Blind Justice (5.7)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fifth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
3
4%
9.5 (One of the Best)
8
10%
9.0 (Excellent)
10
13%
8.5 (Very Good)
16
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
22
28%
7.5 (Decent)
12
15%
7.0 (Average at Best)
3
4%
6.5 (Not So Good)
2
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
1
1%
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 78

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Dave Anderson
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#31 Post by Dave Anderson »

I was right, we do not hear the line "I got away with it once, I'll do it again" at the start of the show. This means the tape was doctored to add that, so we still have no proof he killed his first wife.

The more I think about it, this episode seems better and more profound, although on the other hand its possible they just ran out of time to tie up the loose ends. I'm not really sure.

marlboro
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#32 Post by marlboro »

I think that indicates that the tape was rolling past the point where the audience was viewing the scene. If it was doctored, it would eliminate the moral dilemma that the episode centers around. Which seems unlikely.

Dave Anderson
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#33 Post by Dave Anderson »

marlboro wrote:I think that indicates that the tape was rolling past the point where the audience was viewing the scene. If it was doctored, it would eliminate the moral dilemma that the episode centers around. Which seems unlikely.
I will watch it again when I get the chance, but I believe we see the guy leaving the house without saying "I got away with it once, I'll do it again." That means he couldn't have said it. Even the tape sounds a bit like they added it.

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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#34 Post by Dave Anderson »

Ok, I checked one more time. At the start of the show we do not hear him saying "I did it before, I'll do it again." The scene cuts to him leaving the house before that portion of the tape. Its unclear whether he actually said it or not. Its possible he did, and its possible the tape was later doctored to add it. I'm not sure if that was the intent of the writers or simply an oversight, but as it is its open to interpretation whether he said it or not.

I always assumed he didn't say it and the tape was doctored by the woman's mother. In fact, I always took that as a given. The mother doctored the photographs so why not the tape? They were obviously a wealthy family and she could have found someone with good voice over skills to imitate the sound of the guy's voice. If you listen to the tape play back scenes there seems to be something funny about that line in terms of the overall rhythm of the dialogue, which also always indicated to me the tape was doctored.

Further, even if he said it its not absolute proof he killed the first wife. Perhaps he had previously tried to intimidate the second wife by telling her he killed the first wife. Just because someone says something casually in a private conversation doesn't mean they aren't lying. I stand by my interpretation that we don't know for sure whether he killed the first wife, all we know is that he hit and pushed the second wife on at least one occasion (which we saw at the start of the episode).

Dave Anderson
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#35 Post by Dave Anderson »

marlboro wrote:I think that indicates that the tape was rolling past the point where the audience was viewing the scene. If it was doctored, it would eliminate the moral dilemma that the episode centers around. Which seems unlikely.
It may eliminate the moral dilemma to an extent but also make it even more muddled which could make the ending even more open to interpretation of the viewer. Perhaps they wanted to see if anyone noticed this, or maybe it was unintentional.

marlboro
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#36 Post by marlboro »

If the grandmother doctored the recording, why would she leave in the portion of the tape that exonerated her son in law?

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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#37 Post by Dave Anderson »

marlboro wrote:If the grandmother doctored the recording, why would she leave in the portion of the tape that exonerated her son in law?
That's an interesting point, but one could also ask why she didn't just erase that portion of tape even if it wasn't doctored.

I'm just telling you what my initial interpretation of the story was as I was watching it the first few times. Until I read this thread, I always assumed the tape was doctored. Maybe I'm the only viewer who ever thought that? Either way, I think it would make the story more interesting and the dilemma that much greater.

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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#38 Post by Tuan Vu »

I watched this episode again and noticed that the used car dealer, Willie K, was played by Dick Jensen, who was quite an entertainer here in Hawaii. Here he is performing on the Ed Sullivan Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usfarvebv4A. At one time he opened for the Rolling Stones and also played at the Copacabana. Too bad he passed away in 2006 of Lou Gehrig's disease.

As for Carol, I never really liked her as a recurring character in the series. Kathleen Lloyd was a good actress, so maybe it just was the character that I disliked. I wish instead the series could have had Annie Potts in a regular role. She and Tom Selleck had really good chemistry and she was quite funny.

The little girl who played Elizabeth Bowman (Natalie Gregory), I thought, was great in that role. The following year, she would play Alice in the television film Alice in Wonderland. She seemed to just drop out of acting altogether around 1990.

I thought the title of this episode, "Blind Justice", was perfect. After watching trials like the OJ Simpson case, the Casey Anthony case, and after serving on a criminal jury myself, I understand now how "justice" is not always achieved. In an imperfect world, there is not always black or white or clear-cut verdicts, but often cases are shades of grey, and subjective. This episode was frustrating to watch the first time because I wanted to know what happened. But now that I think about it, it was a perfect ending to not know what happened. The point is that the verdict could go either way. And either way it went, the verdict would be, in a sense, both right and wrong at the same time.

