The entertainment industries love their reboots. For proof, look no further than the news that CBS is planning to reboot Magnum P.I., which was a crime drama in the 1980s that starred Tom Selleck as a private investigator named Thomas Magnum. It is interesting to note that there are a number of changes that have been made to the basic setup for the reboot, meaning that it should result in something than what people who remember the first Magnum P.I. would expect. Whether this turns out to be a smart choice or not remains to be seen since the reboot is still in the earlier stages of the process.
What Is Magnum P.I.?
For those who are unfamiliar with the crime drama, Magnum P.I. saw Thomas Magnum solving a succession of cases for a succession of clients while living on the beachfront of beautiful Oahu thanks to his connections to a famous but never seen novelist named Robin Masters. The cases provided the viewers with much of what the crime drama had to offer, but it is important to note that Magnum P.I. also stood out because of the interesting relationships between the main characters.
First, there was the relationship between Magnum and Jonathan Quayle Higgins III, a British veteran who served as the caretaker of the beachfront house in which Magnum lived. As a result, there was a fair amount of humor based on which of the house’s facilities that Magnum could and could not use because he had free use of a Ferrari as well as the guest house but nothing else, meaning that he had to negotiate for the rest with Higgins. In time, the relationship between the two became one of the most popular in the fandom because of their mutual respect in spite of their striking dissimilarities.
Second, there was the relationship between Magnum and Theodore “T.C.” Calvin and Rick Wright, who were Vietnam War veterans often convinced to help out Magnum through various means. Primarily, it is interesting to note that the two characters were some of the first depictions of Vietnam War veterans as human beings rather than simplistic caricatures, which was something that won Magnum P.I. a fair amount of positive press at the time from various organizations representing veterans.
What Can We Expect from the Magnum P.I. Reboot?
It is interesting to note that even though little information has been revealed about the Magnum P.I. reboot, we know a fair amount about the changes to the basic setup. For example, Magnum will now be an ex-Navy SEAL who has returned from Afghanistan, which is something that should result in a much changed relationship with both T.C. and Wright, who are now veterans in the reboot. However, the most notable change is that Jonathan Quayle Higgins III will now be Juliet Higgins, an ex-MI:6 agent rather than an ex-British Army Sergeant Major. Considering the relationship of their predecessors in the first Magnum P.I., one cannot help but suspect that their relationship will be fraught with sexual tension in the reboot, whether in truth or in the eyes of the fandom. Regardless, those who are interested should continue paying attention for more news coming out in the times ahead.
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