Magnum Rewatch 26 - The Taking of Dick McWilliams

[Kathleen]

Magnum investigates the kidnapping of a old friend. Meanwhile, Kathleen and Graham decide to dispense "life hack" advice.

[Booster]

So glad the dark Magnumless days are over

[theycallmejokke]

#Life hacks!

[DaMage]

I did take note at that start when Dick is put into the trunk, that he just seems to climb in without a struggle....which seemed like bad acting at the start. However once we found out he was in on it, the bad acting was suddenly a sneaky hint at the plot.

Have to agree with you guys, this was an average episode. Okay at first viewing, falls apart if you think about it....but provided some level of entertainment. Also, I think LRR has preformed better fighting scenes then this magnum episode.....those sound effects didn't make sense, and you can clearly see the gaps between the attacks.

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Quick Count Update:
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Rating: 6.5/10

Murder Count: 8 (+0)
That's Racist Count: 6.75 (+0)
Different Era Count: 9 (+0)
4th Wall Breaks: 18 (+0)
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[The Martini]

Those life hacks got very Dave's Spokesman by the end. If you DO the sex, maybe TRY a position? Third, fourth, thwifth, or Mrs. Dave's favorite THE sixth?

[Jeezy]

Lifehack: get other people to do your taxes!

Great to see the Magnum Rewatch back. I love it despite only ever seeing that one episode that was dubbed at a con a couple of years ago!

[RoboNixon]

Glad you guys are back! But did Magnum get his 1040A forms in on time?! Also, on the mobile LRR site, my phone showed the title as "The Taking of Dick" lol

A Dave's Spokesman sex ed PSA Crapshot could be amazing!

[Muspel]

LRR Life Hacks should be their own podcast.

[Marcvs Avrelivs]

I wanted to add that only a decade-ish before this episode, Yukio Mishima had committed seppeku. Add to this the sudden rise of interest in Japanese subjects, like ninjas & samurai (possibly driven by the success of the SHOGUN mini-series the previous year), and the portrayal of Japanese people in the show makes a bit more sense.

Japan was, in the 1980s, the mysterious country that had all the answers because it was in the process of transforming from the place that made crappy plastic stuff, into a corporate juggernaut that everyone wanted to emulate. Our exposure to it was mostly limited to badly translated anime (Battle of the Planets, Starblazers, Robotech), a handful of critically admired films by Akira Kurosawa, Frank Miller via Daredevil comics (Elektra the Ninja Assassin debuts in 1981), and a bunch of low-rent ninja movies.

So yeah, Japan and Japanese people were heavily stereotyped. Really, that should be chalked up to "It was a different time."

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_(miniseries)