A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the eighth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
4%
9.0 (Excellent)
2
3%
8.5 (Very Good)
10
14%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
18
25%
7.5 (Decent)
10
14%
7.0 (Average at Best)
15
21%
6.5 (Not So Good)
7
10%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
2
3%
5.0 (Just Awful)
4
6%
 
Total votes: 72

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J.J. Walters
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A Girl Named Sue (8.7)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for A Girl Named Sue (8.7). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 1/13/1988
Bank teller Susan Johnson returns to Magnum's life with a bang: having recently become a detective, she opens fire on him during an investigation.

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J.J. Walters
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#2 Post by J.J. Walters »

As a big Carol Burnett fan, I really wanted to like this one. Sadly, it falls short for me, mainly because of the predictable, cookie-cutter script and the one-dimensional, highly annoying, characters.

The Magnum/Susan scenes didn't seem to work as well here - they seemed a little too outlandish and forced. "Rembrand'ts Girl" was much better, IMHO. Susan's wardrobe also bothered me for some reason. I know she's supposed to be a throwback gumshoe, but did she have to look like she just walked out of a Dick Tracy comic book, or something?

This episode does feature what has to be one of the best Higgins "Oh My God!" deliveries ever, though!

Image

http://magnum-mania.com/Audio/oh_my_god_2.wav

:shock:

Truly terrifying! It's a good thing Magnum high-tailed it out of there before he opened the box!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Shermy
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#3 Post by Shermy »

I also thought the chemistry between Magnum and Susan was much better in Rembrandt's Girl. They had some genuinely funny moments in the vault ("We're going to run out of air?!!!"), and a nice farewell back at the guest house.

Unfortunately, most of this episode feels like it's just recycling what worked before. Even the sight of Magnum caught in netting feels like an excuse for another silly Magnum visual (ala the sprinkler in Rembrandt's).
James J. Walters wrote:This episode does feature what has to be one of the best Higgins "Oh My God!" deliveries ever, though!
LOL...it's certainly one of the most vicious! I also like the way the joke is painfully telegraphed (Magnum's placement of the box), yet still delivers a good laugh.

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N1095A
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#4 Post by N1095A »

James J. Walters wrote:As a big Carol Burnett fan, I really wanted to like this one. Sadly, it falls short for me, mainly because of the predictable, cookie-cutter script and the one-dimensional, highly annoying, characters.

The Magnum/Susan scenes didn't seem to work as well here - they seemed a little too outlandish and forced. "Rembrand'ts Girl" was much better, IMHO. Susan's wardrobe also bothered me for some reason. I know she's supposed to be a throwback gumshoe, but did she have to look like she just walked out of a Dick Tracy comic book, or something?

This episode does feature what has to be one of the best Higgins "Oh My God!" deliveries ever, though!

Image

http://magnum-mania.com/Audio/oh_my_god_2.wav

:shock:

Truly terrifying! It's a good thing Magnum high-tailed it out of there before he opened the box!
Anyone else not get why TM gift wrapped Higgins' pistol? We know from later in the episode that TM's gun was damaged, but gift wrapping higgins' pistol?
"But Higgins, I can explain."

arri
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#5 Post by arri »

in my opinion, one of the worst episodes ever.

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Tom_Magnum
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#6 Post by Tom_Magnum »

This episode was way better than the last time Magnum and Carol met in Season 4 (that episode was dreadful). This episode was kind of like a new beginning - a big BANG, and there it was. A great episode. I loved it

TM

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#7 Post by 308GTS »

Having just seen this episode (2nd viewing for me) I gotta agree with James, the Higgins "Oh My God" is quite possibly the best ever...!

Otherwise, it's a so so episode.
Arun
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DarCA
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#8 Post by DarCA »

I loved this episode. Of course I love everything Carol Burnett and
Tom Selleck do. I thought the way they made Carol over the top as a detective was really good. I loved when they met in the warehouse and she asked him if he was a "sort of good looking guy".

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#9 Post by gmt16750 »

agree with arri: the worst episode ever.
the episode in the vault was so much better (rembrandt's girl)
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!

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#10 Post by Jaybird »

This is a fun and entertaining episode. Carol Burnett returns, this time as a new p.i. The episode is sort of a throwback to some of the more light hearted, comedic episodes but it is still very watchable.

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#11 Post by lutherhgillis »

To each their own so if you liked this epi, then great but I almost barfed! It was totally campy for me. It was actually a pretty good story but the way they exaggerated the interaction between the characters put it over the top.

Carol Burnett is one of the great ones and it was good to see her again. That Lucky Steele must pay a good piece of bank because Carol was driving a Ferrari like Robin's... I think they listed at 50 - 60k back then.

Did anyone see a correlation between the Lucky Steele detective kit and the backpacker's pal from the Rembrandt's Girl episode?
Last edited by lutherhgillis on Wed Jun 17, 2009 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?

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#12 Post by Frodoleader »

An interesting quote from this episode, from Grandpa Sullivan, as related by TM: "You can only get really angry at those people that love you enough to forgive you."

As to quality of episode: not bad, but certainly not real good.
"You are three months at Dak Wei and still you crack jokes?" - Ivan

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#13 Post by A P Leyland »

Oh dear. It's not awful but I'm sure they could have spent the final season more productively.

Andy

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#14 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Phew – I didn’t like this one and thought I was going to be in a small minority, but it seems this one didn’t go down that well with most other members either.

[rating=6.0]

Magnum is hired by a woman to find the missing will of her late father, recently killed in a boating accident. But he finds himself working against Susan Johnson, now a P.I. herself, who has been hired by the girl’s brother, in a family feud. Annoying…

-----

As soon as I saw the opening trailer for this episode, I instantly knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it. And how right I was!

The episode opens vaguely amusingly with Magnum trying to avoid a subpoena over an incident he has witnessed. However, this potentially enjoyable idea (it could have at least rounded out the final story as a b-plot) is soon forgotten as the main story gets underway.

Carol Burnett returns as Susan Johnson, first seen in the fourth season episode ‘Rembrandt’s Girl’. We find that since that appearance, Susan has become a trainee Private Investigator. As I said with my review of ‘Rembrandt’s Girl’, not being American, I wasn’t really sure who Carol Burnett is (until I read up on her), but I found her rather annoying in ‘Rembrandt’, and here, I find her downright terrible!

I’m sure Burnett can be funny with the right material (I’ve never seen any of her other work, so I can’t compare), but in this episode all she seems to do is talk loudly and wave her arms a lot and pull silly faces.

Even beyond Burnett, I find the whole plot of this episode uninteresting. Although there are some good episodes in the eighth, final season, often when watching them I can’t help but wish that they would stop going for so many half-hearted plots and give Magnum a case that both he, and us the viewers, can really get our teeth into.

Not much more to say on this one. I find it very annoying (mostly due to Carol Burnett, I’m afraid), and as such, it is one of my least watched episodes – I hadn’t seen it in YEARS until I came to review it – and it hasn’t got any better with age! I’d say this is the weakest episode of the final season.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* On the DVD version, listen carefully to the opening theme, around the spot where Larry Manetti’s credit comes up – the music ‘slips’ and goes wobbly for a moment. (I haven’t had time to check my broadcast version yet to see if it does the same thing).

* Another episode presumably produced before Pete Carpenter’s death, as it again credits both Mike Post and Carpenter as scoring the episode.

* Rick only appears in one scene in this episode, at the Club near the beginning.
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#15 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

N1095A wrote:Anyone else not get why TM gift wrapped Higgins' pistol? We know from later in the episode that TM's gun was damaged, but gift wrapping Higgins' pistol?
Magnum put it in the box so Higgins wouldn't see him with it. As we find out later, Magnum's own pistol was being repaired because he had damaged it breaking out of the warehouse, so he decided to "borrow" Higgins' revolver.

DarCA wrote:I loved when they met in the warehouse and she asked him if he was a "sort of good looking guy".
I was thinking she said something like "an average-looking guy with a mustache," which would be kind of amusing, because in my opinion Magnum would be a kind of average looking guy if he was without his mustache. I love Carol Burnett's comedy work, but this episode does not show her talents to best advantage. As Jay said above, they have her spending most of it screaming and stomping.


When Magnum is talking to the security guard at the marina, it sounds to me like his line about the "Wainwight yacht" might have been a blooper that they decided to leave in, perhaps because her rejoinder about the "pwivate iwand" was so cute.

And yes, we have yet another uninhabited lush tropical island within an easy helicopter ride from Honolulu. Hey, writers, if there did happen to be an uninhabited lush tropical island that close by, IT WOULD BE INHABITED!!! (Whew -- I feel better now!)

There have been comments on other threads about "5-0" being referred to as though it were real in the Magnum universe. I'm wondering whether those references might actually have been meant as tongue-in-cheek. That does seem to be the case with Susan's farewell to Magnum, saying that if he ever needs help, just let her know, and she'll "be here before you can say, 'Book 'em, Danno!'"
Carol

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