Out of Sync (7.19)

[Carmen]

Nope, it didn`t

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Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

I often wonder why this engagement didn't go anywhere. It was a perfect time in Magnum's life as he was taking stock in what he had, and re evaluating his life. Maybe it was the distance, as well as the akwardness of the engagement that doomed this relationship?

[Frodoleader]

I think this episode always left me wanting more. More Dana Delany obviously, but even more. Maybe TM & Cynthia getting engaged? Of course, that would upset the dynamics of an already perfect cast. Maybe if Cynthia returned at the end of season 8, and instead of Rick marrying Cleo, TM married Cynthia? I think that would have made an interesting series ender: TM choking on the "I do" as the series ends, like Rick does.

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"You are three months at Dak Wei and still you crack jokes?" - Ivan

[Zudobug]

I thought that this episode had the potential to be a truly great one with Magnum getting back together with his love interest from the beginning of the season but it was ruined by Jay Huguely's strange sense of humour. I've never liked any of the episodes he has written and this is no exception. The woman trying to run away from a porn baron and enlisting Magnum's help just ruined what was a perfect love story. She was so annoying and all she ever seemed to do was conveniently get in Magnum and his fiances way.

[Jay-Firestorm]

I was particularly looking forward to this one, as when Five ran the series in 2002-3, this was one of two episodes they skipped, and until watching it on DVD last night, I had never seen this episode.

[rating=9.0]

Thomas has a hard time juggling his latest case – hired by an adult film star to investigate what she claims is a director making ‘snuff’ movies – and spending time with his fiancée Cynthia, who is visiting Hawaii from L.A. Some good moments…

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This review contains spoilers.

Re-watching the series on DVD to review, I was really looking forward to this episode, and with good reason: when Five ran the series here in the U.K. in 2002-3, while they edited some episodes for the daytime slot, they completely skipped two episodes – the second season opener ‘Billy Joe Bob’ and this one.
‘Billy Joe Bob’ was probably dropped due to the attempted hanging at the climax of that story, while I imagine ‘Out of Sync’ was not shown due to the (suggested) violent nature of some of the pornographic movies glimpsed during the episode.
But either way, I was really excited, because to me, it was like a brand new episode of MPI. I’ve seen most other episodes over a number of times, but never this one.
And to my pleasure, it turned out to be a very reasonable story.

The plot sees Magnum’s fiancée Cynthia Farrell (Dana Delany) visiting him in Hawaii, after they met in the feature-length / two-part season opener ‘L.A.’. Although ‘L.A.’ ranks as my least favourite two-hour story of the series, I did enjoy it more this time around, and it was good to see Delany make a return appearance here. Delany and Tom Selleck have a very good chemistry on-screen, and it makes for some good scenes.

But it’s not all plain sailing – at the same time, Magnum has been hired to investigate a director making ‘snuff’ movies. The director is played by David Hemmings, who had previously played a different character in the fifth season episode ‘Compulsion’, and who directed several episodes of the show (he also worked on ‘Airwolf’ and ‘The A-Team’ amongst many other shows). Hemmings is typically good value for money, although here, maybe we don’t see quite enough of him to give him anything to really get his teeth into.

There is also none of Magnum’s usual narration in this episode, with him instead addressing the viewer to camera at the start of each act. With him all bruised, and his suit tattered, this works well, as we gradually find out throughout the episode how he came to be in this beaten up state.

As I have said with many episodes from the latter end of MPI’s run, this story plays as more of a drama (or in this case, comedy drama) than the adventures of earlier season. Sometimes I dislike that, but in this case, it doesn’t work too badly.
The story has some really good moments, and the sequence of Magnum escaping his captors and trying to race back to Robin’s Nest (still tied to chair!) before Cynthia leaves, is one of the best extended sequences of the season in my opinion.

The only thing that really lets this story down is the abrupt conclusion to the ‘snuff movie’ thread – it turns out that Andrea, the actress who hired Magnum, often pulls such stunts and is just playing games with director Danny (Hemmings). I found this sudden turn of events much too sudden, like they ran out of screen time and wrapped it up best they could, and it leaves several plot holes.

But other than that, this is a very good episode. I like the final scene, with Magnum’s rushed goodbye to Cynthia at the airport, and his final slow walking away. This is the last we see of Cynthia in the series, and I personally think it would have been better to bring her back in the show’s finale, ‘Resolutions’, instead of Linda from ‘Forty’ (a couple of episodes previous to this one).
But all-in-all, a good story with some very nice moments – even when I’ve got past the novelty of this being a ‘new’ episode to me!

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Yet again, the DVD version abridges the act breaks. In this case it is particularly annoying, as each act opens with Magnum addressing the camera, and it needs the breaks to distinguish these sections from the rest of the story.

* I don’t think he is credited, but is the guy on the beach at the beginning Bob Minor (Roger E. Mosley’s stunt double, and who has parts in several episodes?).

* On the scene on the beach, where Magnum tells Cynthia to just “relax”, does he deliberately mess up the word, or was this a blooper from which her recovered? He says “just ra—relax” and laughs, but they continue.

* Magnum smokes his fourteenth cigar of the series in this story.

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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!!

[J.J. Walters]

I guess it's no surprise this wasn't aired in the UK. This episode has all kinds of weird (violent) stuff going on - girls getting slapped around, guys getting slapped around, snuff film allusions, bondage porn, porn directors, porn video rentals, knives, etc.!

This episode was pushing some serious boundaries for its time!

[Italian Ice]

Yes, that does look like a total blooper, how did they miss that?
I guess they decided to run with it, but it went on for about 30 seconds.

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Higgins: Dispatch the pig!!!

[Jay-Firestorm]

[Danno]

Ugh. So painful... why, Cynthia, WHY did it have to be this way??!!

The porn video is hilarious. Especially Higgins and Magnum's different reactions.

A great episode, but a real painful one to watch.
Airports can be awful places.

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Don't you ever knock?!

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

Guy kinda looks like Borat to me.