O'BSERVATIONS - THE NEW "MAGNUM P.I."

Over the years, my enthusiasm for the new Fall TV season has diminished.  I think it began with the loss of the digest-sized TV Guide magazine for the larger format.  There was just something exciting about poring through that magazine to learn everything about the new season.  And I could keep it hidden away from the nuns!

But thanks to my British blogging buddy Rob Buckley, I’ve perused the coming offerings for this year and I have to say I’m less than enthused.  However, there was one entry which did catch my eye.

Here’s the CBS press release:

‘Magnum PI’ is a modern take on the classic series starring Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, a decorated former Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. A charming rogue, an American hero, and a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan, Magnum has Juliet Higgins and her Dobermans to keep him in line, as well as his trusted buddies and fellow POW survivors TC and Rick when he needs back-up on a job. With keys to a vintage Ferrari in one hand, aviator sunglasses in the other, and an Old Düsseldorf longneck chilling in the fridge, Thomas Magnum is back on the case! Peter Lenkov, Eric Guggenheim, Justin Lin, John Davis, John Fox and Danielle Woodrow are executive producers for CBS Television Studios in association with Universal Television. Lin directed the pilot from a script by Lenkov and Guggenheim. Magnum PI stars Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, Perdita Weeks as Juliet Higgins, Zachary Knighton as Orville “Rick” Wright and Stephen Hill as Theodore “TC” Calvin.

I’m a fan of Knighton, and at least a fan of Perdita’s sister Honeysuckle.  (I’m not familiar with the work of Hill or Hernandez.)  But that admiration was for specific roles; they have not been elevated to the status of “I’ll watch them in anything.”  And I was never that big a fan of the original series.  I’ve probably seen less than twenty episodes.

But the blurb did catch my eye because the show is definitely a remake, not a continuation.  If Magnum was the only character who used the same name, maybe I could pass the show off as being in Earth Prime-Time along with the original: this Thomas Magnum could be the son Tom Selleck’s character never knew he had.  But a new TC, Rick, and a gender-swapped Higgins would make that too much of a coincidence. 

So off it goes to Toobworld2, where it might have a chance to cross over with the remakes of ‘Hawaii Five-0’ and ‘MacGyver’, also on CBS.  (It could also cross over with the new ‘S.W.A.T.’, but I like the idea that it is firmly entrenched in the alternate dimension of Black Toobworld.  Still, it’s a show which could have similar versions on a multitude of Toobworlds.)  And the mention of Five-0 by the detective in the trailer suggests that a crossover could be pozz'ble, just pozz'ble.

It might even share a Toobworld with another Tom Selleck show, 'Blue Bloods'.  That's not a remake, but it's in a dimension where the political landscape is different from that in the Real World and the main Toobworld.  This version of 'Magnum PI' might have a doppelganger there.

 BCnU!