Magnum Mania!

I am currently in Season 4, and find most (though not all) of the episodes boring. Is it just me, and do things improve? If not, how did the series last 8 seasons? Furthermore, we don't see that Magnum is actually a detective. He has no office, no business number, no secretary, and in many episodes he is not actually doing any detective work at all!

If you are not enjoying it and you are 4 seasons into it then I am going to guess you just will not enjoy the show .
I don’t remember what shows ran opposite Magnum when it was on originally but that has and still has a lot to do with how the rating are for each show .

Sounds like it’s not for you.

Also, he’s not a detective, he’s an investigator.

duvduv wrote:I am currently in Season 4, and find most (though not all) of the episodes boring. Is it just me, and do things improve? If not, how did the series last 8 seasons? Furthermore, we don't see that Magnum is actually a detective. He has no office, no business number, no secretary, and in many episodes he is not actually doing any detective work at all!

Back on March 2, 2016 in the topic Best and Weakest Seasons I did a little analysis of the votes cast by the forum members and rated each season according to those votes. In order from best to worst is as follows:

Season 7
Season 1
Season 8
Season 4
Season 3
Season 2
Season 5
Season 6

There was about a .5 rating point difference from top to bottom. If you don't like Season 4 you probably won't like Seasons 5 and 6 but will rebound for seasons 7 and 8 if you are like most forum members. But, to each his own in this world.

Thanks for the insights. So Season 5 could be worse than Season 4? How did it manage to reach a season 6 or 8 or 8? So many of the episodes in 4 seem like they were just invented with no coherent connection between scenes in the same episode except to keep an eye on how sexy Magnum was. Season 1 was very good. Season 2 was alright, and Season 3 started to deteriorate. But Season 4...……<yawn> <ho hum>. I think there were 3 or 4 good episodes.

Please understand that in the original airings in the Eighties we got one episode per week. If you are watching DVDs or BluRays one right after another then I can imagine getting somewhat bored at the sheer repetition. I fully agree that Seasons 1 and 2 were the best but the series held my interest for all eight years, probably because I looked forward to Thursday night TV. Thursday night in the Eighties also had Simon and Simon and Hill Street Blues, two of my other all-time favorites. Maybe you can take a break and come back later and appreciate the show more. Another thing I analyzed a couple of years ago was that each season only had 2 or 3 that were rated 9 or better and usually had 2 or 3 that were rated 7 or close to it. Since it is an episodic series as opposed to serial type show that keeps you hanging on, I can also see some aspects of "mundane" slipping in. Best luck to ya'.

I didn't mean boring because of mere repetition - after all Columbo and Murder She Wrote were full of repeated themes and scenarios. Magnum in the boring seasons was boring because there was no focused theme. Episodes often just had segments strung together to fill in the hour to focus on Magnum with laughs at "Higggggginnnns!!!" and "Come now, Magnum. I didn't know your limited understanding was capable of such insight...." "Thomas, you owe me....." "T.C., I'll pay you back, just give me a chance." "Oh, come on Rick, Icepick must know something...…" "Zeus, Apollo, come along lads."

duvduv wrote:I didn't mean boring because of mere repetition - after all Columbo and Murder She Wrote were full of repeated themes and scenarios. Magnum in the boring seasons was boring because there was no focused theme. Episodes often just had segments strung together to fill in the hour to focus on Magnum with laughs at "Higggggginnnns!!!" and "Come now, Magnum. I didn't know your limited understanding was capable of such insight...." "Thomas, you owe me....." "T.C., I'll pay you back, just give me a chance." "Oh, come on Rick, Icepick must know something...…" "Zeus, Apollo, come along lads."

I had never watched the original run of the series cause the 80's were my 'fun' years. Lots of drinking and whoring. Well, more drinking than whoring. I didn't start really watching until 2000+. But, as it goes on I've appreciated it more.

As for your 'boring' episodes, I know what you mean. Some of the episodes that fellow Maniacs think are the best, I look at differently. I'm a logical kind of guy and when I get around to it, I may do my own dwelling into each episode with my own take on the ridiculousness of many episodes. Every one here will hating me for my opinion but it will just be my own observations. Most story lines were implausible (ie. A Russian chick with huge hips running the 400 meters. She was Russian, not East German), but it was just a TV show. But I still watch it and shake my head at so many inaccuracies. It's a fun show in the sense we all want to be him.

duvduv wrote:I am currently in Season 4, and find most (though not all) of the episodes boring. Is it just me, and do things improve? If not, how did the series last 8 seasons? Furthermore, we don't see that Magnum is actually a detective. He has no office, no business number, no secretary, and in many episodes he is not actually doing any detective work at all!

A 2010 article, Tight Pants in Paradise excoriates Magnum, P.I.. However, many of the author's criticisms are the very elements Magnum fans love about the show.

A 2010 article, Tight Pants in Paradise excoriates Magnum, P.I.. However, many of the author's criticisms are the very elements Magnum fans love about the show.

The writer of this article is an idiot.

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:The writer of this article is an idiot.

And, typical of attack pieces, the author doesn't offer any "enlightening" and "superior" alternatives to Magnum because that would put the author on the defensive.

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:

A 2010 article, Tight Pants in Paradise excoriates Magnum, P.I.. However, many of the author's criticisms are the very elements Magnum fans love about the show.

The writer of this article is an idiot.

I’m not even clicking on that.

MagnumsLeftShoulder wrote:

A 2010 article, Tight Pants in Paradise excoriates Magnum, P.I.. However, many of the author's criticisms are the very elements Magnum fans love about the show.

The writer of this article is an idiot.

The writer is one of those intellectual pin head types. According to WIki....

Alan Vanneman is an author and journalist based in Washington, D.C. He is the author of two pastiche works of Sherlock Holmes - "Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra," which was published in 2002, and "Sherlock Holmes and the Hapsburg Tiara," released at the end of 2003.

Vanneman has also self-published "James Thurber A Reader's Guide: Together With Other Considerations," "Traveling North: The Education of Alice Barnstable," "Viral of Kolnap," "Author! Author! Auden, Oates, and Updike" and "Brief Lives: A Collection of Short Stories."[1]

Since 1996, Vanneman has worked as the senior editor for the American Institutes for Research, an independent, not-for-profit corporation which performs basic and applied research, provides technical support and conducts analyses in behavioral and social science research.[2]

Vanneman penned a three-part neo-noir homage fan fiction in 2008 entitled "Three Bullets," in which he transported Nero Wolfe to the 21st century.[3]

In addition to operating the candid pop culture blog "Literature R Us," Vanneman works for the online movie database Bright Lights Film Journal, serving as both a writer and associate editor, under editor in chief Gary Morris.

Little Garwood wrote:

duvduv wrote:I am currently in Season 4, and find most (though not all) of the episodes boring. Is it just me, and do things improve? If not, how did the series last 8 seasons? Furthermore, we don't see that Magnum is actually a detective. He has no office, no business number, no secretary, and in many episodes he is not actually doing any detective work at all!

A 2010 article, Tight Pants in Paradise excoriates Magnum, P.I.. However, many of the author's criticisms are the very elements Magnum fans love about the show.

What a grouse!!

I skimmed the article, not giving it more attention than it deserved. Pretentious and pompous come to mind, and sadly he missed the point of the show.