Running around like a day-drunk Han Solo in a dazzling Hawaiian shirt, Tom Selleck’s cocky and chivalrous private investigator remains a TV great
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Magnum PI is the TV equivalent of a tropical slap in the face. The freewheeling weekly adventure, which ran from 1980 to 1988, swings between postwar espionage and wacky hijinks with a jubilant, almost intoxicating degree of abandon. “No idea is a bad idea” must have been regularly repeated in the writers’ room.
The premise is watertight: Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV (Tom Selleck) is a private investigator in Hawaii, masking his postwar PTSD behind cocky one-liners. He’s also prone to playing fast and loose; a bit of a rake, with his heart in the right place. Think a day-drunk Han Solo outfitted in a dazzling array of Hawaiian shirts.
