Magnum P.I. (TV Series) I Saw the Sun Rise (2018) User Reviews

This Magnum wasted no time "Jumping the Shark"

[Ed-Shullivan · 6/10 · 25 September 2018]

The Good: Hawaii's scenic landscapes in high definition color is gorgeous so who wouldn't want to spend some time on the island, or watch another action/crime TV series filmed here? There is sufficient eye candy for both the TV series male and female audience. The boys will be displayed shirtless, with wet gleaming chests. The ladies will be shown exercising in tight fitting spandex stretching their bods and walking backside for the cameras.

The Bad: Can someone please explain to me why TV producers always seem to show seasoned war veterans coming back from multiple tour of duties to the USA while still in their mid thirties with no symptoms of PTSD, always buff and never balding, no marriage and certainly no children and they all seem to immediately own successful businesses?

The Ugly: There is an (in)famous scene in season 11, the last season of the once popular family/comedy TV series Happy Days where the Fonz (Henry Winkler) is seen water skiing in his iconic jeans and leather jacket and then he does the impossible on water skis. He literally "Jumps the Shark".

So it came as quite a surprise at least to me that the writers of this new Magnum P.I. series decided to open their new TV series with their action star Magnum (Jay Hernandez) while being chased and shot at he does a 180 degree turn in his fast moving Ferrari, and while still being shot at he climbs and runs onto the hood of the truck while the villains continue shooting at him and he jumps onto the talon of his hovering helicopter just before the villains truck and its shooters fall off the side of the road and into the ocean below.

If you enjoy the gorgeous scenery of Hawaii, and you like seeing young and buff thirty something male and females in skimpy clothes and you are not offended by ridiculous action scenes and dull storylines than this series will be right for you.

I give the series pilot a 6 out of 10 rating

Magnum-lite

[DVD_Connoisseur · 6/10 · 17 January 2019]

As a massive fan of the original series, I had high hopes when I first read of a potential reboot featuring the daughter of the original Thomas Sullivan Magnum as the lead character. This concept was subsequently shelved and what we now have is a weak remake of the original.

Whilst there are elements I like a lot (Perdita Weeks is a joy to watch and an inspired casting choice), the pace is too rushed, the charisma of Jay Hernandez pales in comparison to that of the legendary Tom Selleck, and the theme tune has been butchered.

I really want this show to succeed but based on this first instalment, I think it's destined to be a one season "wonder".

6 out of 10. A wasted opportunity to bring back a classic series.

Why isn't Season 1 on CBS All Access

[babyhopj · 6/10 · 14 January 2021]

I think the headline says it all. It's an ok series but obviously falls short of the Original with Tom Selleck. I think its kinda weird that Higgins is a woman but the chemistry seems right. I just wish I could watch season 1 without having to purchase or rent the episodes.

Not the right one

[samofnine · 6/10 · 26 October 2018]

Well, this is what they do with an adapted script - the take the development of 8 seasons and put it into 42 minutes (the original Magnum pilot was a 90 minutes movie!), put that into the diversity blender and voilá - the new Magnum is ready! There is no humor and no charisma (except a bit for Higgins), and everybody is doing what the script says. Peter M. Lenkov is running this series like his other gig on Hawaii - Five-0. Everything is in the brightest colors, the sun is shining and there is a snack joint at the beach where the main characters eat or get infos. I like Five-0, which is a successful remake (or rather continuation), just because of the originality of the characters and their actors and their lines and personalities. With Magnum you see nothing like that, like an empty shell on the beach. There is no mustache, no smile, no basecap, no fun at all, no thrills beyond the unbelievable action. I don't believe that there is anything the characters could evolve into because they already are in sync with everything without any history or evolvement whatsoever. The actors seem too young for war veterans and the description majordomo belongs to a different period and to a different age! Pfff, I think I'll watch the second episode just to see if they can get any audience for beyond the action...

Produced with the same confidence of a typical Hawaii-Five 0. To its detriment.

[SgtLennon · 6/10 · 27 September 2018]

If there's one thing that the new Magnum PI has going against it, its the confidence of production (and presumably the same crew) of its sister show, the revived Hawaii Five-0, than a show that just started.

This is the new Magnum PI, a largely uninteresting remake of the Tom Selleck series from the 1980s, produced by Eric Guggenheim & Peter M. Lenkov. Jay Hernandez stars as the new Thomas Magnum and he's a perfectly okay facsimile, charming in a oily-millionaire sense with none of the Selleck's grounding of the character.

The old Magnum show was cheesy in hindsight and marked by the then topical social concerns and taboos of the day, but it was compelling because it had veteran professionals like Selleck and John Hillerman to lend film credibility.

The stories and backstories are generic, but the new iteration of Magnum has the dubious distinction of at least some superior qualities going for it. Firstly, the new pilot has a better sense of pacing than the first Magnum PI pilot did in 1980, where the former's sense of pace is horribly laborious and "surprises" were anything but.

Magnum's support team of Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, and Perdita Weeks are perfectly fine, in respects better acted, as the sexy modern recasts of the characters from the original.

But, the show cannot escape the feeling that you're watching a re-jigged episode of Hawaii Five-0. And it's dreadfully unengaging.

Everything from the tone, its pace, the style of acting all reek of its parent show - and to be perfectly honest, as the show enters its ninth year of existence, it's an intellectually deadening show.

Watching both of those in the same week can lead to brain damage.

Action-Packed PIlot, Looks Promising

[Kolorgasm · 8/10 · 30 September 2018]

Compared to most action pilots, Magnum PI's is shockingly high budget and serving us with great cinematography. Action looks fantastic, but I would be surprised as it was directed by Fast and Furious and Star Trek Beyond director, Justin Lin.

Characters are also pretty fun and interesting but hopefully they're not as predictable as I would hope. Looking forward to see more of this, I hope they can keep it up.

And also, I'm not a big fan of the narration, maybe they should consider taking that out.

Not Terrible

[japegwyn · 7/10 · 19 January 2019]

I liked Tom Selleck's Magnum. I had no predudice with this, and sure, it's a pilot episode and needs to find its own groove; heck, every show does. Some first seasons of now-classics are unwatchable...

It's ok, in my opinion. It took me from a cold dark rainy January night if a messed up UK to a warm sunny place with some not entirely unlikeable characters and gave me a 42 minute adventure.

And for MY shout, in this day and age, let's have some more mind-candy.

So haters go hate elsewhere, because you don't understand what entertainment is for.

Never saw the 1st season

[neverenoughgold · 10/10 · 19 September 2022]

Right off the bat, I need to confess my wife and I didn't start watching this series until late in the second season. "Why," you might ask, and I would need to explain both of us are long time fans of the original series with you know, that other guy!

When we first read about the return of Magnum with a female Higgens we both turned up our noses at the concept. "How could they do that?", we asked ourselves. It's almost heresy!

Anyway, move forward about a year and a half, and I am having lunch with some old friends. Not sure how we got on the subject, but one of the guys mentioned how good the new Magnum series was. I looked at him and told him we aren't watching for the reasons I already expressed. He made some comment about our missing some good entertainment and that was the end of the discussion.

Back at home now, I mentioned to my wife about our Magnum conversation and she says, "I've been thinking the same thing." Huh?

So, we started tuning in, and discovered a pretty well done show. We were hooked from that point on! Oh, there were some lame episodes, but overall, it kept us entertained to the point we were disappointed to see it end.

Laughing

[dncorp · 7/10 · 25 September 2018]

I had to watch this from a Sociological and Psychological point of view (Oahu Premiere September 14, 2018, Sunset on the Beach, Hawaii Five Minus Zero Season 9 Episode 1 and this Magnum P.I.).

Obvious Peter M. Lenkov is writing for Millennials and iGen aka Generation Z that together are the largest Demographic (Audience). That since being born long after the Vietnam War cannot connect with the Original Characters of the Original TV Series or Movies that included anything about the Vietnam War.

Also many don't know much, nor even bother to learn anything about Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and all the U.S. Armed Conflicts, as "Historically Illiterate", all you have to do is ask them about Iraq, the first thing they will say is "Bush" and absolutely nothing about Democrat President Clinton's War Against Muslims starting 1993, that would then cause the repeated Revenge Attacks of Osama Bin Laden from 1993 to the 9/11 2001 Attacks, and 1998 Declared War Against U.S. Ally Iraq (War "Inherited" by Bush).

