Solo Flight (7.16)

[Croix de Lorraine]

I love Solo Flight, but not as much as Home From the Sea.

Still, this episode is a showcase of what a wonderful actor Tom Selleck is. Just the way his voice gets all crazy gravelly (sp?) as the situation progresses...

He seems to be channelling Clint Eastwood in this episode. Maybe that's his "grown up" voice.

[Croix de Lorraine]

Query: Was Magnum's hair shorter here because Selleck needed shorter hair for a role in some other show or movie? I assume there was some sort of real-life reason, so they worked the haircut into the episode as a gag, even though it served no plot purpose.

Maybe Three Men And A Baby?

In any case in this episode it's used as a metaphore for growing up. They actually overdo it a bit - It's just some minor trim but the other characters react as if he had had a sex change operation.

[AmandaByNight]

I love Solo Flight, but not as much as Home From the Sea.

Still, this episode is a showcase of what a wonderful actor Tom Selleck is. Just the way his voice gets all crazy gravelly (sp?) as the situation progresses...

He seems to be channelling Clint Eastwood in this episode. Maybe that's his "grown up" voice.

haha! I does have an Eastwood feel to it, doesn't it?

[Buck]

This is one of the best episodes.

Flying Solo is unlike any episodes from season 1 or 2, there is no action, no girls, there is no comedy. I did not like this episode the first time I watched it 20 years ago. Today I rank it a 10.

This episode spoke strongly to me. It starts with Magnum saying winning is relative, failure is absolute. It cuts to Magnum in the ocean, we see failure is death.

I remembered the episode originally had TC save Magnum by flying to him with Higgins. My memory must be foggy. I did not remember Magnum climbing down. Even if Magnum climbed down, he had a broken leg, he was bleeding out. If he could make it down, why return to the estate and not a hospital?

The fly and Herman is a metaphore. The fly gets in trouble on its own. Magnum gets in trouble on his own. Magnum decides to "help" the fly, it is the same hand that helped protect the fly against Herman that kills the fly. The fly is responsible for itself. Contrast this with Magnum in the ocean and the shark. It spoke strongly to me about personal responsibility and personal accountability. Do not rely on anyone for help, because when you need it most you only have yourself. I think this is why Magnum climbed the mountain. Magnum does not want to get weak. Stregnth is something that must be achieved, it is can not be given and it does not last forever. Stregnth continually needs to be renewed.

I like to think this is TS way of giving back to all of us who enjoyed drinking beer and beautiful women on the beach. It is a wake up call to not grow weak. Find your mountain. Overcome. Challenge yourself.

[TIGERS FAN]

Recently while planning my Magnum PI Oahu vacation I learned that there are giant centipedes. I hate bugs, and these damn things remind me of the "tingler"! I immediatly called bullsh*t, I never saw a single damn centipede on Magnum (not that that would mean there aren't any) so there. I obviously forgot about this episode. OH MY GOD!!! I'm gonna be hate'n those damn things!!!

[Braddah Kimo]

I do hope that was sarcasm tigers fan, because there is much in Hawaii that exemplifies our daily life and culture, that has been happily ignored Through the magnum years. The Tingler is exactly what comes to mind on a weekly basis when one of dees buggahs makes his way toward my inviting ankle. And believe you me, they are big and disgusting And they are dangerous and they're damned near everywhere.

[ConchRepublican]

Recently while planning my Magnum PI Oahu vacation I learned that there are giant centipedes. I hate bugs, and these damn things remind me of the "tingler"! I immediatly called bullsh*t, I never saw a single damn centipede on Magnum (not that that would mean there aren't any) so there. I obviously forgot about this episode. OH MY GOD!!! I'm gonna be hate'n those damn things!!!

Oh man ...... This is NOT cool! I'm no Indiana Jones, gimme snakes any day over these skeevies. Talk about heebie jeebie time!!!!!

http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2010/0 ... centipede/

[Higgette]

GADS those things are horrible. I get them in my raised 1st floor apartment - in Minnesota of all places! There are 2 kinds, the house kind which look like deformed daddy-long-legs and this, the jungle kind. I've had them both. Far prefer the house kind. The jungle kind are hard to kill - I've tried wacking them but they tend to jump and run like the dickens. But I suck it up and smoosh them if they are around my cats! Fortunately it's been a long time since I've seen one, fingers crossed.

Anyway, I rated this ep 8.5 - would have been higher but it was such an obvious re-imagining of Home from the Sea. Did like the concept of him saving himself after such a long-established pattern of relying on his buddies to come to the rescue..

[Doc Fred]

8.5

Very enjoyable, and we see a transition in Thomas' life....

A couple of things didn't seem quite right to me....

As was noted, the sequence pinning him under the plane didn't seem that well done....

When he was trapped, he never attempted to dig himself out. Maybe there would have been too much rock and he couldn't have, but he didn't even start digging. With the vegetation on the ground, it seems to me that they should have at least written in an attempt to excavate himself from under the plane.

I wish they had showed how he actually got out from being trapped.

When he was heading down the mountain, it seems to me that the hunters would have made some effort to help him... "Hey, are you ok? What can we do to help you?"... or that he would have at least spoken to them asking for help. Very unrealistic sequence...

