L.A. (2) (7.2)

[frao51]

Yes, that is the logical conclusion, on the other hand there's so much information on the site, I think it's just an oversight

[charybdis1966]

I broke open my season 7 today and as
I don’t remember this episode at all from the initial broadcast so this was completely new to me.

Starting with the plus points:
My DVD has the hot tub scene so I’m already favourably inclined and the Cynthia character was NOT one of the many annoying female guest stars(I’m looking at you Carol Baldwin), that is they lied/hoodwinked TM, acted like princesses or were goofy in various other ways. She was quite sweet in a refreshing way and clearly pleasant on the eye.
On the question of chemistry I think there was enough of it - for an example of none look at Texas Lightning (ugh).
The references to the first episode (eg “work the lock, work the lock, don’t look at the dogs…….you looked at the dogs”) were fun.

HOWEVER: I felt the story was a bit aimless for parts and the soundtrack was trying to copy Miami Vice and the painfully dated saxophone playing whenever TM and Cynthia got friendly made me cringe.
At the risk of sounding like unreconstructed cro-Magnon man I found the story was too emotion/“relationship” heavy and this is not what I generally want to watch.

[Treadwell]

6.5 (Not So Good)
(both parts)

Dana Delaney is charming and delightful. But the show's a mess. Agreed on the many points in that regard already made.

I watched it on Amazon as a two-parter. No hot tub scene.

Another weird edit: early in part 2, when they're putting up posters, TC calls to someone and starts running across the street, then there's a dissolve to a different scene of him putting up a poster. It was jarring. Possibly another syndication edit, but it would've been better to omit the first portion entirely than have just a piece of it remain.

The writers were apparently aware of how workprints are marked for cutting in the film realm. But the TAPED documentary raw footage they were watching having video-generated edit point marks on the picture? Video editing doesn't work that way.

The man selling them a map of movie stars homes was completely pointless. I guess someone thought they needed another thing to place them in LA, but believe us, writers, we are well aware of that already.

Their argument when they reach the studio backlot was out of the blue. We eventually realize it's a sort of PTSD thing on her part, but it was strange cutting right from a daring escape to bickering.

The reveal that it's Burt Reynolds' trailer could've been directed better. There was no need for Dana's character to point it out... in fact, the line kills the joke. They should've just let the audience discover it when the name on the door is revealed to camera. And then, when they get inside, she says it again! Show don't tell.

[CanadianP1]

I don't quite understand the point of this episode. It seemed like the script was half-finished or not fully thought out. There were so many loose ends and jumps in logic. Additionally, it didn't feel like a Magnum episode (as has been mentioned the sub-plot back in Hawaii seemed forced. Higgins handing out flyers? Don't absurd man!).

That said, there were many appealing elements and fun nods to the the history of Magnum that brought a smile (E.g. "28 and never been 18", "Work the lock, don't look at the dogs", the criticism of her lifestyle in the guest house).

[ENSHealy]

I broke open my season 7 today and as
I don’t remember this episode at all from the initial broadcast so this was completely new to me.

Starting with the plus points:
My DVD has the hot tub scene....

I just checked both sets of my DVDs and neither has the hot tub scene. Which leads me to two questions:

1. Does your DVD set also have the "missing three minutes" from 5.20 Man From Marseille? (The scene where Tanaka interrogates TM and Jean Claude Fornier in French.)
2. If so, (and maybe even if not, because just getting the missing hot tub scene might be enough) can you share where you ordered your DVDs from? My assumption is that the difference is due to Region 1 versus Region 2 DVDs. For some reason, they must have put different episode versions on the Region 2 DVDs. My PC can play Region 2 DVDs, so I'd be willing to spend the money to acquire versions with these missing scenes.

For reference, I've included pics of my DVD sets, as I'm curious if the packaging is different as well.

Thanks for any information you are able to provide.

