Who is Don Luis Higgins? .... (6.19)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
2
2%
9.5 (One of the Best)
9
10%
9.0 (Excellent)
14
16%
8.5 (Very Good)
28
31%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
17
19%
7.5 (Decent)
10
11%
7.0 (Average at Best)
3
3%
6.5 (Not So Good)
1
1%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
2%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
3%
 
Total votes: 89

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Doc Ibold
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#31 Post by Doc Ibold »

Rutledal wrote:I was wondering if there is a "making of" Don Luis story? Elmo had one, Paddy too, even Soo Ling got her own "making of story". Does Don Luis have one, and if he does, please tell it.
I don't know if there was a story, as TOLD by Higgins...

But the beginning of the episode shows a Hacienda where a birthday party is going on for a royal family. It gets raided by radicals and the family gets assasinated except for the daughter who flees the radicals.

She runs through the house, and around a corner she is grabbed by a young man in a military uniform (Anthony LaPaglia), she faints and he says something to the effect of "Hello, I'm Albert Stanley Higgins" and grins at the camera.

(Of course because I guess Higginses just hang out in the corners of haciendas while revolts are taking place... wait, given the Higgins family history, that kind of makes sense)

:lol:

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Tom_Magnum
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#32 Post by Tom_Magnum »

Good episode, another Higgins episode theme. I loved every minute of it.

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N1095A
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#33 Post by N1095A »

One of the things that really made this show great was the characters. Sure it was TS who was the "star" of the show, but it truly was all of them that made the show. The more I watch it the more I love it. It's not biased, it's fact. This is the greatest television show ever made.
"But Higgins, I can explain."

MACattack
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#34 Post by MACattack »

The thing I liked most was how Don Luis was different from Higgins. I guess growing up in a tropical South American republic caused him to be a little laid back. He actually sat down and had a beer with Magnum. This is something Higgins would never do. He has too much pride.
MPI really has warm characters. People I wouldn't mind having a beer with, or go kayaking with. I just wouldn't invite Higgins to any keggers at the guest house!
I just don't give a damn!

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IKnowWhatYoureThinking
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#35 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

If you invite Higgins over for scotch remember that civilized people do not put ice in their drink.

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#36 Post by MACattack »

Hell yeah! Might as well be 30 year old Glen Fiddich! All though, I might get into a fist fight with Higgy, cuz I'm Scotch-Irish, and he's a brit!
I just don't give a damn!

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IKnowWhatYoureThinking
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#37 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

I wonder what scotch Higgins drinks?

MACattack
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#38 Post by MACattack »

Probably something 30 years or older, and with dust on the bottle!
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gmt16750
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#39 Post by gmt16750 »

hummm maybe not so aged bottle when you know how much he protects the cellar from Magnum's incursions..after all he gives sometimes Magnum a glass or two too willingly :lol:
Agatha: Why does he always do that, Jonathan?
Higgins: I don't know, Agatha. I think sometimes our creator is testing me. Indeed it could be for no other reason. If i thought otherwise i believe i truly would go irrevocably irretrievably mad!

MACattack
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#40 Post by MACattack »

It was hilarious to see Higgins's latin counterpart. I always wondered what it would be like if Magnum had a half-brother from Mexico.
He probably would drive a red '64 Impala. Thomas Magnum would let him stay at the guest house. Next thing you know "Tomas" has invited his whole family to stay there. Higgins would spend the rest of the episode chasing after some stray chickens!
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gmt16750
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#41 Post by gmt16750 »

Magnum's calf injury is really excellent when he bounces out of his chair to take a congratulatory cigar (5 games to 1 for him!) and his laughing scene is one of the best with the episode where he saw Higgins' toy airplane crashing into the sea.
Another great moment is Magnum's idea to teach Don Luis his trick when Don Luis wants to learn chess to tie again with his brother Higgins!
Uncle Lyle's castle blitz as a revenge for the concert tickets given to charity when they were promised to Magnum :lol:
Great interpretation of Hillerman in both spanish and english characters :D
Agatha: Why does he always do that, Jonathan?
Higgins: I don't know, Agatha. I think sometimes our creator is testing me. Indeed it could be for no other reason. If i thought otherwise i believe i truly would go irrevocably irretrievably mad!

