How do you remake a piece of classic ’80s TV like Magnum P.I.? If you’re CBS, and have successfully revived Hawaii 5-0 and Macgyver in the past couple of years, the answer is “Just move the timeline up 30 years.” So Magnum and his friends are all Iraq/Afghanistan vets rather than Vietnam.
That’s pretty much the biggest change. Well, and Higgins is a woman now, and Magnum doesn’t have a mustache or rock a Hawaiian shirt (at least not in the opening episode anyway). Rick is still the well connected, club running problem solver, and TC still runs helicopter tours in a Bell 500.
After one episode, at least, it feels pretty good. The most jarring point isn’t even new Higgins, it’s trying to get used to Thomas Magnum not being Tom Selleck. I think this is going to stay on my watch list.