Luther Gillis: File #521 (4.2)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fourth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
5
5%
9.5 (One of the Best)
20
20%
9.0 (Excellent)
17
17%
8.5 (Very Good)
26
27%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
18
18%
7.5 (Decent)
3
3%
7.0 (Average at Best)
5
5%
6.5 (Not So Good)
3
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 98

Message
Author
User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#31 Post by J.J. Walters »

MaiTaiMan wrote:Gillis sucks! :P
Them's fightin' words!! Center of town, high noon, be there! ;)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
MaiTaiMan
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 12:43 am
Location: Mid-West

#32 Post by MaiTaiMan »

J.J. Walters wrote:
MaiTaiMan wrote:Gillis sucks! :P
Them's fightin' words!! Center of town, high noon, be there! ;)
LOL! :lol: This sounds more like Gary Cooper ("High Noon") than Luther Gillis. :wink:

Really, though, I'm sure there are many who like Luther Gillis and think he's hilarious...I totally respect their opinions. I just don't happen to share them. :wink:

Compared to Bogie and Magnum, I still think Gillis sucked. :P But, for those who liked his loud-mouthed, slobiness, know-it-all style, I suppose he could've had his own show--set in St. Louis of course. But, I could not have watched it. :shock:

I love the "Magnum" episodes that primarily deal with the regular characters and an action-packed/suspenseful case that Magnum would be working on. Usually the episodes that focus primarily on a recurring, goof-ball, guest-star character (such as Gillis) are not ones I really enjoy that much. :? They take way too much away from Magnum and the "gang", and the normal style of the show. :x
"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"

Lt Tanaka
Vice Admiral
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:09 pm

#33 Post by Lt Tanaka »

MaiTaiMan wrote:Compared to Bogie and Magnum, I still think Gillis sucked.
Think you are missing the point there buddy. Luther is seen as joke at first but is gradually revealed (to the audience and T.M.) as someone Magnum (or any PI) could potentially end up as. The comic relief is in the fact that Magnum finds him a figure of fun at first but continuously, and uncomfortably, discovers they have many things in common.

User avatar
MaiTaiMan
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 12:43 am
Location: Mid-West

#34 Post by MaiTaiMan »

Lt Tanaka wrote:
MaiTaiMan wrote:Compared to Bogie and Magnum, I still think Gillis sucked.
Think you are missing the point there buddy. Luther is seen as joke at first but is gradually revealed (to the audience and T.M.) as someone Magnum (or any PI) could potentially end up as. The comic relief is in the fact that Magnum finds him a figure of fun at first but continuously, and uncomfortably, discovers they have many things in common.
I don't really think I'm missing the point...I get it, I just don't particularly care for it. :? Perhaps Magnum and Gillis both want to do good or help people in their business...but other than that they don't have anything in common. :shock: I agree that at first Gillis is seen a a joke...and later is more serious when it came to his daughter (but not much). However, he's pretty much portrayed as a joke throughout the episode.

I know this is supposed to be a "lighter", more humorous episode...it just goes too far overboard for my taste. :?
"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"

Lt Tanaka
Vice Admiral
Posts: 149
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:09 pm

#35 Post by Lt Tanaka »

MaiTaiMan wrote: I don't really think I'm missing the point...I get it, I just don't particularly care for it. :
No offense intended. I agree with your opinion on most Magnum points.

Maybe it's just a matter of taste. I like Luther.

User avatar
MaiTaiMan
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 12:43 am
Location: Mid-West

#36 Post by MaiTaiMan »

Lt Tanaka wrote:
MaiTaiMan wrote: I don't really think I'm missing the point...I get it, I just don't particularly care for it. :
No offense intended. I agree with your opinion on most Magnum points.

Maybe it's just a matter of taste. I like Luther.
No offense taken at all! :) I sometimes differ with others when it comes to episodes like the Luther Gillis ones--some like 'em and some don't. :wink:

Overall most episodes of "Magnum" are pretty awesome...and I wish that somehow the show could've made the 10 year mark--but I'm happy with 8! :)
"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"

User avatar
miltontheripper
Vice Admiral
Posts: 108
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 9:48 pm
Location: Michigan

#37 Post by miltontheripper »

I originally hated Luther in his episodes, now he has grown on me to where he's just annoying. I like his comic relief but he is a little to ridiculous for me to take seriously.

User avatar
MaiTaiMan
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 12:43 am
Location: Mid-West

#38 Post by MaiTaiMan »

miltontheripper wrote:I originally hated Luther in his episodes, now he has grown on me to where he's just annoying. I like his comic relief but he is a little to ridiculous for me to take seriously.
I think the two characters I dislike the most in "Magnum" are Luther and the "fake" Mac! :? Both annoy the heck out of me and I don't really care for the episodes they're in. :x
"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"

Croix de Lorraine
Admiral
Posts: 195
Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2011 6:49 pm

#39 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

There's one evident flub in this episode:

When they're walking away from the nun, Luther reminisces about his education with the nuns. Now what kind of Catholic calls their child Luther of all names? :?

*Spoiler*

Also the beginning when Luther talks down this case as your average case, "Feels like I've worked on this case a thousand times before", etc... is intentionally misleading, given how the girl turns out to be his daughter. I think it's a cheap trick.

User avatar
Styles Bitchley
Magnum Wristwatch Aficionado / Deputy SpamHammer
Posts: 2674
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:15 pm
Location: Canada

#40 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Croix de Lorraine wrote:When they're walking away from the nun, Luther reminisces about his education with the nuns. Now what kind of Catholic calls their child Luther of all names? :?
Haha - one of the fathers of the Reformation. Clever catch!
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

User avatar
Little Garwood
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 1261
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:53 pm
Location: The Magnumverse

#41 Post by Little Garwood »

Somewhere I posted that I liked one Luther Gillis over the other. Guess I was confused because I'd fogotten that Artie Keanu was in the first two. Anyway, after having seen Luther Gillis: File #521 last night, I can say definitively that the second, The Return of Luther Gillis, is the best of all the Luther episodes.

Can't remember what I voted on this one, but it's a solid [8.0], because I like Luther Gillis--but not for his own show.

Now I love Film Noir/lone wolf detectives as much as anyone, but I felt that this episode would have benefited from NOT having been filmed in "Smear-O-Vision", which seemed to be a late '70s-early '80s technique of invoking nostalgia or the past. We know how much Bellisario loves that stuff, but I'm glad the technique was dropped for subsequent Gillis episodes.
"Popularity is the pocket change of history."

~Tom Selleck

Seaver41
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:46 pm

#42 Post by Seaver41 »

this one always scored well with me. Loved the Luther Gillis character as the guy Magnum didn't want to become......and I'm sure that is one of the primary reasons for introducing him. It especially hits when Luther shows Magnum his book on how to be a private eye, something Magnum has mentioned he will write someday.

Near the end when they cross the street to the car and Magnum tells Luther he will take him to the airport, I could swear the extra walking by the car, a woman, either aborts a wave at Selleck or is signaling someone. It just looked so awkward.

OR maybe it's you flub guys getting in my head.......lol

Braddah Kimo
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 456
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Hawaii

#43 Post by Braddah Kimo »

Ever since watching this ep in da eighties, I have always wondered. (and still do to this day, especially as I am watching the movie right now) HOW da heck did they end up giving this character a name so bloody close to "South Pacific"'s almost main character, Luther Billis?!

User avatar
snp389
Captain
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:02 am
Location: Australia

#44 Post by snp389 »

John Hillerman and Geoffrey Lewis both starred together in Clint Eastwood's classic "High Plains Drifter".

User avatar
.45caliber
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 10:46 pm
Location: OH

#45 Post by .45caliber »

Very funny episode. I love the Luther Gillis character. Some funny parts I remember, Luther Gillis slips Magnum a mickey, Luther punches the old lady training with the butler, the jail cell scenes and Luther's thought of the day for Artie, "Be kind to animals, they're supposed to be dumber than us"

Post Reply