J.J. Walters wrote:Magnum:It's not just Diane! It's Michelle and Mac, Rick's little sister, Dan Cook, the little Vietnamese kid whose name I can't remember....My Dad. All people I loved, or who counted on me, and they're gone. Higgins:Death is part of life. I know that sounds trite, but the very nature of life means that the older we get, the more loses we can expect. And, if we go to war, or choose a profession such as yours, those loses are going to be higher. Magnum:Look, Higgins. I know you are trying to help and I appreciate it, I really do. I know this isn't going to solve anything, I know I'm being morose, and stupid, but I just don't give a damn.
See...I actually really find this beginning part of the episode interesting to watch and listen to! It's after he sees the fake Mac that, in my opinion, it takes a serious nose-dive! I understand, that they needed a good entertaining or even somewhat funny episode after the seriousness or "darkness" of "Echoes of the Mind"...but this wasn't entertaining or even funny...just irritating and stupid!
AmandaByNight wrote:I tend to see Echoes of the Mind and Mac's Back as a turning point for the series. Granted, there were earlier signs of it, but I think season 5 shifted into more "mature" episodes (for lack of a better word) that reveled a little more in the esoteric as Magnum aged and began to redefine himself.
Plus, I love how it starts out so dark and then it turns to something more fun. I think when Magnum thinks he sees Mac it gives him a sense of purpose and he's able to find himself through the search/case... whatever you want to call it.
At any rate, I love this episode!
I agree...by around season 5 the series was a little different, and episodes/Magnum seemed a little more mature. However, in my opinion "Mac's Back", and the introduction to the fake Mac, sort of counteracted that shift in the series. Fake Mac was like an irritating "hang-on" to the goofy slap-stick or even dysfunction of how Magnum would start out handling some of his early/first cases.
Magnum could pull off the goofiness or dysfunction and it was funny or even loveable...but Fake Mac was not funny or loveable--just irritating and annoying as heck! Besides, by season 5 Magnum was more "defined" and he was approaching his cases/clients more maturely and professionally. Fake Mac was like his "moron" little voice saying: "Come on...let's still be stupid and immature, just one more time!"
Normally I just sat back and enjoyed the ride one week at a time back in the eighties rather than look for some hidden meaning in any one given episode. Now that I can see all episodes at once I agree that this episode was a harbinger of things to come as there was change in the offing.
I think for the first time TM finds out that life isn't fair and the private world of investigations isn't necessarily the answer to living the missed years of 23-33. I think Jim Bonnick is the way TM brings part of the past back and mitigates the death of Mac somehow and that is what keeps him going. Then the show went back to the juvenile approach TM frequently had but that was TM's coping mechanism.
I think a lot of episodes to come will signal the end of MPI (and in one ending the end of TM). Hotel Dick is another attempt by Magnum to handle the private world. Blood and Honor is a definite hint that the NAVY was for TM, not private investigating. L.A. hints clearly at settling down. A.A.P.I is the pinnacle TM can expect from being a PI by being named the PI of the Year. Little Girl Who hints again at the family and settling down issue. Solo Flight is introspection into his PI life. Seasons 5, 6, and 7 clearly had an end in sight.
Sam found this interesting interview with Bellisario that tells us more about bringing Jeff/Mack back to the show.....he talks about it around the halfway mark.
Little Garwood wrote:In light of the fact that Jeff MacKay has died (and on Aug 22; my birthday) I can still remember the night I saw "Mac's Back" when it first aired back in 1984. This then-thirteen-year-old waited anxiously to see how they would bring the character back. I wasn't big on resurrection storylines, having just been burned by one in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock*, but I was a longtime Jeff fan, dating back to his Baa Baa Black Sheep and Tales of the Gold Monkey days. I did like the "ghostly" aspect used in this episode and the episode was embedded in my memory ever since. Having watched it a few months ago, I appreciated the episode on an adult level as the second half of Magnum's "double whammy" of emotional devastation was something that happened to me six years ago (I handled it better than Thomas, I'm happy to say). Funny how the best of art and entertainment stays with you and takes on new meanings as you get older.
Sorry for going on and on, but Jeff's passing got me thinking...I rank "Mac's Back" as "one of the best."
Garwood, you wrote:
"Funny how the best of art and entertainment stays with you and takes on new meanings as
you get older".
Great insight on your part. As I grew older and experienced losses such as family/buddies passing on, scenes in Magnum that I was indifferent to suddenly packed an emotional wallop.
Buck Gibson's para-sailing off to his death, and Magnum letting him only made sense to me when
years after it first aired I saw first hand the horrors suffered by people who were doomed to a lingering and degrading death. I guess that's an indication of the quality of the writing on Magnum, they were writing something true which was what Hemingway always strove to do.
