HI GUYS!
I am one of those freak MPI fans who was born during the show's run (just before season seven actually). My folks were fans of TS and now that they are both passed on - Dad in 2005, Mum in 2015 - I have found the show a great way to escape from grief/depression, etc. My Dad was sort of Glasgow's answer to TS and was a adult-life-long moustache (sorry!) and frizzy hair wearer. Watching MPI makes me feel closer to him. I didn't always get on with my Dad and his alcoholism basically ruined his life and my parents' relationship. I vaguely remember him watching An Innocent Man on the TV back in the early 90s.
As a result of my parents' opinion of TS, I always felt positive towards him, although MPI was not shown much in the UK. Back in 2012, I luckily caught the Jesse Stone movies on Channel Five and thought they were excellent, even if they have tailed off a little since they went off Parker. Jesse is actually much closer to my Dad's personality than TM, but I knew I wanted to see MPI for myself. After a few years of badgering my mother to watch Jesse Stone, she finally relented in early 2015 and enjoyed them very much. Her sudden death a few months before Lost in Paradise aired almost destroyed me.
Fortunately for me, ITV4 had started showing MPI in 2012. I recorded and watched as many as I could. I lurked on here for more information and to see what the opinion was on the episodes. I was annoyed that ITV4 kept going up to the start of the sixth season, then going back to the beginning. After a few years, they eventually showed season seven and eight.
Five weeks after my mother died, I started a 12 month apprenticeship. It was very tough emotionally, for obvious reasons. After a few months I was laid low with an illness and watched MPI to keep my spirits up. It worked and I then bought all eight seasons on DVD so I could have them to hand any time. It's almost like therapy! I have watched them though several times in the past year or so.
I have also seen Ike, which was almost a proto-prequel to the Jesse Stone series, given the production crew. It's pretty much the only time that TS went 'method-actor' and it worked really well. I also think it was a shame that TS' film career never really took off. He probably should have shaved the 'stache for his earlier films to better separate TM from his movie characters. By the time he did so in the 90s, it was too late. I haven't caught Blue Bloods yet, but plan to. Though I understand that TS is much more like Jesse and he's not really the main focus of the show.
So, on MPI; I like seasons 2-4 and 7-8 very much. I also like season 1, but preferred the slightly mellower version of Higgins from later seasons. I think Hillerman steals the show. I love the odd-couple/father-son dynamic between Magnum and Higgins. It's great to see them evolve over the series. I don't think Higgins is Robin either, but agree with some on here that it was an interesting way to spice up the relationship between the pair and with Welles dying, they may as well try Higgins-is-Robin for laughs even though we KNOW different. On the 'serious-silly spectrum', I do lean toward the serious episodes.
I do agree with the majority here that seasons five and six of MPI are the 'least best' and I am now finding it harder to get through re-watches and easier to skip episodes when I reach those seasons.
I enjoy reading the episode threads and I hope to see you around.
, went to Hawaii in 1986, caught a mahi mahi (I'm guessing a non-hideout-locating one 
. Dad's a huge fan of Blue Bloods, Jesse Stone, and TS's other stuff too. 
...but it'd have been neat to have a "fan's" spur of the moment version too!)