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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#39 Post by SignGuyHPW »

This was a really mixed bag for me. There were parts that I felt were very strong and parts that I just did not like much at all. I think the potential of the episode was extremely high, but I don't think it reached that potential to be a really all time great episode.

My main gripe here is that they put way too much comedy into what was actually a very serious topic for the A plot. It wasn't even very good comedy. Here Magnum is investigating a murder case and then dealing with the morale decision on seeing the man's first wife get justice done or standing by while an innocent man is convicted of a crime he did not commit, but it's interspersed with sight gags involving a car Magnum owned for all of one episode, Ms. Jones having the same conversation as two years prior, and TC fixing a Jaguar with a large hammer. This should have been in the same vein as "Laura" or "Unfinished Buisness" instead of having it be half that and half "Legend of the Lost Art" or "I Witness." They never showed how the car issue was resolved. Things were just back to normal the next episode so we don't know if Magnum had to take a loss or if Higgins paid it just to save his sanity. They also never explained how or why the man on trial had taken the identity of that baby. It was like it was there soley as a way to have Ms. Jones do the comedy bit. The biggest flub I noticed was that Carol was telling Magnum that the jury would likely convict based on the tape recording he played, but the judge ruled that the jury would disregard that tape. How could the tape help if the jury could not take it into consideration? I also found it very unlikely that the only existing copy of that tape would have been allowed to be erased so callously. Wouldn't a judge order a baliff to seize that recorder until he could decide what to do with it? The defense lawyer just stuck the thing in his pocket and had possesion of it while in chambers which made no sense to me. I am not an expert on law by any means, but can someone verify that by playing that tape on his own like that would be considered contempt of court?

The basic gist of the story I really, really liked. It was not often that Magnum was torn between choosing between his own morale code, performing his job, AND fulfilling his oathe as a witness. The main plot was definately very different for the time and was well written at points. I also liked how the defense lawyer was so terrified over Magnum's skills as a private investigator that he was willing to do anything it took to get him away from the case. They could've gotten another episode or two out of that guy either trying to get revenge on Magnum for costing him the trial or having Magnum framed for the guy's murder. I could've taken the comedy plot in a different episode as it wasn't wretched by any means. It was odd that Magnum took a sports car for speed, but hadn't test driven it so he'd know it was faster than other cars. It seemed like a lot of comedy tied into running gags designed for long time viewers which is nice when it's done right.

No need to know!
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#40 Post by No need to know! »

All in all probably the best "Carol" episode by a mile. I think the end was a little bit frustrating but at the same time really good.

The only really annoying thing about this episode is the use of a Jaguar E-type. To me it is so classic so it feels just wrong seeing it like a dump in this episode. I mean compare with seeing Magnum climbing in that small Honda N600 in All roads lead to Floyd this wasn´t funny at all. Actually i would rather own a Jaguar E-type than a Ferrari 308. Yeah kill me. :shock:
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308GUY
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#41 Post by 308GUY »

Watched the old 50's movie last night...It Came From Outer Space....was originally shown in theaters in "3D" where they gave you the red and blue lens glasses and you had to view the film with them on to get the 3d effect.

What's this got to do with Magnum.....nothing at all!

When I see an actor/actress that looks familiar, I try to pinpoint where I've seen them before. The above mentioned movie had Barbara Rush as the female lead. She must have been in her 20's or close, I'd guess.

Kept looking at her before knowing who it was, thinking, I should know who that is....where have I seen her before? Then saw her name in the credits at the end of the movie, dawned on me that she looked like a much younger version of a woman I'd seen on a Magnum episode, so turned to MM for satisfaction. Took about 30 seconds to find her listed in the notable guest stars list, what a powerful tool this forum proves to be again! Blind Justice was her first spot on MPI, and then again in The Aunt Who Came To Dinner (season 7).

Just a bit of trivia (the space movie among her credits) and another reason I love this forum.

Now I'll have to go look up all of her filmography to see where else I've probably seen her. :higgins:
"C'mon TC...nothing can go wrong!"

marlboro
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#42 Post by marlboro »

308GUY wrote:Watched the old 50's movie last night...It Came From Outer Space....was originally shown in theaters in "3D" where they gave you the red and blue lens glasses and you had to view the film with them on to get the 3d effect.

When I see an actor/actress that looks familiar, I try to pinpoint where I've seen them before. The above mentioned movie had Barbara Rush as the female lead.

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308GUY
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#43 Post by 308GUY »

^^^Outstanding! :higgins:
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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#44 Post by KENJI »

These Mag/Jag scenes will make you smile....minus Kenji and Higgins. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Xw9OasgA0

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Re: Blind Justice (5.7)

#45 Post by brianw »

An odd mix of comedy with a serious story line. Come on, only one copy of the tape as evidence? I'm confused, did TM know that the attorney would erase the rest of the tape??? I feel like he set it up that way so that he would not be personally responsible for getting the guy off the murder charge. I don't know, it was kind of a difficult ending to understand.

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