Thoughts on the Magnum P.I. reboot?


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I agree with that.  But what exactly is the alternative?  Have C&T's kids team up?  Would you even buy that?  Or just different black and white protagonists?  The networks are going to go with what they think sells and that means characters/names the audience immediately identifies with.  The problem is C&T are so intrinsic to the show that it's hard not to use them.  But if you make a show without them then what is that exactly?  It's just another crime show in Miami with 2000s stylistics.  Why even call it MV then?  What made Miami Vice be Miami Vice is now gone.  Pop culture was exploding with new things at the time.  Not so much now.  The ground MV broke has now been copied and isn't special now.  What interesting music are they going to use every week?  If people hated MV 2006 then I doubt there'll be much love for a reboot from original fans.  Maybe they'll go the WB/millennial route?  I think my point is that it isn't possible for a Miami Vice show in 2018 or whenever to be revolutionary at all and that's so much of what made the original.  So maybe they shouldn't bother.

Magnum PI etc can get away with being rebooted easier because they didn't revolutionize anything, they were simply hit shows once.  MV was more than that and you can't recapture it imo.

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Am 4.10.2018 um 00:38 schrieb Bren10:

I agree with that.  But what exactly is the alternative?  Have C&T's kids team up?  Would you even buy that?  Or just different black and white protagonists?  The networks are going to go with what they think sells and that means characters/names the audience immediately identifies with.  The problem is C&T are so intrinsic to the show that it's hard not to use them. 

 

But the Crockett and Tubbs that everybody knew aren't going to come back anyway. Whether they let new younger actors play those roles or not. And the new series isn't going to survive just on name recognition of its original main characters.

They showed with the Dallas reboot that there is another way, of just letting a show come back to the old characters and see what they have been doing the last 30 years (or 22 years in the case of Dallas). Granted, the Dallas reboot would have been entirely impossible without Larry Hagman (and then started to fall apart once Larry Hagman had passed on), but you see where I am going with this.

 

Am 4.10.2018 um 00:38 schrieb Bren10:

But if you make a show without them then what is that exactly?  It's just another crime show in Miami with 2000s stylistics.  Why even call it MV then?  What made Miami Vice be Miami Vice is now gone.  Pop culture was exploding with new things at the time.  Not so much now.  The ground MV broke has now been copied and isn't special now. 

 

It is going to be that no matter how much effort you put into it, and how much money you throw at the project. And like I said, the alternatives are to recast Crockett and Tubbs and pretend the old series never happened, or to make the show about Crockett and Tubbs's sons. By recasting Crockett and Tubbs, you might appeal to the under-30 crowd who largely have no real memory of the original show, and are just vaguely aware of it being an 80s cultural phenomenon. But you are essentially showing the middle finger to fans of the old show, as far as I am concerned.

And even if a whole handful of great shows have been based in Miami or Florida since Miami Vice, that doesn't mean you can't deliver a well-made show. Even one that will attract old fans. Also, what many of these reboots (implicitly) aim for is the father-and-son viewer experience, which is going to unite people who were young back then with their kids who are young now in front of the TV screen, and give them a show that both of them will find entertaining. I'm not entirely sure how they expect that to work with the Magnum reboot now, or indeed by recasting Crockett and Tubbs on Miam Vice.

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It's just my opinion, but I don' really care to see the original Crockett and Tubbs in 2018.  This isn't Star Trek and I don't think MV was ever meant to be a generational thing.  It is so tied to its time and I'd rather have the last images of C&T be them driving off together in the Ferrarri, poetically ending their run.  And the idea of their kids taking over is pretty silly to me and smacks of lazy tv tropeyness.  I understand there are people who want more Vice so much that they'll accept anything with the name on it, but I am not one of those.

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  • 2 years later...
On 9/26/2018 at 9:06 AM, James said:

Magnum's friend who died was played by Domenick Lombardozzi who was Switek in the movie, and James Remar who played that army general or captain or something was Sonny's friend in "Buddies".

yeah, he played 'Robbie Cann' (Cannata) in the epsiode 'Buddies'.

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On 10/3/2018 at 11:38 PM, Bren10 said:

Magnum PI etc can get away with being rebooted easier because they didn't revolutionize anything, they were simply hit shows once

I credit the original Magum PI for groundbreaking writing and character development. It was also the first weekly episodic show to date to introduce story arcs and make good use of recurring characters. Then of course later came MV which brought something else to the table and the rest is history.

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31 minutes ago, sdiegolo78 said:

I credit the original Magum PI for groundbreaking writing and character development. It was also the first weekly episodic show to date to introduce story arcs and make good use of recurring characters. Then of course later came MV which brought something else to the table and the rest is history.

This is actually not true. Gunsmoke was doing this back in the '50s and '60s (to give just one example). Magnum was somewhat unique for its use of voiceover, but one of its wider contributions was how it portrayed a Vietnam vet as something other than a nutjob and actually had him getting him from the VA.

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3 minutes ago, Robbie C. said:

This is actually not true. Gunsmoke was doing this back in the '50s and '60s (to give just one example). Magnum was somewhat unique for its use of voiceover, but one of its wider contributions was how it portrayed a Vietnam vet as something other than a nutjob and actually had him getting him from the VA.

Wasn't aware of gunsmoke and didn't want to go as far back to the '50s and '60s. And yes Magnum was unique for the reasons you stated above.

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4 hours ago, sdiegolo78 said:

I watched the first episode. And let me just say it's atrocious!

The first episode is pure cringe, but I gave it a shot and it only gets better from there. If you give the second episode a chance you'll change your opinion from atrocious to mediocre. 

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I viewed a few episodes of this reboot back in 2018. I mean, it was more of a curiosity for me, and I think the viewing experience requires different eyes than mine. It's just that the original show (along with "Hawaii Five-O" reruns and "MacGyver") left too much of an imprint on me at an early age that I couldn't possibly be fully satisfied with any reboot. I still believe the original show, as the case with the original "Hawaii Five-O" & "MacGyver", are iconic (probably one reason their concepts were revived).

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  • 1 year later...
On 3/11/2021 at 3:34 PM, Robbie C. said:

This is actually not true. Gunsmoke was doing this back in the '50s and '60s (to give just one example). Magnum was somewhat unique for its use of voiceover, but one of its wider contributions was how it portrayed a Vietnam vet as something other than a nutjob and actually had him getting him from the VA.

The voiceover was used more effectively, if less widely seen, in the 70’s detective series Harry-O starring David Janssen (which I highly recommend if you like neo-noir).  
 

You are absolutely correct that the series is credited with presenting the first positive portrayal of Vietnam veterans, countering  years of  depiction as “damaged goods” to put it nicely.  

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7 minutes ago, Ferrariman said:

1 word   WHY?!

I see TV reboots as little different than film franchises like the Marvel Universe or the James Bond series.  They contain a level of built-in public awareness and are seen as less financially risky by the studios than a completely unknown product.  Even if they perform only moderately well, they may still be profitable.

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11 hours ago, pahonu said:

  They contain a level of built-in public awareness and are seen as less financially risky by the studios than a completely unknown product.  

That's a nice way of saying they've run out of fresh ideas. :p

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2 hours ago, Ferrariman said:

That's a nice way of saying they've run out of fresh ideas. :p

There are lots of new ideas appearing in independent film making, but the studios don’t have the stomach to invest in them because they’re more of a gamble.  As long as people keep going to Fast and Furious 20 or the 57th Marvel Universe film, or whatever number they’re on, :rolleyes: the studios will prioritize funding them ahead of original ideas.  As much as many of us love film and television, it is still a business first.  

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Buddy is pitching a TV show, in one meeting with 20th Television, one of the suits was discussing the upcoming reboot of LA Law, just a mere 36 years out from it's premiere. 

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