Season 3 General Discussion

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the third season

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KingKC
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#11 Post by KingKC »

Season 3 may have been the best rated season according to Nielsen (#4) but it was definitely middle of the pack at 5th out of 8 in my average episode ratings in Best and Weakest Seasons. Maybe die-hard fans are more critical than the general television viewing public. It was pretty hum-drum if you ask me but then again, I stayed with MPI religiously.

It started out with a bang (literally) and arguably the best episode of the series and also gave us arguably the worst show of the series. (Did You See the Sunrise and Two Birds of a Feather). It ended with a figurative bang when someone got tossed off a lighthouse. (Did anything ever come of that besides Rick's look of astonishment? I barely remembered that when I watched it on this site and don't remember anything else but it has been over 30 years.)

It had a bunch of recognizable names as guest stars including Morgan Fairchild, Ernest Borgnine, Henry Gibson, Annie Potts, William Lucking, Joanna Kerns, Stuart Margolin, James Doohan and the Simon brothers but apparently not enough to make it a truly memorable season in my book. It introduced us to the character of Carol Baldwin and the guest star of Kathleen Lloyd but not as each other.

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eagle
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#12 Post by eagle »

I really enjoyed the first half of season 3, but I find that the last half of season 3 (or maybe it's the last 1/3 or 1/4) brings some of my least favorite episodes, and I have to force myself to watch. It's nice to see that I don't seem to be the only one for whom that is true. I have the last 4 eps to watch before I move on to season 4.

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nha trang
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#13 Post by nha trang »

My Season 3 ratings for my second complete series rewatch:

"9.5" - 3.1 and 3.2 "Did You See The Sunrise?"
"8.5" - 3.7 "Flashback" ; 3.13 "Of Sound Mind" ; 3.16 "The Birdman of Budapest" ; 3.18 "Forty Years From Sand Island" ;
3.23 "Faith and Begorrah"
"8.0" - 3.4 "The Eighth Part of the Village" ; 3.5 "Past Tense" ; 3.6 "Black on White" ; 3.8 "Foiled Again" ; 3.11 "Almost Home"
3.14 "The Arrow That is Not Aimed" ; 3.19 "Legacy From a Friend" ; 3.21 "...By Its Cover" ; 3.22 "The Big Blow"
"7.5" - 3.9 "Mr. White Death" ; 3.10 "Mixed Doubles" ; 3.12 "Heal Thyself" ; 3.17 "I Do"
"7.0" - 3.3 "Ki'i's Don't Lie" ; 3.20 "Two Birds of a Feather"
"6.5" - 3.15 "Basket Case"

Average of at least 8.0 "Pretty Good" or better for Season 3 = 16/23 or 70%
Average of at least 8.5 "Very Good" or better for Season 3 = 7/23 or 30%
Last edited by nha trang on Sat Jun 06, 2020 1:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ENSHealy
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#14 Post by ENSHealy »

Finished my run through Season 3, and here is a boatload of video goodness for you to binge on this weekend:

SEASON 3 VIDEO SUMMARIES
Famous guest stars: https://vimeo.com/382776027
Hawaiian shirts: https://vimeo.com/382529801
Tigers Cap: https://vimeo.com/382711879
Island Hopper shirts: https://vimeo.com/382699400
Shirtless: https://vimeo.com/382711239
OMG/Extraordinarys: https://vimeo.com/382710973
Higgins Organizations: https://vimeo.com/382695400
Higgins musings: https://vimeo.com/382692119
Negotiations: https://vimeo.com/382703465
Laughs: https://vimeo.com/382701599
Digs: https://vimeo.com/382529064
Little Voice: https://vimeo.com/382701950
I know what you’re thinking: https://vimeo.com/382697995
When I write HTBAWCPI: https://vimeo.com/382695919
Investigator corrections: https://vimeo.com/382698964
4th wall breaks: https://vimeo.com/382528167
Ensign Healy
Scholar in Residence
The Institute for Advanced Magnum Studies

"I woke up one day at 53 and realized I'd never been 23."

