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Magnum, P.I.: Home from the Sea (1983)
I guess I'll be the contrarian
I'm truly puzzled by the high ratings for this episode, so it seems I'll be the contrary voice. This was a terribly weak story. Right out of the gate, during the opening teaser clips, I asked, "Why is he not wearing a life preserver?" And then it went down hill.
First, the setup: I get that Magnum likes to spend July 4 alone. But why would he paddle a surf ski three miles out, alone, in an area where he knows the ocean currents would make it impossible to swim back to shore (and likely difficult to paddle back, by the way), not wear a life preserver and not even tell anyone where he would be? Magnum is neither stupid nor suicidal, so this makes no sense.
They gave us a glimpse of Magnum as a boy, with his parents, and I'll give the episode credit for that, but even so, how many times do we need to see his father pushing him to tread water? I get it--you don't have to beat me over the head. About halfway through, my wife suggested, "OK, so he's just going to tread water between repetitive flashbacks until he's rescued. Why don't we just fast-forward to see who picks him up?"
Now, I had to mark this as a spoiler, but it really isn't. The instant his father said he was shipping out to Korea, I knew he wouldn't come back alive. It couldn't have been more obvious. So even that didn't add any suspense to the story.
Next, the shark shows up. Now, the flashback shows that a good way for a child to handle his fear of an imaginary monster is to give it a funny name and laugh at it. Sounds good, but somehow this turns into repelling a real shark by closing your eyes and counting to ten. Seriously?
Now he's in a situation where there is no plausible way he could survive, so how do the writers get him out of it? By coming up with something completely implausible. For some reason, Higgins, TC and Rick all develop psychic powers and decide Magnum must be in trouble, so they start a search. Across 1,000 square miles of ocean, as Higgins put it. At night. There is zero chance of them finding him like that, but Rick manages to run right past Magnum and stop within a couple hundred feet of him. Because he "heard something". He couldn't possibly have heard Magnum's shouts under those conditions, so presumably this is another psychic episode. He tells his girlfriend to turn off the radio so he can hear, but then leaves the engine running. Once again, Rick just isn't stupid enough for this to make sense.
In summary, the premise made no sense, the resolution is pure deus ex machina, and most of the episode is simply filler.