I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
0
No votes
9.5 (One of the Best)
0
No votes
9.0 (Excellent)
3
4%
8.5 (Very Good)
13
17%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
17
23%
7.5 (Decent)
16
21%
7.0 (Average at Best)
12
16%
6.5 (Not So Good)
5
7%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
7
9%
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
3%
 
Total votes: 75

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marlboro
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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#41 Post by marlboro »

Holy crap. I just did an image search for the chick who gets knifed at the beginning of this episode. They killed her off way way too early.

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#42 Post by Tidal Pool Lifeguard »

There was some really great guest acting in this episode from Geoffrey Lewis and Clive Revill. That was always one of the show's strengths, bringing people in who did great work and just "clicked" with our regular guys. This was a fun one, although we could have used a little more T.C. at the carnival!

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#43 Post by Stelth »

This is probably common knowledge to most people but I just learned Juliette Lewis is Geoffrey Lewis' daughter.
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J. Rickley Schneider
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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#44 Post by J. Rickley Schneider »

I liked this episode because it contained a mystery that I couldn't figure out until the big reveal.

I assumed that the killer couldn't be the scary guy because I assumed the scary guy was an obvious red herring. And I thought his display of marksmanship was foreshadowing how the scary guy was going to somehow save the day at the end.

I especially like Magnum, PI episodes that feature a good mystery or contain some plot twist that I didn't see coming.

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#45 Post by Doc Ibold »

J. Rickley Schneider wrote:I liked this episode because it contained a mystery that I couldn't figure out until the big reveal.

I assumed that the killer couldn't be the scary guy because I assumed the scary guy was an obvious red herring. And I thought his display of marksmanship was foreshadowing how the scary guy was going to somehow save the day at the end.

I especially like Magnum, PI episodes that feature a good mystery or contain some plot twist that I didn't see coming.
By the Scary Guy, do you mean "Higgo the Demonic Clown"? He was by far the freakiest thing in this episode for me.


:magnum:

I know in another thread there was a discussion about holiday episodes.. to me, this is the closest thing to a Halloween themed episode.

By the way.. LOVE the handle!

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Re:

#46 Post by Milton Collins »

J.J. Walters wrote:He sure is wilko! He's downright frightening!

Image

:shock:

If I was a kid, and I saw him, I would just drop my ice cream cone and run in the opposite direction!

Ha ha ha ha ha! Hiliaroius quote JJ. I found it to be extremely funny that Higgins dressed up as this creepy clown. And his costume kindve sums up this whole episode, pretty ridiculous but just flat out fun!

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#47 Post by Milton Collins »

J.J. Walters wrote:This show never ceases to amaze me. I always regarded this as the worst episode ever. Now, this was based on one viewing over 15 years ago. Revisiting this episode now, I'm shocked at how much better I like it!

The carny scenes are all quite enjoyable, especially the ones with "The Gang" in costumes. There are a couple of really good dialog sequences referencing carnivals and side shows - Magnum's narration about his memories of the county fair as a kid and Inky's speech lamenting the upcoming demise of the traditional traveling carnivals.

And every scene inside the "Tower of Terror" is fantastic. It's dark, spooky, and is inhabited by a creepy, disfigured carnival geek who wears a Jason Voorhees mask and kind of looks like Freddy Krueger! It's light horror, something rarely seen in the show, that actually works quite well! Even the "blaze up" ending was better the second time around. And fantastic make-up work on Geoffrey Lewis. Creepy.

Image

There are some bad scenes, however, and some pacing issues, but overall a decent episode, much better than I remember it!
Exactly! I wish they had used more "light horror" in Magnum as I like the episodes that had that element. And I totally agree about getting better with multiple viewings. I remember hating this one and as I've watched it a few more times I've liked it better and better.

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#48 Post by KingKC »

Another memorable episode but it seemed like they took the rodeo of The Elmo Ziller story, changed it to a carnival, got everyone dressed up strangely (including TM this time) and solved a fairly decent mystery. It just seems like a lot of private detective shows and police shows end up at a carnival or county fair. Of all the friends of TM, TC, Rick and Higgins who show up after years and years, this one did not seem to fit. But...I tolerated it.

