41 Thoughts We Had While Watching the Hawai‘i’s New “Magnum P.I.”

Posted byKatie KennyPosted inHonolulu, Movie and TV Reviews, Work Experience, Writing

Only one mentions Jay Hernandez’s shirt.

Photo: Courtesy of @magnumpicbs

Nationally, critics are largely lukewarm about the 2018-style Thomas Magnum and his pals. But here in Hawaiʻi, we’re always ready to give a little extra love to productions shot in our backyards—as long as it doesn’t mean we’re stuck in traffic too often during filming. Plot holes, clichés, impossible driving routes—we’ll forgive them all as long as we’re not subjected to an excess of Mainlanders trying too hard to be “authentically” local. Don’t even talk to us about Rob Schneider in 50 First Dates.

For this reboot, sure there was the hubbub about Thomas Magnum being portrayed by a Latino actor. We don’t care. The P.I. was never written as a kamaʻāina. (It’s not like local audiences thought Tom Selleck grew up in ’Nalo.) So how do you think the new Magnum did?

Here are 41 thoughts we had, or overheard, during the season premiere in September 2018. It’s like watching the show again with your snarky friend.

  1. (Opening free fall) Did he just sky fall from outer space? That’s aggressive.
     
  2. Wait, all is forgiven as soon as Jay Hernandez shows his wonderful face.
     
  3. (Opening Korea village rescue) News update: Kualoa Ranch is in South Korea.
     
  4. Those bad guys can’t shoot for beans. Not even the windows cracked. (When Magnum starts shooting) Now he’s a good shot, see that. He only shot like four bullets.
     
  5. (Intro shot in the house): I like the Love’s bread. And the pineapple. Local street cred.
     
  6. Where is the house that’s the Robin’s Nest? It’s INSANE. Is it real?
     
  7. I feel like the British lady saying “It’s not my job” is going to be a recurring thing.
     
  8. Damn, I looked down at Instagram while Jay opened his shirt.
     
  9. (After the opening sequence) Wait! Where’s the rest of the theme song?
     
  10. COME ON! We live to rock out to the song and beauty shots. Indulge us! 
     
  11. Why couldn’t one of the main characters have been from Hawaiʻi? They changed Higgins to a female. Rick couldn’t be a local or something?
     
  12. (The appearance of Lt. Yoshi) OMG, the hot Korean from the Fast and the Furious franchise is on screen. Is he permanent?
     
  13. So, a Korean guy is playing a Japanese police officer with the super generic Japanese name?  
    Person 2: The guy in the original Magnum was Korean, too.
    Person 1: Oh, super authentic then.
     
  14. Did he just say moke? Did he?
     
  15. Magnum says, “Leave it to HPD and five-0, Magnum.” So, we are gonna have the shows cross and connect! How cool will that be? 

Read the full story on HONOLULU Magazine. 

Published by Katie Kenny

Professionally, Katie Kenny is a digital content producer, social media manager and lifestyle writer from Hong Kong. Outside the office, she has a love of adventure travel, medium rare steak and suspenseful TV shows, consumes way too much Italian wine and is shamelessly obsessed with her ridiculous rescue dog named Lily. Katie made the big move to O‘ahu in March of 2018 and started working at HONOLULU Magazine as the digital editorial specialist that July. During her four years with the company, she managed digital editorial content, SEO and all of HONOLULU’s, HONOLULU Family’s and Frolic Hawai‘i’s website functionality and day-to-day management, recorded data, tracked progress, studied trends, worked on overall strategy, and also rounded up the best events for both the print issues and online.

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