Paradise Blues (4.15)

[Tesza]

I really don't care for this episode whatsoever, a 6 for me.

- I love TC but just felt he was pretty gullible to hook up with Alex again. He's smarter than that even though he loved her.

- The guy playing the trumpet or flugelhorn or what ever it was SUCKED! That was one of the most annoying scenes of the series when he kept playing it when Magnum was trying to talk to him at His club.

- Did like the flashbacks to Nam, seemed realistic from what I've seen on TV (wasn't alive during Viet Nam so don't know from experience.)

- Was it really that hard to see that Alex was bad news? Maybe it's just to make the episode work but I liked how TM sniffed her out right from the beginning, seemed pretty obvious to me.

I just didn't enjoy this episode at all, worst one of this season in my book!

Absolutely agree with every single word. TC is determined to re-activate his ages-old romance and will ignore every single signal, TSM spells out for him in large letters that obviously there is something rotten, but TC is still blinded.
Normally it's an interesting feature of MPI that the series is able to also convince me if using sorts of plots I'd normally rather less like. But it won't work for me in this case. The VN flashbacks are still the best of it, I'm normally quite able to listen to jazz, but it was a bit too much in this case (in my humble and non-representative opinion ).

[Mark R.Y.]

I fall on the "like it" side of the debate concerning this ep. No, "Paradise Blues" is not a classic Magnum, but it's a good, solid, engaging one.

I had no problem with the much-disliked Mangione & his horn scene with TM, lol.

Okay, I found a mind-bending flub in this episode (and I wish I could do screen-caps, but my computer's DVD drive isn't working. Perhaps the mod here could assist?): Magnum looks at TC's Island Hoppers brochure (at around 41:30 on the R1 DVD). It contains a splendid photo captioned "Visit Scenic Koolaus by Air!!" We then dissolve to the exact same scene where T.C. and Alex are snuggled together on the ground. Clever. Except....go back to the photo Magnum looks at. T.C. and Alex are in it! Clearly, the scene with the two of them was filmed first, and a still from it was used for the brochure prop!

[robburne]

I wetched this episode this morning, agree mostly with what has been written above, I enjoyed the fact that it was a deviation form the typical MPI formula, Thomas was very sullen and the dark ending was very unexepcted.

I'm still not 100% sure what Alex did, like a lot of MPI epsidodes blink and you'll miss a key part of the plot. As far as I can make out she fell on hard times and got involved with a drug deal? Did she steal the consignment that her partner/manager had sold to the guys from Detroit and hence was pursued in this episode?

A small detail I noticed, whilst not a flub is probably worth a mention - when Higgins and Alex are packing and discussing her "LP Recordings" (how dated does that sound) the scene ends when he pours her a cup of tea. She raises the cup before drinking it, holding it like it's a glass of wine. Higgins being a bastion of all things quintessentially British would have surely corrected this social faux par and administered a thorough verbal assault. Anyone British knows that only a builder (construction worked) would hold a cup of tea in such an uncouth manner.

I'll grab my coat on the way out

Rob.

[TSM308]

- The guy playing the trumpet or flugelhorn or what ever it was SUCKED! That was one of the most annoying scenes of the series when he kept playing it when Magnum was trying to talk to him at His club.

That was Chuck Mangione... You may not have recognized him but you've likely heard his music before.

[Milton Collins]

Oh nice! Yeah it wasn't the music but him blasting it in TM's face that bugged me, the guy is clearly VERY talented.

[KingKC]

One word describes this episode for me: forgettable!

[Lord Ickenham]

Maybe I am wrong, but is there a panel pocket on TC's dark red Island Hoppers T-shirt (about 5')?

[Lord Ickenham]

I don't like the too "dramatic" episodes. When Rick lost his sister it was sad, until he started to fight in a commando uniform.
In this episode I couldn't feel with TC. I didn't feel his drama, and his love with the woman. Although, the end was very tragical, but the singer wasn't symphatic.

[Chris109]

This is one of those episodes that, when it comes on when bingeing, I skip it.

[K Hale]

Boring episode saved, as usual, by the TM/JH interaction. The guest house conversation is revealing on a couple of levels.

[ENSHealy]

The "smoke before the explosion" has always bugged me too....so I fixed it!

https://vimeo.com/391991204

https://vimeo.com/391990577

Too lazy to separate the audio and re-do it to match as well, but you get the idea. Also, I never liked the photos at the end. Seemed too melodramatic, and as others have said here, a poor job was done building an emotional foundation for her and their relationship, so I really didn't care. Frankly, I was glad she'd take herself out of T.C.'s life. I would have just had the Bellisario credit run over a freeze frame of them standing on the cliff.

P.S. I think the car crash come as such a shock because it come so soon in the chase. If they'd have stretched the chase out a little, I think we'd have been more ready for it. That's where the extra time should have been spent, not in the photo montage at the end. Although, I have to say the shocking suddenness of the car going over the cliff is part of it's effectiveness, so maybe they did that part right.

- Magnum Monday Morning Quarterback.

[ENSHealy]

4.15 PARADISE BLUES
Famous guest stars: 2 Leslie Uggams, Chuck Mangione
Hawaiian shirts: 1 blue with white orchids

Tigers Cap: 2 Al’s Automotive

Island Hopper shirts: 2 maroon, green

Shirtless Magnum:
OMG:
Higgins Organizations:
Higgins musings: 1
Negotiations:
Body Count:
Bullet wounds:
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking:
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
4th wall breaks:
Magnumometer: 8
Magnumometer Moments: https://vimeo.com/392099418

* At the beginning, when the bad guy is chasing Alexis across the road, a car grinds to a halt so not to hit him. The car is only travelling slowly, and the long skidding sound does not match the speed that the car was travelling at.

Not only that, the car never actually skids or stops moving. It just sort of rolls slowly through the shot.

And, that damn trumpet player, he almost comes across as a total looney tune, especially the scenes where TM is trying to talk to him in Alex's dressing room, every time TM talks to him he starts blowing on that damn thing like he's possessed by it.

As a recovering trumpet player myself (that’s me below, 30 years and 100 pounds ago) I can assure you, he is possessed by it. You don’t become famous as a horn player without a more than healthy dose of obsession and possession.

[Jelly Doughnut]

In this episode once again we see the father - son relationship between Higgins and Magnum, when Thomas seeks advice on how to help a friend he thinks he is in trouble.

I also love the Chuck Mangione appearance. Chuck's records fit so well into the Hawaii scene. When I went to Hawaii earlier this month, I had it non-stop in the car. I've put my videos to his songs. I especially like "Give it all you Got"....

[Pahonu]

I just read through this thread again and I’m still a little surprised at the response to Chuck Mangione. I’m not sure if it’s lack of familiarity with his work or just a general annoyance with horn players, but I liked the quirkiness of the scene and the depiction of the artistic spirit behind the music.

[charybdis1966]

I just read through this thread again and I’m still a little surprised at the response to Chuck Mangione. I’m not sure if it’s lack of familiarity with his work or just a general annoyance with horn players, but I liked the quirkiness of the scene and the depiction of the artistic spirit behind the music.

Agree with you there even though I’ve no idea who Chuck Mangione is - what you can figure out is the guy can play and is clearly no actor.
The scene didn’t bother me - muso’s get obsessively attached to their instruments, for me I see it in guitarists who have their “axe” by their side almost constantly. I’d imagine the likes of Angus Young, Michael Schenker and Yngwie Malmsteen would spend most of their waking minutes playing.