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#49 Post by triglaw »

by the way: a week before this episode aired Tom made an appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman" and complained about poor ratings of "Magnum, P.I":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5e7Fa3PXI&t=7m0s

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Re:

#50 Post by K Hale »

golfmobile wrote:The only thing I thought was more improbable than all the others in this episode is how quickly the Tower of Terror gets engulfed in flames -- I think it takes a little longer than instantly to get the whole thing burning. Plus when they come out, the fire engines are already there pumping water!
While I agree the fire seemed to spread far too rapidly, the fire engines were there before the fire started. Due to the hostage situation, I suppose. Lt. Tanaka was even on site already.
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Re:

#51 Post by K Hale »

J.J. Walters wrote:I just found a flub, which is rare for me.

Magnum says that one of the clues that helped him solve the mystery of "Donald Gilbert" is the fact that Higgins never mentioned "North Africa, August of 1942" in all of his years of "ramblings". August of '42 was when "Inky" and his brother Donald, as Americans, were with Higgins' unit (when Donald got flamed).

Magnum must have forgotten that when he was hanging out with "Willy" in "Basket Case" (3.15), Higgins tells the story of when he was in Tripoli in August of 1942 (Higgins actually says "August of 1942). After enduring heat, malaria, and bad food for weeks, he tried to raise morale by organizing a basketball game and created what was later known as the 'floating zone', or sphere defense.

I guess one could argue that Magnum just plain forgot about this story, but I suspect that it was really the script writer who forgot. ;)
I took this as meaning Higgins did not speak of that specific incident, not that he never mentioned being in North Africa in 1942. For that matter, since he was in the army 37 years through some terrible times, I'm sure there were many things Higgins kept to himself.
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Re:

#52 Post by K Hale »

mandolabar wrote:
layne wrote:And Higgins after realizing Magnum may be trapped in the burning funhouse turning around to go back in after him. That was really touching. It's fascinating to me how much their relationship changed from the beginning seasons. Higgins hated the ground Magnum walked on the first season and now he wants to run into a burning building to save him. I loved that.

I really can't think of any other characters on television (especially men) who evolve so much in their relationship with each other. MPI really is one-of-a-kind.
While I don't disagree at all--being a huge Higgins fan--I think that Higgins would have gone back into the building for anyone. That's who Higgins is.
I don't think so. Not with firefighters working right there, who could simply be told there is a person inside and then allowed to do their job. If Higgins runs in he becomes another potential person needing to be rescued, thus adding to the firefighters' risk. He was going back in for Magnum, but IMO would have let the experts do their work for a stranger.

What I am not quite clear on is just what happened in 1942. My take on it is this: the burned guy is Inky's brother who Higgins thought had been killed, and finds fault with himself for not saving the guy back then, but the reality is that the guy was burned and not killed and Higgins didn't see that because he was doing what he was told to do instead of going above and beyond by trying to save him? Therefore he feels he needs to run into the burning building to save him now? If so, how and when did he figure out who the burned guy was?
Last edited by K Hale on Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#53 Post by K Hale »

Doc Fred wrote:Regardless of the quality of the plots, when Higgins displays his honor and courage, it's a great show to me, and this was no exception. Perhaps I'm different from most folks, but I look for characters to show character, and all four of the main characters do that time and time again. This time it was Higgins' turn. When you consider all the things he did in his lifetime, you have to be impressed, very impressed. His respect for Magnum showed again when he recommended Magnum to Inky and called him "the best"... something he'd never tell Magnum directly.
My fav line from this ep.
Paraphrased-

Inky: "Higgins was right. He sent the best."
Magnum: "He SAID that?!"
Inky: "No, you have to know how to read him."
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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#54 Post by Laohu »

I had forgotten about this episode . After rewatching it I know why . Just not a good episode I would bet TS would have liked to redo the scene where he is cutting the beef up in the guest house and Higgins comes in a startles him .that’s the scene someone should make a animated gif of .

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Re: I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

#55 Post by nha trang »

Wow, 9 years later and my opinion of the carnie episode went from almost awful to pretty good!

It was a cult classic delight in fact! Once again I have seemingly become able to appreciate other show elements other than the "classic" theme as the years have gone by.

Nha Trang

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