Single seasons, copyright dates 2004-2008:







Boxed set of all seasons, copyright date 2013:

[charybdis1966]

I broke open my season 7 today and as
I don’t remember this episode at all from the initial broadcast so this was completely new to me.

Starting with the plus points:
My DVD has the hot tub scene....

I just checked both sets of my DVDs and neither has the hot tub scene. Which leads me to two questions:

1. Does your DVD set also have the "missing three minutes" from 5.20 Man From Marseille? (The scene where Tanaka interrogates TM and Jean Claude Fornier in French.)
2. If so, (and maybe even if not, because just getting the missing hot tub scene might be enough) can you share where you ordered your DVDs from? My assumption is that the difference is due to Region 1 versus Region 2 DVDs. For some reason, they must have put different episode versions on the Region 2 DVDs. My PC can play Region 2 DVDs, so I'd be willing to spend the money to acquire versions with these missing scenes.

For reference, I've included pics of my DVD sets, as I'm curious if the packaging is different as well.

Thanks for any information you are able to provide.

Single seasons, copyright dates 2004-2008:

Hi there,

I bought my season 7 set from CEX in the UK, presumably you won't have heard of them so it's this lot: https://uk.webuy.com/

It looks like they are "Region 0" (on the discs it say "8249669F-11/R0" which means region 0?) and the copyright dates seem to show as 1986/1987 but I've sent you pictures of the packaging and discs in case I've misunderstood.

The first difference to note is that the reverse of the cover is a different picture on my set - you have TM on the left in a green shirt, Higgins on the right and the car at the bottom; I have TM in a white shirt on the right and then 3 smaller pictures to the left/centre with screenshots from episodes "Laura", "Novel Connection" and another which I can't identify as it's just TC and Rick together.

I didn't buy season 5 as I guessed it wasn't worth it as I was on an economy drive back then - I might actually look to get that one too, for completeness sake.

Hope that helps.

[ENSHealy]

Thanks for the info. I've posted the pictures below in case anyone else wants to see them.

Interestingly, I looked up a full set on CeX, and the age rating on the whole series is 15, rather than the 12 shown on Season 7. On a hunch, I then searched just Season 3, and the age rating for it was 15. I'm guessing it's for Ivan meeting his demise, and the full set carries the 15 rating because it includes that. Then I searched all the seasons: Season 3 is the only season with the 15 age rating, so it must be Did You See the Sunrise.

CeX doesn't ship to the U.S., so I'll have to take my chances with Ebay if I want a region 2 set (or region 4? I did see a set from New Zealand also) to look for the missing content. However, most of what I've seen so far is in the $130=$150 range before shipping. Not sure it is worth that much to me, as I am on a bit of an economy drive myself right now.

[charybdis1966]

Thanks for the info. I've posted the pictures below in case anyone else wants to see them.

Interestingly, I looked up a full set on CeX, and the age rating on the whole series is 15, rather than the 12 shown on Season 7. On a hunch, I then searched just Season 3, and the age rating for it was 15. I'm guessing it's for Ivan meeting his demise, and the full set carries the 15 rating because it includes that. Then I searched all the seasons: Season 3 is the only season with the 15 age rating, so it must be Did You See the Sunrise.

CeX doesn't ship to the U.S., so I'll have to take my chances with Ebay if I want a region 2 set (or region 4? I did see a set from New Zealand also) to look for the missing content. However, most of what I've seen so far is in the $130=$150 range before shipping. Not sure it is worth that much to me, as I am on a bit of an economy drive myself right now.

Good spot about "Did you see the sunrise" making the whole series box set a 15 rating as opposed to a 12 for every other series than season 3.

I'm mulling over whether to get another season box set - it'll probably be series 8 but it looks like to get the full footage the German Blu-ray is best (due to the full series finale footage being only there and the heavily butchered syndicated versions on all the other box sets available) as discussed elsewhere.

I'm thinking the only others I don't have (Season 5 and 6) can probably wait.