The Reasons that Millennials cannot "connect" (emphasize) with anything U.S. Military, U.S. Military Veterans, is because only 1% of U.S. Citizens have Served the U.S. Military while 99% never Served the U.S. Military according to then First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Biden's Wife, Doctor Jill Biden, unlike the Vietnam War that almost the entire U.S. Population was involved in some way as U.S. Military,or as Demonstrators, and as Parents, Family, Relatives of both.

The "Formula" or "Template" being used by Peter M. Lenkov is Millennials have been conditioned (Psychological Programing) to require continious stimulation explosions, sex, car chases, blood, gore, lots of "Special Effect", according to Democrat Vice President Biden's Newtown Massacre Study as demanded by Democrat President Obama this "Coarsing of Our Culture" is the cause of most Mass Murders, School Shootings.

It's about the vibe

[einmeter · 2/10 · 27 September 2018]

Most studios/procucers/writers do not seem to get it. It's not about the action what made Magnum what it was. It's about the vibe. Being on Hawaii, being the underdog, processing inner thoughts and moments. Now it's bang bang meets fast cuts meets Soap Opera meets unfitting music. Since i was so unfortunate to see the first episode of lethal weapon season 3, i keep wondering if you pull your ideas from some black hat for generic ideas and write the scenes down in the order you pull it out of there.

Like the Lethal Weapon remake, it about that easygoing, with it comes a certain pace of storytelling. Instead you stomped right over it.

2 stars for proper execution, none for the rest.

I get it, it's not easy to stick out of the overboarding crowd of TV shows nowadays. But that takes some guts, creativity and a bit more sensibilty on how to tell a story.

Basically that's not it.

Surprised everyone with fantastic

[markszane · 10/10 · 22 May 2022]

I'm not a fan of the original at all maybe that's why I enjoy this one so much great actors and the story was surprisingly amazing looking forward to more.

Average beginning

[aspinn-38771 · 6/10 · 4 June 2020]

An okay beginning lots of action cast will take some getting used to sadly Jay Hernandez has nowhere near the on screen presence like Tom Selleck had and a female Higgins well thats a wait and see, as i said to begin with an okay beginning and i hope there is lots more action throughout the series.

Terrible

[ian-charnley · 1/10 · 16 January 2019]

Just awful don't mess with trying to do remakes if you can't do it justice.

I Saw the Sun Rise

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 26 September 2018]

Magnum is back. Reimagined by action director Justin Lin in this opening episode.

Jay Hernandez steps into the shoes of Tom Selleck and he does not even bother growing a moustache. He doesn't even bother to get any charisma or personality, prefering to be a bland leading man.

This Magnum is an Iraqi war veteran, living in the Robin Master's estate preferring to electrocute the guard dogs. No wonder the dogs do not like him!

Rick and TC are their as his old army buddies who spent time together in a POW camp. In the opener Magnum investigates the death of another army buddy by some shady marine types.

The biggest twist is Higgins is now a woman and former MI6 operative and the seeds are already sown for a will they/won't they romance.

Lin delivers a shiny pilot episode. The opening shot is from space, maybe Lin thought he was still directing Star Trek. Hawaii looks gorgeous though, making me wish I could hop on a plane and visit the islands.

The story was humdrum though, bland as Hernandez. That could be the biggest problem and I am not interested in a kick ass Higgins going all gaga over Magnum.

Done already.

[maestromeg · 3/10 · 1 October 2018]

Boring. Glib in a meaningless way that doesn't come close to the slick humor of the original. Was willing to give it a shot. Ten minutes in was already an agony of disconnected dialogue from characters who don't connect with each other or the audience. Why call a show a remake and not even remotely honor the formula that made it what it was and actually WORKED? Will not subject myself to another episode.

Very disappointing

[j_c-94505 · 1/10 · 30 March 2019]

Very disappointing series. Misses the charisma that the original series had. It misses especially the charisma of Tom Selleck, who really was Magnum. Casting is not convincing at all.