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#42 Post by MACattack »

I especially like the last scene where Higgins sneezes and mutters "damn plants!" in a spanish accent. It seems to suggest that he and his brother Don Luis pulled a switcheroo. Maybe Higgins had political business in Costa de Rosa. I wonder how many times they pulled this off without Magnum noticing.
I just don't give a damn!

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Zudobug
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#43 Post by Zudobug »

I enjoy all of the episodes where John Hillerman plays multiple roles. It shows him to be a great actor with the ability to even put on suitable accents for the characters he portrays.

MACattack
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#44 Post by MACattack »

Hillerman is a good lad! Nobody could fill his or Selleck's shoes!
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Jay-Firestorm
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#45 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

I know some like it, but personally I find this one a disappointing final Higgins ‘half-brother’ episode; some okay moments, but mostly a letdown IMO.

[rating=7.0]

Magnum is hired to root out the would-be assassin of an important visiting dignitary. But then he meets yet another of Higgins’ estranged half-brothers, Don Luis Mongueo, who is the prime suspect. The weakest of the ‘Higgins’ half-brothers’ episodes…

-----

This review contains spoilers.

‘Who Is Don Luis Higgins… …and Why Is He Doing These Terrible Things To Me?’ (which wins the prize for longest episode title in the series – it’s so long that it appears over two separate captions on-screen)… is the third and final in the line episodes revolving around Higgins’ estranged half-brothers.
We had previously met Texan rodeo owner Elmo in season two’s ‘The Elmo Ziller Story’, and Father Paddy McGuiness in season three’s ‘Faith and Begorrah’ (Paddy also made a cameo in part two of season five’s ‘Echoes of the Mind’). Of these stories, I find ‘What Is Don Luis Higgins…’ to be by far the weakest of the episodes.

This is also the third of three episodes in the show’s run in which Roger E. Mosley does not appear as T.C. (He had previously missed season two’s ‘Dead Man’s Channel’, and neither he, Higgins or Rick appeared in ‘Going Home’ earlier this season).
Rick does appear, but is little more than set dressing in this one, having very little to do.

Some seem to find this episode hilarious, but although there are a few okay moments, personally I found this one to be quite a disappointment in comparison with the first two half-brother stories. The “Is it really Higgins putting on an act?” plot seemed a little worn and tired by now (and, unusually, it is given away that it is not actually Higgins, in the opening trailer).

John Hillerman is a fine actor, and made good work of Elmo and Paddy and their accents. But here, faced with Don Luis’ more exotic accent, he seems to struggle a little more, and at a couple of points, Don Luis’ accent goes all over the place.

Magnum’s limp is strange – we get some vague hint that he injured his leg playing some game, presumably with Rick and T.C., but it is never fully explained; there is unconfirmed rumour that it was written in when Tom Selleck injured himself in reality.

This is certainly not bottom-of-the barrel – there are several humorous touches, and I like how the story later on has you guessing who is Higgins and who is Don Luis – but compared to the previous half-brother tales, this one never feels to fully hit its stride in my opinion. It is also very talky – something that affected many episodes in the later seasons of the series – and even drags a little in places.

It does pick up a bit towards the end, and the final scene is a nice one (have Higgins and Don Luis swapped places?), but all-in-all, this is a far more average tale when compared to the first two excellent half-brothers stories. And we didn’t even get some amusing story from Higgins about how his half-brother came about this time ‘round!

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Magnum smokes his thirteenth cigar of the series in this episode. He goes to get one to celebrate beating Higgins at chess, but never actually gets it. A little later though, he has one – and shuts it in the study doors!

* Magnum comments that Higgins never drives the Ferrari – Yes he does, in a number of other episodes. The third season’s ‘Forty Years from Sand Island’ springs readily to mind.

* We see in this episode that the dark room is located off of Higgins’ study; I never realised this – for some reason, I always imagined it to be on the next floor up.

* In the final scene, we get a good shot of Agatha’s car parked in front of the main house (see earlier threads discussing Agatha’s car).

* As with ‘Round and Around’ and ‘This Island Isn’t Big Enough…’ previously this season, this episode has a feature-length-style version of the closing credits theme.

…Well, that’s me done. I’m away for the week next week; I won’t have an internet connection where I’m staying, but I’m taking my laptop to watch next week’s batch of episodes and to write my reviews, and will post them when I get back.
:)
JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!

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