Little Games (5.12)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fifth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
4
4%
9.5 (One of the Best)
10
11%
9.0 (Excellent)
24
26%
8.5 (Very Good)
20
22%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
24
26%
7.5 (Decent)
7
8%
7.0 (Average at Best)
2
2%
6.5 (Not So Good)
0
No votes
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
1
1%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 93

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armysaber
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#11 Post by armysaber »

Hi Guys!,
This episode appealed to me because it had Jenny Agutter to begin with. It showed the human side of TSM in that he didn't get the girl.

I do find it hard to believe she lifted that jewel box and didn't notice it was light.

All in all thought I rate this episode as excellent.

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lutherhgillis
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#12 Post by lutherhgillis »

One of you guys asked if people really played games like the one from this episode in 1984. The answer is yes and no. There were no graphics like the ones seen (as James mentioned) but I had a small computer that played games and had a game similar to the one Magnum was playing.

It was by Magnavox if I remeber correctly. You would type in commands like "move left 5 paces" and the character would move around. The point of the game was to find the sleeping vampire and kill it before it awoke and bit your neck. Stupid for our current times but quite cool for 1984.

The screen showed a blue print of the vampire's castle but did not show characters or any type of animation. It was like a souped up version of Pong...

Wow, I'm getting old :lol: :lol: :lol:

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lutherhgillis
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#13 Post by lutherhgillis »

I liked this episode. The 'game' was mind games played between Magnum and Ms. Villaroch. I figure Magnum suspected her all along to be potentially a jewel thief. I also figure he was hoping against hope that she was not. The 'game' was not only about the jewels but about games of the heart that Krista told Magnum she did not play. However, the heart games were being played throughout the episode.

I think this episode is cleverly written like so many others.

A P Leyland
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#14 Post by A P Leyland »

Best. Episode. Ever.

Why? Two Words. Jenny. Agutter. :P

I loved Jenny Agutter as a kid. Walkabout, Railway Children, American Werewolf, Logan's Run - all fueled my prepubescent dreams. Really nice to see her (I'd forgot she'd done a Magnum episode). She was recently in Spooks and still a striking woman.

The episode was pretty good as well.

Andy

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N1095A
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#15 Post by N1095A »

Image
"But Higgins, I can explain."

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IslandHopper
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#16 Post by IslandHopper »

Wow, I would never have recognized her.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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AlohaSpirit
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#17 Post by AlohaSpirit »

I enjoyed the horseback riding scene. I know that TS is a horseman in real life but I don't know when he learned to ride. It looked to me like TS really knew how to ride back then too - he had his heels down in the stirrups which helps balance, not something a beginner might know to do :-)
She shouldn't be punished for her passion.

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Tom_Magnum
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#18 Post by Tom_Magnum »

I liked this episode a lot. It showed TM's character between him and Ms. Villaroch (Krista) and how they kinda loved each other but it was not very obvious as other episodes. I loved it when Magnum crashed the Dracos III :lol:

AJL
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#19 Post by AJL »

AJL wrote:I thought this one was pretty bad. Basicly it was just boring, there were just no suspense, tension or excitement until the end. Only saving grace was a couple of funny moments IMO
Wow I was pretty harsh on this one the first time around. Just rewatched it recently and though it was decent. The story was somewhat lacking at times, but I really laughed a few places and overall it wasn't too shabby.
Was vaccinated with a phonograph needle one summer break
Same summer that I kissed her on her daddy's boat
And shot across the lake
Singing all the way...
Oh I say mama
Living Ain't a luxury
Oh I say mama
And a lil' ain't enough for me

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N1095A
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#20 Post by N1095A »

Interesting, The police officer that is escorting Krista Villaroch out of the estate as TM and Higgins arrive is played by actor Steven Perry, He's the same officer who arrested TM and Luther in Gary's room in "Luther Gillis: File #521". According to his IMDB file, he also played Police Detective Rob Slater in "Tigers Fan",
"But Higgins, I can explain."

