Critical Condition: Magnum P.I.

Magnum P.I. | Three, 9.25 Wednesday

☆☆☆☆ “An average, inoffensive and reliably amusing hour. Created by Peter Lenkov and Eric Guggenheim, the new version  is unlikely to engender the hero worship that greeted Selleck’s CBS series, but it’s a serviceable entry in CBS’ slate of peppy procedurals, with action antics set against a beautiful Hawaiian landscape, not unlike the rebooted Hawaii Five-O.” — USA Today.

☆☆☆☆ “In the new reboot (with Jay Hernandez in the title role, and without that starchy appositive comma in the title), Magnum is a generic, chill dude with an aggro streak … The series is ungainly in its rush to get Magnum and Higgins together as a fondly squabbling couple, and it’s uncertain whether the stars share the chemistry to sell a Benedick-and-Beatrice routine, but they sail through the fight scenes just fine.” — The New Yorker.

☆☆☆☆ “Hernandez is quite charming and appealingly human — he gets beat up when he gets beat up — and time being what it is, there will be viewers for whom he is the primary Magnum. And Magnum P.I. is, after all, a milieu as well as a character, an atmosphere, a setting, a take on life, where likable, laid-back characters are sometimes roused from hanging out to solve a crime or help a person in need.” — Los Angeles Times.

☆☆☆☆ “Despite the calibrated charm of your star, Jay Hernandez (who casually assumes Tom Selleck’s defining role, knowing full well that a hint of a stubbly goatee is no match for the ’stache), your pilot episode is an uninspired slop of cornball action and opening misfires.” — The Washington Post.

☆☆☆☆ “It’s only limitedly fair to credit the Magnum P.I. pilot for its high production values and a couple fairly decent stunts, because director Justin Lin has become CBS’ go-to when it comes to spiffy pilots for shows that will never look nearly as expensive again … Even if the stunts and spectacle diminish in Lin’s absence, the Hawaii and cars aren’t going anywhere.” — The Hollywood Reporter.