I very much liked the looking back into his life and the pain that went with it... showing where he really came from.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Man! What a wretched episode!

Easily the worst episode of the series! From what I've seen anyway...

Give me the season 2 stinker "One More Summer" any day over this one. Magnum having a conversation with a freakin' fly? Magnum seeing a vision of a dude who turns into a giant fly??

Yeah, I'm sure all this is supposed to be some deep pseudo-psychological soul searching mumbo jumbo. But no thanks. I'll pass. Actually I didn't have a problem with the way it began. It held some promise. I liked the idea of Magnum going up on that mountain alone to "find himself". Sure, I'll go with it. I never minded a deeper story. In fact my favorite MAGNUM episodes are the deeper, more serious ones. Usually with some link back to 'Nam. But this just turned into some surreal mess with Magnum babbling to himself and "Herman" for the duration. Ugghhh!!

There is one thing that I liked - the very end. No, not the end credits (though seeing those was indeed a huge relief ) but when Magnum kills "Herman" by slapping his neck. That was great!

[marlboro]

Yeah, I have to agree with the above poster and say I didn't like this one either. It just seemed like a clip show showcasing other, better, episodes. I found the hallucinations to be a bit too surreal for my tastes as well. It just seemed silly.

And how in the heck did he get that plane off of him at the end? I think they cheated a bit by not showing it. Unless Archimedes came strolling by, I don't see Magnum figuring out how to move a plane off of his chest with a 3 foot pole using "leverage,"


Coincidentally, the only modern show that I like, Breaking Bad, had an episode called "Fly" that had a lot of character introspection in it. I hated that episode too. Its the only episode of that series that I didn't care for. Maybe I'm just not a fly person





Speaking of coincidences: Elisha Cook Jr was in a movie in 1942 called "Sleepytime Gal"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035344/reference

[SignGuyHPW]

I really, really enjoyed this one. I thought it was much better than "Home On The Sea." The fact that Magnum was forced to get himself out of the trouble instead of magical psychic powers propelling Rick and TC to his location gave it a much more satisfying feel for me.

What I didn't like was how casually Magnum got out from under the plane. It seemed like he could escape at any time, but was waiting to be rescued. I was also completely baffled as to why it looked like he was wearing camo paint on half of his face mid way through the episode. The weird voice he was using at the end was also an odd choice, but maybe they were going with his throat being sore from dehydration?

I thought structuring the show's flashbacks and dream sequences to Magnum's mental state as he got sicker and lost more blood was genius. He'd drift into something weird and then get a jolt of clarity when he tried to force himself to focus and they'd reflect that in the dreams. I also felt like the hurt Magnum showed when TC explained he had a backup in place because he knew Magnum would miss practice was hugely emotional. I think it may have been the biggest blow he took from one of the regulars on the show. When he called to make arrangements to make it up to TC and the kids I think that's when he felt like he'd gotten out of all of the jams by himself. The look Higgins had when Magnum explained he'd fallen in his mother's tub was priceless. Higgins didn't know how to respond to something so absurd.

[Turkey]

Loved this one, the surrealist touches were ace. Keen to watch it again and see if it's as enjoyable as I remember.

[Croix de Lorraine]

This episode is slower tan usual, but it resonates with me. The whole growing pains thing is a constant in my life. I love how he watches old war movies for soul searching just like I watch old Magnum episodes. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up so I could be like Magnum and other badass adults from film and TV. Re-watching these episodes gets me in touch with subtler sides of the show that I couldn't grasp as a child. Now I've caught up with Magnum and just like him I'm taking stock.

Not a fan of the reused flashback scenes thoiugh. Whenever any show does it, it feels like lazy hurried filler.

[Milton Collins]

I had never really been a fan of this episode as I thought it was slow moving and boring. I recently watched again and realized it is MUCH deeper than I had thought and requires multiple viewings (and being a few years older to appreciate as well). I think this is a fantastic case study into Magnum's mental state, his dissatisfaction with some things in his life, and also dealing with growing older. I also think this episode perfectly demonstrates the fact that he is not perfect and infallable. I love that about Magnum, he makes mistakes and screws things up, he gets yelled at by angry and unreasonable clients, he even gets fired occassionaly from a case. I heard or read somewhere once that the directors initially wanted the Thomas Magnum character to be this perfect almost bulletproof Viet Nam vet that was incapable of error that was stripped of many "human" characteristics but that Selleck didn't want to play the character that way. He wanted to make it his own and make Magnum a real human being that was much more relatable to the audience. I think the entire series did a good job portraying this and that this episode is a great example of it!

The scene where TM is dressed in his Tiger's uniform in his casket features a great exchange:

TC: Higgins, you never gave him his due credit
Higgins: That's not true!
Rick: And you were always messing with his mail!

This scene cracks my up and living in Michigan and being a huge Tigers fan I love TM's devotion to his team (as always!). My one complaint was the human into fly theme and I could have done without it as I was intrigued by the vague details of the case he was fired from. I was enjoying trying to figure out the ties between the angry old boss and the employee with the mustache and thought this was pretty dumb. But at the same time TM was halucinating from the centipede bite so I'll cut this scene some slack lol.