*Which I refused to go and see at the time, even though I was and am a big Trek fan.
Great insight on your part. As I grew older and experienced losses such as family/buddies passing on, scenes in Magnum that I was indifferent to suddenly packed an emotional wallop.
Buck Gibson's para-sailing off to his death, and Magnum letting him only made sense to me when
years after it first aired I saw first hand the horrors suffered by people who were doomed to a lingering and degrading death. I guess that's an indication of the quality of the writing on Magnum, they were writing something true which was what Hemingway always strove to do.
One of the things about MPI was that it wasn't always an "all's well that ends well" type show where the good guy always wins, gets the girl and everybody recovers from their injury. Yes, there were lighthearted episodes that did follow this pattern but there were also more realistic (and somewhat dramatized) stories and scenes. People suffered emotionally and physically in this show and sometimes they died..and sometimes violently. Maybe it was a little ahead of its time but it was a good mix.
I found this a very, very well done episode, even if I disliked the Bonnig/ick character and found it super weird that Magnum went on calling him Mac...
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
It's not often I fault Tom Selleck's acting, but I don't think he's very good at acting depressed. He's all spaced out and lethargic and then he speaks and he sounds as energetic as usual, instead of sounding quiet, morose and low energy, like a depressed person would.
Also, I think his pals overreact a bit. They all gather in vigil as if he was fighting for his life. Give him a break, he just saw a woman he had feelings for blow her brains right in front of him. Then on top of that there's his friend being blown up in front of his eyes, the whole business with his wife and daughter and Vietnam. Don't you think he has the right to be a tiny bit depressed without you making a big drama out of it?
KingKC wrote:One of the things about MPI was that it wasn't always an "all's well that ends well" type show where the good guy always wins, gets the girl and everybody recovers from their injury. Yes, there were lighthearted episodes that did follow this pattern but there were also more realistic (and somewhat dramatized) stories and scenes. People suffered emotionally and physically in this show and sometimes they died..and sometimes violently. Maybe it was a little ahead of its time but it was a good mix.
KingKC
Yeah, the occasional grittiness they injected into the whole escapism made the show all the more relatable. We all suffer in life and we can relate better to a character when he has to pay his dues too.
Croix de Lorraine wrote:It's not often I fault Tom Selleck's acting, but I don't think he's very good at acting depressed. He's all spaced out and lethargic and then he speaks and he sounds as energetic as usual, instead of sounding quiet, morose and low energy, like a depressed person would.
Also, I think his pals overreact a bit. They all gather in vigil as if he was fighting for his life. Give him a break, he just saw a woman he had feelings for blow her brains right in front of him. Then on top of that there's his friend being blown up in front of his eyes, the whole business with his wife and daughter and Vietnam. Don't you think he has the right to be a tiny bit depressed without you making a big drama out of it?
Well, even beyond his recent behavior, he was wandering around town apparently hallucinating people who weren't there. I think it was time for a medical intervention before he hurt himself or somebody else.
Just as a side note, he did not know about the daughter yet.
I didn't realize you were so addicted to pool. It's not pool. Billiards. Snooker! Snucker. SNOOKER!
I like the episode, but I can understand why some don't like the "fake Mac" character. I don't think he should have been called Mac after this episode, but he was an OK character. I find it hilarious that a lot of the above comments are debating neck beards. HAHA!
Last edited by brianw on Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I always have completely differing opinions of this episode every time I watch it. This last time I wondered if this was just a little too much "gimmickry." I always thought the multiple roles played by Hillerman were a little on the gimmickry side as well. (Elmo Ziller was fun but Don Luis and Father Paddy were pushing it) (Do you think Shiggins will have a lot of half-sisters????)This early in season five was too early to realize that ratings for MPI were going to fall, primarily due to the Cosby Show, so I cannot classify this episode as Jumping the Shark. Well, off to watch Legend of Garwood Huddle and see if my opinion of it improved.
Mac's Back offers two of my all-time favorite scenes in the entire series:
1. When Magnum leaves Robin's Nest fishtailing the 308 slightly while the main theme music of the show kicks in. For me it's like: " Hell, yes....Magnum is back!"
2. When Magnum sees Mac's ghost on the beach and the laughter they share. In my opinion, that's the second best Magnum laughing scene only trailing the Luther Gillis "How much for the onions?" crack-up when he's making fun of the hot dog shirt.
I understand, that they needed a good entertaining or even somewhat funny episode after the seriousness or "darkness" of "Echoes of the Mind"...but this wasn't entertaining or even funny...just irritating and stupid!
