Magnum, P.I. – The Complete Fourth to Eighth/Final
Season (Universal DVD Box Sets)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes – Season Four: C Five:
C- Six: C- Seven: C+
Eight: C-
As Magnum P.I. continued its hit run, both
the ratings and writing began to erode and the show began to lose both its
energy and some of its focus. We first
looked at the series with this review of the third season as follows:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3302/Magnum,+P.I.
The show
ran from 1980 – 1988 and the 83/84 Fourth Season saw the show become too
comical and start to have a strange relationship with the idea of the Vietnam
debacle that was ringing with an increasing phoniness that would make the later
seasons the opposite of the early ones.
Universal TV was not what it once was as the 1980s dragged on and the
show declined painfully, ands slowly. In
a last-ditch effort to prop up the series, the Seventh Season had a cross-over with Murder, She Wrote that was not
as silly as expected. We did not see
Jessica Fletcher drive the Ferrari and loose control! They also did a great episode with Frank
Sinatra which would turn out to be a big event show and his last-ever acting
role.
That
brings us to the Eighth/Final Season
now hitting DVD where the cast looks tired, the storylines are weak, the humor
banal and show long in the tooth. CBS
was in trouble at the time with an eroding audience and was holding on to any
hit they could as NBC overtook them and ABC, plus cable, satellite and VHS was
permanently cutting up what was once the might Big Three networks. Looking at these shows again, including the
teases about who Robin masters was, the guest stint by Carol Burnett with mixed
results and few new ideas, at least the show went out with some form of
dignity, but the camera does not lie here.
You can tell all involved knew it was coming to an end and this became
the shortest season of all with only 13 episodes.
That may
seem common now, but back then, that was considered half-a-season in the good
old days. This can only have interest as
a curio and for the most diehard fans, but otherwise, it is a sad ending to a
show that for a brief time early on, was very watchable. The sun set before it got worse.
The 1.33
X 1 image on all these sets as it had been on the third we looked at before are
decent prints, but can be a little softer than they should be and are likely
older video masters that were done right.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is not bad, but can be flat more often than
not. To the credit of all these sets,
playback is more consistent than usual for a TV series. Extras vary between sets, but usually include
some audio commentary tracks. Selleck’s
appearance on The Rockford Files
that got the studio interested in giving him his own series is included here
for fans and to promote those box sets.
Up next,
a feature film remake of the series without Selleck scheduled for 2009. If it is good, that will be a nice surprise. If not, even this last season will look
better.
- Nicholas Sheffo