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SelleckLover
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#21 Post by SelleckLover »

Aloha Spirit wrote:
I enjoyed the horseback riding scene. I know that TS is a horseman in real life but I don't know when he learned to ride. It looked to me like TS really knew how to ride back then too - he had his heels down in the stirrups which helps balance, not something a beginner might know to do
Before TS did Magnum, he did a mini-series called The Sacketts and a TV movie called The Shadow Riders, both with Sam Elliott and both based on novels written by the great author Louis L'Amour. I'm sure if he didn't know how to ride a horse before he did those movies, he sure knew how to ride after! :D

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Carmen
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#22 Post by Carmen »

...and oh so well *sigh*....
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

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SelleckLover
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#23 Post by SelleckLover »

Carmen wrote:
..and oh so well *sigh*....
Yeah! My sentiments exactly! *sigh* :wink:

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Jay-Firestorm
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#24 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

I was surprised that so many people liked this one, as personally I found it another below average fifth season episode. Maybe I would have liked it more if it came in a better season?

[rating=8.0]

Magnum falls in love with a beautiful insurance company representative, who is testing security on the Estate for an upcoming multi-million dollar jewellery exhibition. But her father is a notorious jewel thief – will she follow suit? Great guest star, weak story…

-----

Many people seem to really like this story, which I am very surprised at, as I didn’t find it a particularly outstanding episode personally.

The episode is written by Deborah Pratt (here credited as Deborah M. Pratt), who had previously played T.C.’s girlfriend Gloria in a couple of episodes, was married to Donald P. Bellisario at the time, and worked in a number of capacities on various Bellisario shows (she played the recurring Marella in the first two seasons of ‘Airwolf’, for example).
This is her second script for a TV series, following ‘Airwolf’s second season episode ‘Fallen Angel’ (possibly my favourite episode from that series). However, unlike most of her other scripts, which are well-written and clever, ‘Little Games’ comes off as a take-it-or-leave-it offering at best.

Jenny Agutter puts in a reasonable performance as security expert Krista Villaroch, but she ain’t no J. “Digger” Doyle (see first season episode of the same name). She played the role well, and I have no problem with her in this episode, it’s just the plot itself that I never really warmed to.

The episode sees Magnum playing a Dungeons & Dragons-like computer game on the Estate’s computer system (seen for the first time here). It seems very over-convenient that he crashes the system in an episode where it is key to the plot, allowing Krista to break in to test security. But worse than that is the unconvincing computer game that he is playing – with very unconvincing graphics for the time, and no computer game of the era would have such advanced (if any) speech, and certainly would not address him as Magnum out loud!

The only sequence of the episode that I do particularly enjoy is T.C. and Rick attempting a break in to test the computer’s security (newly ‘repaired’ by Mac). This scene is very funny, and it’s a shame more couldn’t have been done with it. Which is one thing I really feel about this story – it really needs a b-plot of some sort to level it out more.

Screen legend Cesar Romero plays Krista’s jewel thief father, ‘Doc’. I mostly remember Romero from playing the Joker in the classic 1960s version of ‘Batman’. He was doing the American TV guest circuit around the time of this episode (he also appeared in two episodes of ‘Riptide’), but in this story, he is pitifully underused, only receiving a few minutes screen time, which is a real shame.

Re-watching this episode to review, I admit to liking it slightly more than when I first saw it some years ago, but emphasis on the ‘slightly’. I think it is one of those stories you like more as your tastes mature, but even so, it sums up for me how the series was moving away from adventure tales to more romantic ones. Maybe it would have fared better in one of the show’s better seasons, with stronger episodes to bolster it up. As it is, I don’t really care for it very much.
Thankfully, Deborah Pratt would return to writing form with her next offering for the series, the seventh season’s classic ‘Little Girl Who’.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* I too noticed, in addition to the white in-episode credits, the white lettering on Magnum’s Da Nang hat instead of the regular yellow. I wondered if it was some kind of ‘feel’ they were trying to go with for the episode, but I never worked it out.

* The DVD version of this episode has all of the act breaks abridged.
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Danno
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#25 Post by Danno »

Why is yellow extremely desaturated in most of the scenes...
Skin tones are too red, greens are too blue... in a lot of cases there is no yellow at all. It does have the effect of making the gold seem more vibrant when we see the opening night of the Robin Masters Design Competition- although I get the feeling that this is accidental and there has been some mistake with colour balance somewhere.

Otherwise, this episode feels a little like a filler- although I agree with Jay on the scene of TC and Rick breaking in. That could have been comedy genius but instead feels flat, like the colour and the rest of the episode.
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