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terryfromkerry
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#15 Post by terryfromkerry »

Mahalo again ENSHealy,
Your dedication and impressive attention to detail is very much appreciated. In the future as each of us maniacs further revisit the classic MPI Seasons we will also subsequently have the additional bonus of viewing these terrific compilation videos. :D :magnum:
"Oh Jonathan !....oh Jonathan, come quickly ...... your hot cross buns are smoking".

Little Voice in Your Head
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#16 Post by Little Voice in Your Head »

Once upon a time in America we had good television.

This seems like as good a place as any to reminisce about the series in general and address Season 3 in particular. I watched most of Magnum, PI in its original run and remember it being one of the greatest shows in television history, but I only caught the occasional episode here and there over the years. Then, this year, my kids got me the complete series on DVD and I've been sort of binging on it when I can.

Watching the first two seasons I found myself thinking it's a pretty good show, but it's not as special as I remembered -- then I got to Season Three and wow! - this is a really good series!

At some point I'll have to rant about continuity issues, or the fact the writers/producers didn't know anything about the Navy (or the military in general), but for now I'm just trying to put all that out of my mind and enjoy.

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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#17 Post by Ivan »

Season 3 is one of the best, if not the best, of the entire season. It’s solid from first to last.

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ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#18 Post by ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) »

While I would agree that season 3 is probably the best (mostly due to "Did You See the Sunrise?") I wouldn't say it's head and shoulders above seasons 1 and 2, which I think a previous poster seemed to suggest. If you ask me I think the show hit it out of the park right at the start with the pilot (which I think was a pretty WOW episode in its own right) and then season 2 had another WOW episode with "Memories are Forever" but even aside from those 2 episodes I think the first 2 seasons had plenty of great episodes and overall were just great entertainment. I don't think season 3 raised the bar that much higher than the first 2 seasons already did. Plus S3 wasn't spared from a few mediocre episodes either, same as the previous 2 seasons.

So I think S3 rode the wave that was already established by S1 and S2, while giving us probably the best MPI episode of them all - "Sunrise".

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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#19 Post by eagle »

It's hard for me to rank them, but I agree that season 3 is very good, and I also agree with Ivan about the pilot -- as I have previously stated, the opening scenes are some of my favorites in the entire series.

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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#20 Post by Ivan »

The weak show in S3 for me is Two Birds of a Feather. But otherwise it’s great. I love S1 and 2, but 3 has some great Higgins-Thomas banter…. Even with the crazy parrot Merlin getting killed in TVs helicopter episode (birdman of Budapest) which I like btw.

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ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)
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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#21 Post by ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) »

Ivan wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 3:44 pm The weak show in S3 for me is Two Birds of a Feather. But otherwise it’s great. I love S1 and 2, but 3 has some great Higgins-Thomas banter…. Even with the crazy parrot Merlin getting killed in TVs helicopter episode (birdman of Budapest) which I like btw.
Oh I really like the Merlin episode too! :lol: "Birdman of Budapest" is a very good episode, with Sylvia Sydney absolutely hilarious as she gets on Higgins very last nerves! The poor chap has never looked so exasperated. Can't help but feel sorry for him here. Plus the twist with her is VERY GOOD! And on top of that you get Dr. No here as well. :)

But then there's "Two Birds of a Feather" and especially "Mixed Doubles" which are just not good at all (aside from the plane in the tidal pool in the former). Also not too crazy about "Basket Case", "Legacy from a Friend", and "I Do?". So I wouldn't exactly say that S3 was flawless. Actually not too crazy about "Almost Home" or "Ki'is Don't Lie" either.

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Re: Season 3 General Discussion

#22 Post by Ivan »

ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: Fri Jul 15, 2022 4:33 pm Actually not too crazy about "Almost Home" or "Ki'is Don't Lie" either.
Yeah, S3 def not flawless, but Ki'is dont lie is high on my list as I remember seeing it originally and I thinking it was really cool to see characters from another show I liked being on another TV show. Crossovers like that seem so "80s" now!

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