I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway (6.12)

[layne]

I really did not like this episode at all. Can't say I hated it because...well, you know. It's Magnum! I think the only 2 things I liked about this one were...

Magnum wearing a lavender shirt. Nice color on him. lol

And Higgins after realizing Magnum may be trapped in the burning funhouse turning around to go back in after him. That was really touching. It's fascinating to me how much their relationship changed from the beginning seasons. Higgins hated the ground Magnum walked on the first season and now he wants to run into a burning building to save him. I loved that.

I really can't think of any other characters on television (especially men) who evolve so much in their relationship with each other. MPI really is one-of-a-kind.

[Italian Ice]

I like the scene where TM is in the Tower of Terror cleaning up and inhales the helium from the balloon. Gets me every time, especially when he jumps at the sight of seeing Gus. I could rewind that part several times...lol

[Steve]

I'm not a "flub" guy, but didn't Rick say he ran away with the Carnival when he was 14, until his old man found him.......I thought he and Wendy became orphans at age 12.......

[Doc Ibold]

I'm not a "flub" guy, but didn't Rick say he ran away with the Carnival when he was 14, until his old man found him.......I thought he and Wendy became orphans at age 12.......

Nope,

You're "Wright"

(pa doom doom dum... try the veal!)

Rick's backstory is the most convaluted out of all the characters... contradictions abound. However, in defense, we didn't know about the exact age of Rick at the time of his parents death until Season 7's "Death of the Flowers"

Which was also odd because it showed Wendy as being around 5 at the time of their death, which would have made Rick 7 years older than her.

THUS... with Wendy being 22 in "Distant Relative", would have made Rick 29 in Season 4..... which doesn't make sense as he's probably a year or 2 younger than TC or Magnum... 4 TOPS.

There's tons of other contradictions, too.

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

There are lots of things we have picked up on watching the show. It makes you wonder if the writers looked at previous scripts before writing another one? The could've easliy had timelines and family histories for the characters before writing to avoid this type of confusion. Oh well, if that is the worst thing to come out of this series I can live with it. It doesn't ruin anything for me!

[Jay-Firestorm]

I haven’t watched this one for a while – and it’s pretty bad!

[rating=6.0]

When a performer is murdered at a struggling carnival that is run by an old comrade of Higgins, Higgins asks Magnum to go undercover with Rick as carnival workers to discover who is trying to put the show out of business. A pretty weak episode…

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This review contains moderate spoilers.

Only on my review for the previous episode (‘Rapture’) did I comment that the sixth season wasn’t as bad as I remembered, and better than the fifth; then a terrible episode such as ‘I Never Wanted to Go to France, Anyway…’ comes along, showing that the sixth season still has some stinkers.

I can imagine the writers coming up with this one – “Hey, let’s do a story set at a carnival”. And they didn’t work on it much more than that – the plot really is that thin.

This is another of those episodes that the show liked to offer up every so often, where the main characters get dressed up. Magnum and Rick are dressed as carnie workers, and a little later, Higgins becomes a decidedly scary looking clown! T.C. only appears at the very beginning of this one, so is only seen in regular clothes.

…Talking of which, I wonder if the story would have been any more fun if T.C. had been part of the story more; Rick seems like spare wheel in this story, so maybe if he’d had T.C. to interact with, it would have been more fun. Or maybe not, considering how weak this story is anyway!

As poor as this episode is, I can think of even worse (the third season’s ‘Mixed Doubles’ springs to mind, amongst others), and the climax, with the fire in the ‘Tower of Terror’ is pretty good, with the explanation to the episode’s strange title, and a nice final shot of Magnum and Higgins.
But those points are few and far between – elsewhere, the story is slow moving and rather uninteresting, and hardly captures the fun and thrills of the carnival!

All-in-all, hardly a great episode. Probably a candidate for weakest of the season.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* This appears to possibly be another episode working around the exterior of the Anderson Estate being unavailable. We get interior shots of the guest house and the study (filmed on a sound stage), but the only brief exterior shot we get is of Magnum driving up to it* in what is possibly stock footage).
(* - and what vehicle is that? It’s not the Jimmy.)

* More abridged act breaks… I wish they would leave them as the original version!

[Bes]

I thought it was one of the season's best episodes.

[J.J. Walters]

Help me out guys. Does this look like Clancy Brown to you? His face and hair look spot on, but I'm not sure about the height. Clancy Brown is like 6'3". This guy appears to be smaller, but it's hard to tell. Clancy Brown is one of my favorite actors.

[rubber chicken]

It does look like it could be him, but I'm guessing it isn't. He had done enough acting by this time to make me doubt he'd show up on Oahu for such a small part.

Plus, this episode aired in January of 86, and Highlander came out in March of 86, so I'm thinking he would have been busy with, or just completed his Highlander role, and again, wouldn't take a small part like this. That's my take at least. Funny how the face and hair are so similar though.

[J.J. Walters]

His build is very similar, too.

But yeah, you're probably right rubber chicken. He would have already filmed Highlander (April to August of '85) at this point. Why would he come all the way to Oahu for a 3-second, fire breathing, uncredited appearance on Magnum P.I.? Maybe he was vacationing in Oahu after the grueling shoot in Scotland?

James Cromwell made a brief, uncredited appearance in "Photo Play" after he was already an established actor, so I guess it's possible.

[firefly]

Help me out guys. Does this look like Clancy Brown to you? His face and hair look spot on, but I'm not sure about the height. Clancy Brown is like 6'3". This guy appears to be smaller, but it's hard to tell. Clancy Brown is one of my favorite actors.

yup, he does look an awful lot like him. kind of ironic that this "look alike" works in a carnival while clancy browns best work, imo, was in the amazing series carnivale.

[nha trang]

This was a nearly awful episode in my opinion. It makes me think that maybe this is one of the "had no access to the estate" episodes that I'd heard you guys talk about. This ranks slightly higher in my opinion than the Paniolo or whatever hawaiian cowboy episode, and yes is still quite better than basketball willie! I'm glad to read that this is the season's weakest episode, although I just watched the next one and it's a bit weak as well.

[AmandaByNight]

I like this one. I love Clive Revill and Geoffrey Lewis totally reminded me of the killer in The Funhouse, an 80s slasher that I love. It's a fun one. I love creepy carnival stuff though.

And yes, that does indeed look like Clancy Brown!

[MaiTaiMan]

I really don't care for this episode much...plot is pretty goofy and even somewhat stupid for "Magnum". This episode reminds me of the "Charlie's Angels" episode "Circus of Terror".

However, the Angels' episode is better and more enjoyable, in my opinion. Anyway, the past story with Higgins is actually the only thing that sort of saves this episode...a little bit.

Also, the make-up/burnt-face job on that guy was ridiculous, and it actually made me laugh rather than grossed me out or scared me.

I would have rated this one "Not So Good"...but the past history part with Higgins had me rate it "Average at Best".

[miltontheripper]

This is one that while it isn't great by any means, it's gotten better with age for me. I remember absolutely not enjoying this in years past and the last time or two i've watched it it wasn't so bad. It's always fun to learn about Higgins past and to see him dressed up as a clown was priceless!