My magnum opus on Magnum, P.I.
05/10/2016
Dead Man’s Channel (S2, E2) sticks out as an early favourite, not only because the title sounds like an episode of Police Squad! but it’s also the one with the underwater fight that features in the opening credits. In addition, the token damsel in distress, played by the lovely Wendy Girard, is actually able to resist Magnum’s charms, which is nice every once in a while. In addition, we get to hear Higgins, in a deadly serious tone, deliver the line, “I’ll give you and the goat 24 hours.” Magnum also makes a monumental goof when he first goes diving by giving Rick a ‘thumbs up’ sign instead of an ‘OK’ sign and anyone with as much diving experience as a Navy SEAL would have, would not make that mistake.
Memories Are Forever (S2, E5 parts 1 & 2) marks the point where the series ups its ante. Originally broadcast as a two-hour movie, but broken up into two parts for syndication runs, it becomes a little confusing as the IMDb considers this one episode, but Wikipedia calls it two. I’m inclined to agree with the latter. Regardless, in it we learn the story behind his wife in Vietnam, Michelle, a little more about the Cross of Lorraine symbol, plus Magnum is suddenly reactivated by the Navy and we’re introduced to Col. Buck Greene. Granted the plot plays out like Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) in places, but it does include some of the best interaction between Magnum and Higgins so far as we’re shown the real depth of their relationship for the first time.
At the time that Magnum was made, the Vietnam War and its aftermath was still a controversial subject. According to the IMDb, Magnum, TC, and Rick have been cited as some of the first positive portrayals of Vietnam veterans on a network TV series. Trying to adapt to normal life in the US after a minimum of 12 months of jungle warfare was hard and there’s no better illustration of this than National Geographic’s excellent documentary Brothers in War. Stepping off the plane, often within 24 hours of actual combat, many were faced with anti-war protesters who would jeer, spit and even throw garbage at returning troops. Amidst this chaos, confused and anxious soldiers hurriedly exited the airport, each making their way to a car, train or coach as all they could think about was getting home, to familiar territory, without realizing that they wouldn’t see their close friends again, until at the very least, many years later. Wave Goodbye (S2, E7) is another example of how Magnum took the Vietnam post traumatic stress disorder issue and faced it head on, which was a very brave, bold thing to do at the time.
Survivor guilt from the war is a primary plot device in another powerful episode, The Last Page (S2, E19). It even ends with a series of moving black and white stills of Vietnam flashbacks seen earlier in the episode with no sound. Of course Thomas Magnum is very fortunate; he and his best friends not only all made it all out of ‘Nam alive and without any serious mental or physical injury, but they stuck together, relocated to Hawaii and all landed on their feet in terms of post-war prospective careers.
By about a third of the way through season 2, we’re used to hearing Magnum speak of his ‘little voice’, representing his conscience and also his grand plans to one day write a book on ‘how to be a world class private investigator’. Tropical Madness (S2, E6) is the very first time it’s mentioned and then from there it becomes a reoccurring Magnum-ism.
A big part of Magnum’s appeal is…er, Magnum’s appeal; the guy can’t keep his hands off his clients – and they’re almost always helpless, vulnerable, attractive women. They’re powerless to resist as he wrestles them with his strong, manly grip and forcefully imposes himself with a passionate kiss in what would probably be today an almost certain sexual assault suit. In Tropical Madness (S2, E6), Thomas, with his rampant libido, even tries to snog the woman that Higgins is keen on. What a bastard.
Honestly, he’ll do anything to anything: animal, vegetable or mineral. Young girls or older women, no one is safe. In Double Jeopardy (S2, E18) he cops off with the gorgeous – and a smidgen his senior – Dana Wynter, despite the fact that her husband is lying in a hospital bed with gun shot wounds. Clearly, Thomas has some oedipus issues he still needs to resolve. Later, in season three, the same actress plays an old flame of Higgins in Foiled Again (S3, E7).
Additional amusement could be added to any Magnum marathon with friends and fellow fans by betting on whether or not he sleeps with each client/helpless-vulnerable-attractive-woman as he frequently oh-so-kindly insists that they stay in Robin’s guesthouse because their own apartment is being watched or has been trashed or because they just feel slightly less helpless and vulnerable by staying there.
The Sixth Position (S2, E10) is notable for a few reasons: firstly TC shows off his passion for, and knowledge of, ballet. No, really. Magnum forces himself on a particularly feisty client and both Rick and Higgins give Magnum a welcome, long overdue taste of his own one-sided ask-a-favour attitude. Despite all his shortcomings, we want Magnum to solve the case and beat the bad guys. We want his friends to help him because there’s usually a more important issue at hand than an outstanding bar tab or bill for a replacement cockpit window. But most importantly, we want Magnum to become a better person. The lost-camera-lens-subplot of this episode is probably the best example yet of Magnum getting his comeuppance.
Without a doubt, the best episode by this point that really shows the bond between all the principal characters is Computer Date (S2, E13). Not only do Magnum and Higgins go the entire length of the episode without arguing, but they both lean heavily on each other to deal with this episode’s respective personal dilemmas. In fact, the following episode, Try To Remember (S2, E14) also heavily focuses on the relationship between Magnum and Higgins as Thomas recovers from a very serious car crash. In a truly wonderful scene, Magnum reluctantly agrees to be hypnotized by Higgins in an attempt to find out what happened on the night of the crash, since he’s had some memory loss following the accident. Whilst under hypnosis, Magnum admits to how he managed to sneak into the wine cellar and steal a 1966 Chateau Margaux. It also marks the first time we see Magnum’s rubber chicken and we’re introduced to Lieutenant Tanaka of Hawaii PD Homicide Division who gradually becomes a well-liked reoccurring character.
Texas Lightning (S2, E17) introduces the antagonist in a particularly sick scene that has him practicing his aim with a shotgun on the deck of his yacht as live pigeons are deliberately thrown into the air for him to shoot. We also learn about Higgin’s Law (opportunity + Magnum = financial disaster) a wonderful concept that sadly is never mentioned again. The full potential of John Hillerman – lest we forget he was in Blazing Saddles (1974) – begins to show through towards the end of season two. In particular, The Elmo Ziller Story (S2, E20) he plays for the first time one of his wonderful…distant relative roles that pop up later on in the series. This time it’s Elmo Ziller, Higgins’ illegitimate half-brother from Texas. The irony is of course that Hillerman is actually from Texas. Bizarrely though, if you look on YouTube for some snippets of him talking in his natural accent, he does actually sound mostly British, with an occasional southern slip, so to speak. Almost like an English expat who’d perhaps lived in the Lone Star State for an extended time, say 15 or 20 years. In the same episode, Gillian Dobb turns up playing the receptionist of an exclusive country club. She of course plays the reoccurring character Agatha Chumley, Higgins’ quintessentially English lady friend later in the series. Her name isn’t mentioned in this early cameo, so it’s not known whether she’s Agatha already at this point, however she is officially Agatha a few episodes later in Black on White (S3, E5).
Season three
Magnum is mostly a single episode affair, with little in the way of an ongoing story arc – although we do get to see something begin to develop toward the end of season 7 and the beginning of season 8. Occasionally, prior events from earlier episodes are mentioned, but not very often. Throughout the entire series there are only six two-parters, none of which are used as a cliffhanger, ending one season and beginning another. However, season three opens with a double-barrel shotgun of a two-parter, the legendary episode Did You See the Sun Rise? For reasons I’ll not go into, this episode is without a doubt Magnum at its darkest, in fact, it’s probably one of the very best episodes.
