Magnum Rewatch Ep08 - Missing in Action

[Kathleen]

Magnum looks into a mysterious disappearance, and how it might relate to a top secret military squad. Random psychic powers are also involved, so Graham and Kathleen do some investigation of their own.

[Mono_Snorsh]

The psychic wankery episodes are a major downside of watching older tv shows.

Though I'd like to point out that hypnosis, while fraught with problems, is whole orders of magnitude less BS than ESP.

The not checking to see if the fallen guy was alive also bothered me.

[unknowngamer]

I think the reason why little communication happens between Eric and Magnum is because it may not ever be directly stated (haven't actually watched the episode), but Eric has every reason to believe that Magnum is Delta 1.

Earlier having been told that Laura is with someone from Delta whatever, and there's Magnum. Newton sets up the meeting with the stipulation from Eric saying that only he and Delta 1 show up, and there's Magnum again.

From the sounds of it, there may have been some stuff cut for time which would tie all this stuff together, but yeah as it's presented there's a lot of holes.

[Graham]

I get that Eric would think that, and that Magnum wouldn't know, but why isn't Magnum trying to talk him down? It's very odd.

[sasparilla]

Super enjoying the podcast so far. Great work guys!

HOLY COW the Obama/Robin's Nest thing is crazy. And awesome

Yeah, I also love how Eric falls in the water and its just like "Yup! Yup he's dead. Nope, not gonna check on him. Despite Laura's ESP warning us of this exact scene and possibly we could have done something to change this outcome."

Like maybe I've seen too many shows that involve time travel or visions of the future, but I was hoping Magnum would do something to help save Eric from what Laura saw, and that somehow the two of them would get a happy ending.

[DaMage]

There is a scene in this episode where Higgins is cleaning? his rifle. He proceeds to pick up the rifle, holding it in the air as he looks directly down the barrel. I saw that am was just like, WTF is his doing?

[Mono_Snorsh]

It's not uncommon to look down the barrel when cleaning a gun.

[DaMage]

It's not uncommon to look down the barrel when cleaning a gun.

True, but the scene opens on him doing that, then as the scene goes on you can see him cleaning it and that action is put in context. It was just a shock because he says a few words to magnum and then just put a gun barrel up to his head.

[Master Gunner]

Bellisario seems to be a fan of the paranormal. It shows up on JAG several times, with one of the main characters seemingly getting psychic superpowers. Those weren't good episodes.

[Bernard]

The remote viewing part, even though it doesn't actually work, has a factual basis. The DIA ran the Stargate Project in the 70s and 80s to investigate military applications of psychic phemomena. It started, of course, because they believed the Soviets were doing the same thing and we can't allow an ESP gap. It also inspired the book and film The Men Who Stare at Goats.

[Master Gunner]

I believe that the Soviets, in response to the American response to their imagined program, did in turn investigate psychic phenomena for a brief time, before also finding it to be bullhonky.

[Darth Malber]

Not really about this episode, but I've found packs of Magnum trading cards on the Interwebs. Would you guys like to do a crack-a-pack as part of the podcast?

[Graham]

Oh wow, what? Yes!

[Darth Malber]

I asked my LGS owner if he can get them and he thinks he can. I'd rather do that than pay eBay prices and shipping. I'll let you know if I can get them.

This is by far my favorite podcast that you guys do.

[Marcvs Avrelivs]

Being alive and watching Magnum back when it first aired, I have vague memories of some of this.

The Delta thing was kind of big around then, thanks to the botched rescue attempt of the Iran Hostages which was when we all first heard about Delta Force (who were involved). This was also around the time the SAS had stormed the Iranian Embassy back in '80, so the public had just become aware of the elite special forces anti-terroist thing. There was also a fair interest in the special forces work that had happened in Viet Nam, stuff like the Phoenix Program, Navy SEAL program, Green Berets, the MACV-SOG, etc. which was filtering into men's fiction and RPGs of the day (RECON, for example).

This informs Magnum's backstory ... he's not just a Vietnam Vet, he's a special forces vet (you mention SEAL Team 6... Magnum's an ex-SEAL).

[empath]

Yeah, the berets in the pilot hint at Magnum et al. being in an especially special special forces unit (two 'locals', one Frenchman Robert Loggia, at least two Americans in the ground team, and two more Americans in the support element)

And in addition to the then-recent Iran Hostage Rescue Flop, it wasn't that long ago that other secretive and without-oversight pseudo-military elements roughly somewhere under the US government HAD been doing the evil things that Magnum lists off as being in 'Delta Section's' wheelhouse ("sabotage, terrorism, assassination") *cough-cough-BayofPigs, etc.-cough-cough*.


And one small point with the 'why the hell is this a shootout when Magnum said he'd TALK to Eric?' - Eric is taking a sniping position on that platform around the apex of the crane; the walkway is probably diamondplate surrounding the pulley and cable elements of the dredge. THERE IS A BIG HOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PLATFORM; once Magnum has 'danced over M-16 ricochets' over to a position underneath the crane, he's momentarily hidden from Eric by the platform itself, and yet has quickly drawn a bead on Eric through the hole, and when he calls out, Eric can glance down and look down the barrel of Magnum's 1911, and realize that he wouldn't have the chance to bring his rifle to bear before Magnum could fire, and thus capitulates.

This COULD have quite easily explained by a quick shot from Eric's perspective, and that's a pretty big oversight from a cinematography standpoint (the fact that Graham quite naturally asks "Why is this happening?" is a big sign that something's missing)...if not for the fact that the WRITING of this whole scene is straight mono-toilets rather overshadows it and OTHER gaffes, errors and poor decisions.

(Heck, compared from the previously excellent cinematography and surprisingly {for you jaded young-uns ;^)} good writing, this scene is JARRINGLY BAD - I wonder if it was planned to be better but the director or cinematographer suddenly wasn't available and whoever stepped in was MUCH less capable? )

But yeah, as someone who watched the show religiously for years (before Bellisario's desire to morph our Nam Vet hero into some kind of Jedi-esque mystic drove me away - yeah, it's gonna get worse ;_; ) I'm REALLY ENJOYING THESE PODCASTS; many thanks for an awesome job in re-igniting my love for an old show of my youth!