Magnum, P.I.-Season 3 (1980)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	1066:24 (Case: 1053)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (6)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Corey Allen Ray Austin Donald P. Bellisario Burt Brinckerhoff
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Tom Selleck John Hillerman Roger E. Mosley Larry Manetti Gillian Dobb Kwan Hi Lim Jeff MacKay Kathleen Lloyd Glenn Cannon
Case	?
RPI	$49.95	Music	Velton Ray Bunch John Cacavas Pete Carpenter

    There are very few shows from the 80s that have stood the test of time. Magnum P.I. is one of them. Lasting a full eight seasons in its own right, this was one of the few shows of the era that had true character development and an ongoing plotline. It was also one of the few shows that successfully managed to blend action, drama, comedy, intrigue and suspense. That's a fairly broad list of genres to get across, but this show does it admirably.

    For those of you who missed the show during its original release, it follows the adventures of an ex-Vietnam war veteran, Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), formerly of Naval Intelligence, who resigns from the Navy in disgust and becomes a private investigator. Together with his veteran friends Theodore “T.C.” Calvin (Roger E. Mosley) and Orville “Rick” Wright (Larry Manetti), and the minder of the estate where Magnum lives, former Brigadier Commander Jonathan Higgins (John Hillerman), Magnum gets himself into all sorts of trouble in the beautiful locales of Hawaii while investigating some of the strangest cases.

    I am not going to spoil the fun with a full episode breakdown. If you want a full season rundown you can find one at TV.com amongst other places. The third season is split across its 6 discs as follows:

Disc 1

• 1. & 2. Did You See The Sunrise?: Part I & II (92:43)
• 3. Ki’is Don’t Lie (45:57)
• 4. The Eighth Part Of The Village (46:26)

Disc 2

• 5. Past Tense (46:27)
• 6. Black On White (46:25)
• 7. Flashback (46:27)
• 8. Foiled Again (46:26)

Disc 3

• 9. Mr. White Death (46:28)
• 10. Mixed Doubles (46:29)
• 11. Almost Home (46:24)
• 12. Heal Thyself (46:29)

Disc 4

• 13. Of Sound Mind (46:29)
• 14. The Arrow That Is Not Aimed (46:28)
• 15. Basket Case (46:29)
• 16. Birdman Of Budapest (46:27)

Disc 5

• 17. I Do? (46:29)
• 18. Forty Years From Sand Island (46:29)
• 19. Legacy From A Friend (46:29)
• 20. Two Birds Of A Feather (46:27)

Disc 6

• 21. ...By Its Cover (46:29)
• 22. The Big Blow (46:25)
• 23. Faith And Begorrah (45:02)

    Unlike a lot of shows of this period, Magnum P.I. is not played camp. And it tries very hard with its limited budget to deliver appropriate thrills and live action sequences that would have caused many a stuntman some serious anxiety. Sure, Thomas gives the odd nod to the camera, and his deadpan smile here and there, but even these aren't quite enough to ruin the show and drag it into the realm of farce. In essence, it mixes the best of the realist and the surreal.

    The third season is a landmark in the Magnum opus (only part of a pun intended there), with some of the show's most impressive episodes. The opening two-parter Have You Seen The Sunrise? is an extremely impressive start, particularly after some of the more corny episodes of the second season, and then there are the other great episodes of the season – Flashback, Mr. White Death (with Ernest Borgnine), The Arrow That is Not Aimed, and Two Birds Of A Feather.

    I grew up with this show, so I have some nostalgia bias, but even so it holds up very well from an objective perspective. Most people who have never seen Magnum P.I. before tend to get sucked in, a testament to its great writing. If you are a fan of this show, you probably already own it. If you have never come across this before, I highly recommend it.

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, this is the original aspect ratio for the series.

    The transfer is well detailed and sharp and has a definite ‘film’ feel about it, although this includes the inherent graininess thereof, particularly in darker scenes.

    Colour is strong in this season, an improvement over previous seasons. While still not reaching the digitally enhanced colour tones of more recent shows (for example Stargate SG-1: Season 9) it still works well.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, and film-to-video artefacts are minimal. There is less aliasing here than the previous two seasons, though how much of that is merely phased out by my new equipment I’m not entirely sure.

    There is still a fair bit of dirt on the print, but nothing horrendous

    Sadly, there are no subtitles, which is a bit of a major oversight by Universal. I would have thought by now that all DVDs would come with subtitles for use by the Hearing Impaired, but sadly, no such subtitles are available here.

    The dual-layer pauses occur in between the second and third episodes on each disc. None were visible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English, French and German in 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand, though some of the scenes shot outside were sometimes prone to a little distortion, either as a result of using a microphone in windy conditions, or some less than perfect post-production ADR.

    There is still some mono background “hissing” to the track, a problem with a mono source trying to reproduce too much on stereo equipment that this show was never designed to be seen on. That said, having seen the remaster of Miami Vice, I am a little disappointed that further effort was not made for Magnum P.I..

    Unfortunately, there is no surround use and no subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menus

    All menus are in 1.33:1 Full Frame. The disc home menus have various clips from the credits with a 2.0 Dolby Stereo soundtrack of that well known theme. All other menus are static and silent.

    Content-wise, R1 and R4 are largely identical, although R1 has subtitle options whereas R4 has no subtitles. I’m giving this one to R1, as I think all DVDs should have subtitles as mandatory for the hearing impaired.

    Magnum P.I. – Season 3 has some outstanding episodes, and it is the strong writing that makes this show persevere.

    Video is pretty good for a series of this age, but there is definitely room for improvement, and the lack of subtitles is very disappointing.

    Audio is good, but I’m still hoping someone will take the time to do a full remaster at some point.

    Sadly, there are no extras at all.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall