Magnum P.I. - The Complete First Season (2004, DVD)

I'm amazed there aren't a ton of reviews for this DVD set here at Epinions. Magnum, P.I. was one of the top shows of the 1980s, after all, and this set sells like crazy over at Amazon.com. You'd think Magnum, P.I. - The Complete First Season would attract more attention at Epinions.

At any rate, I'll go ahead and set up the premise for the show for the five or six people out there who are unfamiliar with the show. The series stars Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), a former U.S. Navy Seal who runs around solving crimes with his Vietnam War buddies -- Theodore "T.C." Calvin (Roger E. Mosley), a helicopter pilot who owns a charter service; and Orville Wilbur Richard Rick Wright (Larry Manetti), manager of the exclusive King Kamehameha Club.

Magnum lives the far fetched fantasy life that would make most of us jealous. For one thing, he's in Hawaii. For another, women love him and he drives a red Ferrari. Finally, he lives on a huge estate and lives a life of adventure. Magnum, see, fell into a great situation through the generosity of one Robin Masters, a wealthy novelist who is rarely at the estate but gives Magnum free room and board. All Magnum has to do, apparently, is test the security at the estate. The only hitch in the sweet deal is that he has to deal with Englishman Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman), who runs the estate and doesn't much care for Magnum. Higgens has a couple of Dobermann pinschers who don't much care for Magnum, either, leaving the man having to get past them to enter the guest house where he lives.

A lot of the series revolves around the friction between Higgins and Magnum, in fact. Magnum has to make deals to use facilities on the estate such as tennis courts and the wine cellar, and Higgins tends to disapprove of the people Magnum brings to the estate and carp about them constantly. Funny stuff.

Having said all of that, I'll actually mention what's on these discs. The most striking thing about the collection is that the series was on solid footing as soon as it was in production. A good number of shows tend to come across as a bit rough in the first season as the writers and cast develop a successful "formula" to attract fans. That formula was already in place when the show hit the air in 1980. Rather than serving as a "developmental" season, then, the writers spent a good amount of time explaining Magnum's past in Vietnam, how he wound up on the Masters estate in the first place and sketching out the relationships between the characters.

Early on, Magnum was painted as an easy-going, lazy fellow who was in his 30s but was still rather immature and irresponsible. The two things he seems to take seriously are helping out his friends (particularly those who served with him in Vietnam) and making sure people who hire him to work cases get their money's worth. Since this is a detective show set in Hawaii, expect a lot of action (car chases, shoot outs and etc.), great scenery, gorgeous women, a good amount of comic relief and the like. The show is visually appealing, amusing and a lot of fun. It's a lot like popcorn -- there's not a whole lot of substance there, but it's hard to put down once you develop a taste for it.

The four-disc set offers everything you'd expect and a bit more. The DVDs are double sided, and that means there's plenty of room for the 18 shows in the regular season (including the impressive, two-parter pilot episode that sets the tone for the series) and four bonus episodes -- including a crossover with Simon & Simon and appearances from Sharon Stone and Morgan Fairchild.

Also, the information provided with each episode is very useful. Rather than just relying on titles to let you know what's what, you can bring up a synopsis of each episode that gives you the "TV Guide version" of what the show is about. That's more useful than you might think because each synopsis is written well enough to trigger the "OK, I remember that one" thought when you review it.

The picture and sound quality is, perhaps, better than you might expect, too. I realize I originally saw these things on a network station, pulled them in on rabbit ears and saw them on a mono television set. So, it's not surprising that the quality is better than the originals I saw. What is surprising, however, is that these shows were made when mono televisions were standard and digital signals were practically unheard of, but the episodes transferred to DVD very well and look and sound very good.

The only gripe I have about this set is the blasted theme music. That well-known theme wasn't developed in the first season, so you're left with a theme that manages to sound both generic and horrible. The theme in the first season sounds like it was leftover from a late 1960s or early 1970s detective show in that you get all sorts of "groovy" elements that reflect the trash heap that passed for popular culture in the 1960s.

Still, the set can't be held at fault for the terrible theme music that was in the first season. Magnum, P.I. was an entertaining, lighthearted show throughout its eight-year run, and this first season is as entertaining as anything in the full run. You'll not find a lot here that's groundbreaking or particularly "artful" in the series, but this set does offer up plenty of entertainment.