Holmes Is Where the Heart Is (4.18)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fourth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
10
9%
9.5 (One of the Best)
20
18%
9.0 (Excellent)
26
23%
8.5 (Very Good)
23
20%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
12
11%
7.5 (Decent)
5
4%
7.0 (Average at Best)
7
6%
6.5 (Not So Good)
4
4%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
2%
5.0 (Just Awful)
5
4%
 
Total votes: 114

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Jay-Firestorm
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#21 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Italian Ice wrote:Good review Jay. Would I rate this one a 10? Probably not, mainly because Magnum wasn't involved. Maybe what could have made this better is to have Higgins and Magnum "tell the story" about this while talking in the study room, and throw TM into the whole story somehow. That alone would have made this one a 10, but because it was just a story about someome from Higgins past, and the show is called Magnum PI, it didn't seem to fit like it could have. Still, a solid episode, but I don't think it's worthy of a 10, a 9 - 9.5 tops.
I think it is the only Magnum-lite episode that I would rate a 10. I just find it so charming, with a great performance from Hillerman, and the fact that it features another actor, Patrick Macnee, that I really like, tops it off.
JAY FIRESTORM

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Quigley Down Under
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prequel style

#22 Post by Quigley Down Under »

This is probably one of my favourite episodes, definitely giving it a 10 - even though it is Magnum-lite.

Other than what has already been said, what I like about this episode is how we get an insight into what the estate was like prior to the series starting. This is something I was always really curious about!

If anyone can think of any other episodes with this similar theme let me know as it would be great to go back and watch these also!

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Hawaii84
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#23 Post by Hawaii84 »

This is one of my favorites also....The premise reminds me of "Black on White", my absolute favorite episode...Something about friendship, duty, and Higgins' very interesting past gives this episode that same feel....Any time Higgins and Magnum put away their differences and lower their defenses, you get a feeling for how much they really respect and like each other.

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Coops
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#24 Post by Coops »

If I could I'd give this episode an 11 based solely on the amazingly brilliant performance John Hillerman gave in it I would. You just don't see this kind of acting on tv anymore, certainly not today. There are some good actors out there but I find it hard to believe any show on today would have such a myopic and narrow topic dedicated to one character like this one. And most of its narrative is in the past-tense. This is a sublime, moving, tour-de-force performance by Hillerman and it also illustrates the brilliant writing and creativity behind the scenes of M.P.I. It also demonstrates how cerebral they were, I mean after all the theme melody is "Meditation" from Massenet's 'Thaïs' opera, a hauntingly beautiful melody perfectly underscoring the character of David.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtiIpIJ5J2Q
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robspace54
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#25 Post by robspace54 »

A wonderful script and one that showed that Higgins could have his own show!

As a long time Holmes fan (I have the Annotated Sherlock Holmes 2 volume set by William Barrie-Gould copyright 1967) it was great to see a Holmesian mystery, inside a Magnum p.i. framing story, with Jonathan Higgins playing the bemused Watson to David Worth. Higgy doesn't get it for a while and at the end of the piece I was wishing that he had let Holmes (Worth) get away.

A wonderful tribute to Sherlock and Conan Doyle. Clearly the writers had done their homework.

Interesting to see Agatha Chumley in a blonde wig (circa 1976) too. And Robin had a Jaguar then as well.

"Look for news accounts of a Norwegian violinist named Sigurson!"

Rob
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it.

AmandaByNight
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#26 Post by AmandaByNight »

It's such a bittersweet episode for me. I like it a lot but I also find it profoundly sad.

I love the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes stuff. I think someone said it's on Netflix. I just watched Hound of the Baskervilles about a month ago. It was solid!

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zebra3
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#27 Post by zebra3 »

I find it difficult to swallow the episodes of the series that stray from the formula; typically if I put on an episode I'm looking to see some typical Magnum fare. So this episode, until it's ending that neatly gave all the came before it meaning, dragged on for me, and there were multiple times I considered fast forwarding.

One thing I will say, John Hillerman can grow a shadow like no one else.
"Burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me."

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robspace54
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#28 Post by robspace54 »

I agree that this episode was not the usual cars, guns, girls and palm trees fare of Magnum, but to see Hillerman as a stand aloner chacter, and in a back story, was great. The Higgins character, who was laid out as a boorish, authoritarian, stick in the mud, developed into a person of feelings, depth, and a history all his own. He was a serious counterpoint to the "Hawaii" feel of the rest of the show.

And yes this episode is slooowww - just like the Sherlock Holmes stories - which were all rather cerebral...

Rob

p.s. Happy Thanksgiving
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it.

No need to know!
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#29 Post by No need to know! »

So good episode this one, and as a huge Sherlock Holmes fan it can´t go wrong for me.
I just love Jeremy Bretts version of Holmes. I was recently in London at the museum and bought the entire series on dvd. Went home and got sick and watched the first 30 episodes in one week home from work :D
Onion´s extra?

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Pahonu
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#30 Post by Pahonu »

I just noticed the actor who plays the vicar at the funeral scene in the beginning, Bruce Atkinson, is the same as that listed as playing Robin Masters in J Digger Doyle. Not the voice provided by Orson Welles, but the body getting in and out of TC's helicopter. This means we have actually seen Robin Master's face! :D Sort of? :? Not really :( , but still interesting.

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nha trang
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great episode!

#31 Post by nha trang »

Wow, this was an excellent episode for being Magnum-lite!

I had seen bits of this one on tv and so I was dreading watching the DVD episode, but once I fully understood the story, I was taken in and it was a very enjoyable episode!

Isn't that mansion one we've seen before, and in fact, is Sir Alec's residence not the same as the druglords? Looked the same to me, but I'm sure you guys can clear that up in a hurry.

I rated it a 9.0 but I am trying to save the 9.5 and 10.0 ratings...

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MaiTaiMan
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#32 Post by MaiTaiMan »

This episode was very strange and bizarre...and somewhat sad and depressing, especially for Higgins. :(

I've never really cared for this one much...it's by no means the worst episode or one I greatly dislike, it's just odd and also downbeat. :?

The plot was interesting...as an old agent friend of Higgins pretends he is Sherlock Holmes, and uses Higgins as Watson while trying to prove a friend had been murdered. I love Sherlock Holmes, and have all the complete works of him by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So, the plot idea was pretty cool to me.

However, I didn't really like how they played out the plot idea...I guess it was the fact that his friend ended up being truly insane, and had to spend his last days locked up in some sanitorium. I don't particularly care for sad or depressing endings...and this episode did not end very humorously or happy. It definitely was one of the more serious ones for Higgins.
"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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miltontheripper
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#33 Post by miltontheripper »

zebra3 wrote:I find it difficult to swallow the episodes of the series that stray from the formula; typically if I put on an episode I'm looking to see some typical Magnum fare. So this episode, until it's ending that neatly gave all the came before it meaning, dragged on for me, and there were multiple times I considered fast forwarding.

One thing I will say, John Hillerman can grow a shadow like no one else.
I agree with you Zebra3. I found this episode to be very Magnum Lite and althought Higgins past is always an interesting story, I found the plot to be fairly silly and not worthy of a Magnum episode. It was sad about Higgins friend but short of a few laughs I cant say many good things about this one.

RamblerReb
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#34 Post by RamblerReb »

I liked this one a great deal, for numerous reasons: Big Holmes fan, big Patrick Macnee fan, big Higgins fan, big Jaguar fan, and, of course, big Tom-Selleck-shamelessly-mugging-in-glee-when-he-sets-up-the-hammer-in-the-wine-cellar-then-shamelessly-mugging-in-dismay-when-his-plan-fails fan.

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J.J. Walters
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#35 Post by J.J. Walters »

RamblerReb wrote:big Tom-Selleck-shamelessly-mugging-in-glee-when-he-sets-up-the-hammer-in-the-wine-cellar-then-shamelessly-mugging-in-dismay-when-his-plan-fails fan.
LOL!! :)
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