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

[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
Great interpretation of Hillerman in both spanish and english characters

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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]

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.

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I just don't give a damn!

[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]

Hillerman is a good lad! Nobody could fill his or Selleck's shoes!

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I just don't give a damn!

[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…

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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!

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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.

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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!!

[Rutledal]

Did see it mentioned anywhere so I thought I'd just say that the episodes title is a play on the title of the Dustin Hoffman movie "Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?".

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067980/

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So I made a Topic Page about Magnum, P.I. Check it out here.

[MACattack]

Don Luis 's accent sounds alot like Ricardo Montalban on fantasy island. I keep expecting Tattoo to pop out of nowhere and say "de plane, de plane!"

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I just don't give a damn!

[Little Garwood]

[Tuan Vu]

Ha, ha! What a great episode this was! With Higgins, you never know if it's really him or someone else, which keeps Magnum second-guessing.

I like how Higgins has to prove himself to Magnum by telling him the Gunga Din story. I also like how Magnum knew Higgins would never resort to an amateurish move like the Uncle-Lyle-whatever-you-call-it move. And also I like how Magnum could understand what Higgins was mumbling through the mouth gag. All these things show how well they really know each other.

But it's ironic that they are really close and yet there are times Higgins can pull the wool over Magnum's eyes...and vice versa.

Without John Hillerman, I am not sure how good Magnum, p.i. would have been. I am glad he finally won an Emmy back in 1987.

Only thing is that T.C. was not in this episode, but I guess he just didn't fit into the story.

[MaiTaiMan]

Somewhat funny episode, where we get to meet another one of Higgins' goofy half-brothers. Decent action and enjoyable chess scenes between Higgins, Magnum, and Don Luis. I also noticed Anthony LaPaglia as supposedly as a young Higgins' father. That was interesting.

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"It was more ironic than a Robin Masters novel--she thought he was dead, he thought she was dead...and only the chauffeur knew the truth! He should have been the butler!" "Lest We Forget"