Magnum P.I. Plot Summary:
Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) is a private investigator in the Hawaiian islands. He lives on the luxurious estate of famed author who recounts Magnum’s military exploits in his books. His latest “case” involves the kidnapping and murder of an ex-military buddy. He enlists his “housemate” Higgins (Perdita Weeks), and former military friends TC (Steven Hill), and Rick (Zachary Knighton) for help.
Two years ago, I said the following about CBS’ reboot of MacGyver…
“Watching the premiere of CBS’ reboot of MacGyver reminded me of eating at a chain restaurant — it was quick, it served its purpose, but it’s ultimately forgettable.
This isn’t to say that MacGyver is bad, but I’m also not ready to shout its praises from on high either. It’s the kind of fairly passable entertainment that CBS has been churning out for the past decade plus. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if MacGyver became a staple of the network’s Friday night line-up. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if it got the axe in a few weeks.”
Replace Magyver with Magnum P.I., and change Friday night to Monday, and this is exactly how I feel about the reboot of the famed Tom Selleck series.
The reason for this is simple — CBS used the same, safe formula it used for Magyver, and Hawaii Five-0 before it, and applied it to Magnum P.I. The formula is simple — a mildly interesting leading man (Hernandez) teams with an eventual love interest (Weeks) who “despises” him, and two sidekicks — one who’s the most interesting character in the series (Knighton), and the other woefully underwritten (Hill). Plop that team is a lush location, spike in some ridiculous action and plots, and you’ve got yourself a CBS crime drama.
The formula is the bread and butter of CBS crime dramas — whether they’re reboots, or spin-offs of NCIS. It’s a formula that CBS’ core fanbase eats up like Sunday brunch. And that’s the reason why Magnum P.I. will be successful – it runs the CBS playbook to perfection.
If you’re not into this formula, then you won’t like this series. In fact, you probably will enjoy next to nothing on the channel.
Objectively speaking, Magnum P.I. is a perfectly passable hour of television. Does it hold a candle to the original series? Absolutely not. Tom Selleck in the ’80s was the paradigm of charisma, and that entire series was one of the decade’s defining shows. Yet, it doesn’t need to be as good as the original. It needs to execute the plan CBS has for its shows, and it does.
Magnum P.I. is not the pinnacle of television programming, but it is nowhere near some of the hot garbage we see the networks roll out every year.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Magnum P.I. airs Monday nights on CBS.
