ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 9:47 pm
Luther's nephew Dobie wrote: ↑Mon Oct 15, 2018 9:10 pm
Mad Kudu Buck wrote:I thought Magnum's flashback 1979 long hair made him look older, not younger. I think it would have worked better if he had shorter, neater hair in 1979 - because he was recently out of the Navy (where he'd have short neat hair) and hadn't had time to grow it long yet. (They didn't even have to cut it - just flatten it down, like in Mac's Back.)
Some of the sudden flashback changes were unnecessarily confusing. It's not a bad episode, but not a good one either.
I liked this episode overall. The back and forth timelines were clumsily handled, you had to pay attention to differentiate between them, so if you were
doing some other activity while watching you could lose the thread.
I get the distinct impression the flashback scenes were actually written for a would be first episode after the pilot film.
It would be easier for the audience to understand who Magnum was that way, and why Higgins so severely judged him when this beach bum Magnum showed
up at the estate later on in his beat up VW, as a fellow employee. Perhaps this would be 1st episode didn't work and the writer filed away the best parts to reuse,
in this case for Dream A Little Dream.
Writers like Stirling Silliphant did it all the time. Roy Huggins of Rockford Files, Maverick and many other series took it to another level, he shamelessly recycled - slightly altered - entire scripts, past plots notably turning up in Alias Smith & Jones. Lance White as portrayed by Tom Selleck was originally a Maverick character. You don't throw out good material or characters. Stuart Margolin's Emmy winning Angel Martin character from Rockford had it's origins in "Nichols"(played by the same actor), later recycled yet again in the one season lasting "Bret Maverick", again played by Margolin.
"Greetings Oh Great White Father from the Land of Cube"...Beatnik Bongo Bennie (77 Sunset Strip)
Hey Dobie, gonna disagree with you about the flashbacks being clumsily handled. I thought Roger E. Mosley in his directorial debut knocked it out of the park with those back-and-forths and how he transitioned from present to past and back again. Very creative, not clumsy or confusing at all. Just Magnum's mullet alone (or lack thereof) told you whether you were in '79 or '84. So it was easy to follow. But it's the WAY the transitions happen that I really love! My favorite is at the beginning when Mag packs up and leaves Robin's Nest in the Jimmy (much to Higgy's befuddlement) and as he drives down a Honolulu street he passes the beat up VW Beetle and at that point we're back in '79 as the camera pans up the building to the window which says "Magnum Private Investigator". It's simple, easy to understand, and yet creative at the same time. Or when Mag and Karen are walking and talking on the beach and as he looks to the other side of the beach we see Rick in his white Bogie jacket approaching Thomas and doing his Bogie schtick. Another cool transition! We immediately see this is the Rick that we met in the pilot. And how about scene where we're in '79 and then a phone rings and we see Mag picking up the phone with his bandaged finger (which we saw him hurting when he was zipping up his bag at the beginning when leaving Robin's Nest, over which Higgy made a big deal about Mag's low tolerance for pain) and I immediately knew we were now in the present. It's small touches like these that add so much. Makes the whole thing feel like a film, not just a silly little TV show. All too often they'll just plop the year on the screen or "5 years ago" to tell the viewer what time frame we're in. And how annoying would that actually be if they had to keep doing it again and again, since we keep jumping back and forth here so much?
It's not a great episode by any stretch. Higgy's origins story 2 episodes earlier ("Holmes is Where the Heart Is") was much better and there really is no story or case here to solve. It's just a TM origins story and his love story with his first client and on that level it works just fine but nothing special. But the flashbacks and transitions for me are the best part of the episode!
Ivan,
You make a good argument. So much so I want to take another look at this episode as its been 6 years since I have seen it.
However about 5 years ago I decided to give Magnum PI a rest as the series was becoming way too familiar to me. Now though I recall episodes in general I have forgotten much of the action,
so I'd like to thank COVID for at least one good thing - I am now ready to watch Rockford Files and Magnum again.
After reading your post I would especially like to watch this episode again, perhaps I will agree with you.
I did a search and neither thru my Comcast TV nor anywhere online can I now find Magnum PI.
I expect one of the channels will be running it sooner than later, its an evergreen. Universal does like to package series together, so if a network wanted Rockford Files they also had to
take the less popular Quincy. I imagine Magnum would be one of their most attractive series to tie lesser shows to in a package.
Just as MeTV had to take Quinn Martin's Barnaby Jones, Cannon and The Fugitive as a package deal.