Magnum, P.I. (TV Series) Distant Relative (1983) User Reviews

Story about friends.

[mm-39 · 7/10 · 7 September 2021]

Magnum must baby sit Rick's sister and the brother is very over protective. Magnum gets ditched and the sister is found dead. As the story unravels so does Rick who becomes vengeful and Magnum discovers Rick's sister is not so innocent. To make a long story short Magnum must go to Ice Pick for help, which is a memorable scene. A memorable ending. 7 stars.

Wendy's

[safenoe · 7/10 · 3 November 2023]

Alice Cadogan guest stars as Rick's sister, Wendy who, unbeknownst to Rick, was a real wild child and sadly ended up dead after she ran away from Magnum during a night on the town. Carol Channing makes a cameo appearance as herself. It turns out Wendy was a mule, a drug courier, and was expelled from a catholic school so that would have been a harbinger of things to come.\

It's heard to believe this episode debuted just over 40 years ago, yes that long ago. Yet Magnum, P. I. (the original one, not the reboot) is timeless. I'm enjoying watching the early seasons of Magnum, P. I. along with Law and Order.

Elisha Cook, Jr. does another magnificent character role at 79!

[Thomas_J_McKeon · 10/10 · 19 June 2010]

Elisha Cook Jr. does a masterful character actor job once again, this time not as the neurotic Wilmer the gunsel in the Maltese Falcon but as Ice Pick the retired organized Crime boss, "Ice Pick." Mr Cook was a wonderful character actor and portrayed each of his roles masterfully and believably, whether as Wilmer, as the character in Shane, and as Ice Pick. And he was 79 years old when he portrayed the latter in the Magnum PI series. He is the one great actor who makes this episode worth watching. He does not play Elisha Cook, Jr., but whatever person he is portraying. And his portrayal is quite believable. Here he is Ice Pick, and does not over-play the role. One sees 'Ice Pick" not Elisha Cook, Jr. playing Ice Pick. That is the hallmark of a great character actor. Too bad he did not live longer. When one reads about the Maltese Falcon one always sees the reference to the other two great character actors, Sydney Greenstreet (his debut in his 70s) and Peter Lorre. But Elisha Cook is also masterful in his portrayal of Wilmer and deserves mention for the great character actor he is. the same is true for his portrayal of Ice Pick in this series. Thomas J McKeon Indianapolis.

Not what I remember

[robertdlar · 6/10 · 9 July 2022]

I know people constantly say stuff like this, but you have to believe me when I say, I was a HUGE Fan of this show in the 80s, but now as I have grown older and wiser and probably a lot more cynical, I see more flaws that I remember. Thomas, for a detective, has the intuition of a cactus. So many times in previous episodes does he blow off great clues, misses emotional tells and fails to pick up on any sort of indication of danger.

This week he fails to realize Ricks sister is a flight risk after she clearly indicated to him she is not one to listen to authority and does what she wants in as sneaky a manner as possible, this time his stupidity results in the death of his best friends sister. Would she have died anyway, probably, but not on MY watch. No excuses. I am not sure what directions the writers of this show got, but I feel like the later seasons saw a sharp change in Magnus's 'instincts' least from my faint memories of the show 20+ years ago.

Rick's episode (but not in a good way)

[feindlicheubernahme · 4/10 · 28 November 2023]

We had a previous episode where Rick acted like a real jerk towards Magnum - even punching him - for interfering in his relationship with the "love of his life", a married woman he'd known for just two weeks. Well, in this one, Rick is a grade 1 a-hole.

First of all, we find out that he hasn't seen his sister in 10 years. When you consider that they're orphans and he's her big brother, not having bothered to see her since she was 12 doesn't say a whole of good things about him. It certainly isn't a lack of means which would have prevented him from visiting her or flying her over to Hawaii before.

Then, he refuses to believe what Magnum tells him about his sister's real personality, basically calling him a liar. And when tragedy strikes, he steadfastly continues to refuse to believe him, despite the evidence, while blaming him for Wendy's death. This is when he hits Magnum again.

To top it all off, he almost murders two FBI agents while he's on his quest to avenge the sister he obviously never had any time for when she was alive.

The last thing I'll say is that it would have been nice to have spent some more time with Wendy before she was killed. To bring in the sister of a main character and then kill her off before we have time to know anything about her other than that she's no angel betrays the fact that she was only there for her death to serve as motivation for our main cast's actions. Nowadays, that's called "fridging."