as a castaway episode, it was just okay, as a poker episode, it was just okay, but altogether it was pretty good.
I didn't like the woman in this one, her character was annoying and undeveloped and the face that she wasn't willing to tell any details about herself was annoying. Some movies use that to their advantage, adding intrigue to a character. In this, I felt like it detracted from the 50 minute episode we were given.
As previously said, the closing minutes brought the episode up a notch, once again because of the conviction Selleck brings to his role. The mourning scene, which should have been so strong, was actually somewhat weak. The guys drinking was appropriate, the dialogue told me that they were very heartbroken over Magnum's "death," however, the scene didn't share that feeling of heartbroken-ness that they felt with me.

[MaiTaiMan]

This episode was allright, I guess. Not a "Blockbuster", but not terrible either. For some reason it just kind of bored me, and couldn't keep me interested. The woman who was the supposed spy was also not that believable. But, overall the episode was decent.

[grambax]

I'm a little conflicted by this episode. It seems to lack an even tone. Bits are really quite brutal, even if its just implied, the island stuff is mostly light comedy; we then get some great ariel action and the ending turns poignant. Now such twists can be great, and MPI is good at them, but here they didn't quite string together.

I think possibly the problem might be Julie Sommars for me. I note that, despite being a major guest, she's barely been mentioned personally in the forum here. There is nothing actually wrong with her, but she doesn't project the air of mystery, intrigue or depth to really sell the ending, despite the great closing line. The grief of Higgins, TC and Rick over apparently losing Magnum seems to play weakly, too.

I liked the clever cut early on between the two uses of the word "wasted". The simple shot of Higgins and Magnum sharing a drink also struck me as really nice. And the script seemed to have been added to slightly, out on the boat, to allow for the overcast weather!

A solid episode, but one that for me seemed justy a little short of the sum of its parts. All the elements are there, but it didn't come together quite as strongly as I'd have liked.

[Seaver41]

I have to agree with the earlier post about this episode. Up until the bittersweet ending I thought this was no more than an average episode. When Selleck gets into the ending monologue, he says the words with such conviction it hits you squarely in the gut. And that, as they say, is the hell of it.

The ending alone raised this one from an average episode to a damned good one.

I don't know........it seems mor to me that some writer came up with that line and they force fed it to a never-should've-been-romance. I mean, CMON. He figures out she is a spy and has been lying to him, and then we are supposed to believe he is falling for her when he doesn't even know who she really is, inside and out? It's a great line in a bad spot. Still a good episode, but as alluded to earlier by another poster in his review, it falls short of where it could have landed.

Btw, where did the sub go in all of this? What were they waiting for?

I liked the exchange at the hospital and it was done, but when they had Magnum run after her and the subsequent line.......it lost steam.

[Seaver41]

I feel like most that can be said about this episode already had been. I notice that there seems to be a major split in the ratings on-site for this one. I thought that as a castaway episode, it was just okay, as a poker episode, it was just okay, but altogether it was pretty good.
I didn't like the woman in this one, her character was annoying and undeveloped and the face that she wasn't willing to tell any details about herself was annoying. Some movies use that to their advantage, adding intrigue to a character. In this, I felt like it detracted from the 50 minute episode we were given.
As previously said, the closing minutes brought the episode up a notch, once again because of the conviction Selleck brings to his role. The mourning scene, which should have been so strong, was actually somewhat weak. The guys drinking was appropriate, the dialogue told me that they were very heartbroken over Magnum's "death," however, the scene didn't share that feeling of heartbroken-ness that they felt with me.

AWESOME point......just saw this one and they never sold it...........even though we knew he was alive and well, they did not portray that scene with conviction. I get it that the characters probably felt he wasn['t, but come on......try a little.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

A pretty good episode. Not nearly as good as "Try to Remember" (where Lt. Tanaka really stole the show) or "Italian Ice" (it's a bloody gouge!!) but certainly better than "One More Summer".

No mention of Julie Sommars. I guess I like her because she was on MATLOCK as the assistant D.A. and I loved MATLOCK growing up. Not sure what I would think of her if I didn't have the MATLOCK background on her. But there's something about her voice (it has a certain "honeyed" sound to it) which I find very unique. Can't think of another actress that sounds quite like her.

The episode I think has a pretty strong start (with some vicious killings - 2 guys by knife and about a dozen live pigeons being shot as part of target practice by Jack Hogan... who needs skeet, eh?) and a pretty strong later section with the reveal that Jeannie's a spy and some fantastic aerials between the two copters!

Unfortunately much of the middle section is a bit on the dull side - with lots of annoying bickering between Magnum and Jeannie. Plus I didn't buy their romance at all. The very end where Magnum rushes out after her and looks like he's about to cry or something is just plain... weird!! There was absolutely nothing that we saw during the episode that would warrant that type of reaction from him. You'd think his true love Michelle Hue (from "Memories are Forever") just left him or something. I didn't buy it for a second! There was no time for their relationship to develop, they didn't have chemistry, and she lied to him every step of the way. So I have no clue what that was all about. Plus, didn't she look a bit too old for him? Julie Sommars IS older than Selleck.

[snp389]

This has a great story, but I can't watch this Ep. I cannot stand the character JL nor the actress. I reckon she is a complete pain in the arse!
On a good note, I like the scene in the estate's greenhouse.

[SignGuyHPW]

I thought it was good in spots and poorly done in other spots, but was overall a good episode. The continual false stories from JL made it kind of hard to follow what was really happening and I'm not sure I completely understood what exactly happened. They also never explained why Magnum didn't have a gun on him when he was working as a bodygaurd nor why he was so willing to side with a woman that had, obviously, not given him the correct story as to why they were there. The scene where they're mourning Magnum and then Higgins just randomly decides that Magnum isn't dead was odd. Then they have the strange circular reasoning as to why they are searching the area they picked. The bright spots were the villans being really evil and the fantastic helicopter chase. Magnum being, fairly, owed $300,000 for his fee to coming away empty handed was kind of a cool theme too.

[EZiller]

“Texas Lightning” is really one of my favorite episodes, one I’ll always watch if it comes up. Some good action and plot twists, plus I do like Julie Sommars as Jeannie. She’s not a top ten MPI babe, but I do find her sexy. I guess it’s implied that her and Magnum had sex during their evening on the island. Upon further review, as the zebras used to say in the NFL, during a recent viewing I noticed that Julie was wearing her dark nylons in the scene around the fire when they started making out. The following morning she wasn’t wearing them. So given that and the way their relationship had progressed to the point that Jeannie wanted TSM to meet her in Europe, I’d say they had a fairly intense evening.

Great chase scene in the chopper.Matt Thompson is an excellent villain, could have qualified as a Bond bad guy. Higgins, Rick and TC do a great job of coming to the rescue. 9.5