Magnum, P.I. – The Complete Third Season (Universal DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: C+

 

 

Magnum, P.I. was the last great action show CBS had before entering a bad era of reactionary dramas and fuddy-duddy television.  For the first two seasons, the series was able to deal with Vietnam in a half-decent way, if not really dealing with that conflict, but had a good set-up.  The characters and actors had good chemistry and Hawaii was easy on the eyes.  When Season Three arrived in the 1983-84 season, the show started to run into trouble.  With nowhere to go on Vietnam, that aspect started to ring falsely, then crossovers with the ever-obnoxious Simon & Simon drove fans away.

 

The show was still lucky enough to have John Hillerman as Higgins and the Ferrari 308 GTS was still pealing around the islands, but the writing started to become less memorable and this was the last season the series would have in its original time slot before The Cosby Show arrived and spent the next few years destroying its ratings.  As for the 22 shows here, some parts are memorable over 20 years later, but the body of most of the shows do not hold up and the show started to slouch.  Still, CBS held onto the show for lack of more hits and the show still had most of its energy at the time.  If you like the series, you should start with the first two sets, but this one is sadly the beginning of the end of its quality peak.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image shows its age with some grain and color issues typical of such productions, but is no better or worse than the broadcast prints.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is good for its age.  A bonus episode from the next season is included in lieu of that next set, which we will hopefully get a look at.  In the meantime, a new feature film version has been greenlighted after star Tom Selleck was repeatedly rejected by Universal’s various owners over the years, despite recruiting no less than Tom Clancy to write an original screenplay.  Read more about the rest of the show and the next move on that feature film at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6674/Magnum,+P.I.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo