Magnum P.I. Season 5 Episode 1 Review: “The Passenger”

Magnum P.I. season 5 episode 1 review: a solid return on a new network

The relaunched Magnum P.I. ran four seasons on CBS before the network canceled it on May 12, 2022, following a failed deal among rights holders CBS Studios and Universal Television. NBC stepped in on June 30, 2022 and ordered 20 episodes, which became a two-part fifth season. The new home brought a few changes, including the addition of Michael Rady as Detective Chris Childs, and a lot of questions. Magnum P.I. season 5 episode 1, "The Passenger," answers most of them: the show is intact, the cast is back, and the formula still works.

The biggest worry going in was the central romance. At the end of the previous season, Thomas Magnum and Juliet Higgins shared a passionate kiss. Procedurals with a leading pair have a history of losing energy when the tension is resolved, and the series that comes to mind is Castle, which put Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic together and never quite recovered its early spark. That concern turns out to be unfounded here. The couple is new, but their dynamic is not, and the episode finds ways to keep the friction alive while adding warmth.

For anyone catching up, the Magnum and Higgins relationship began as a feud. She set her large dogs on him for fun and called him an uncultured man-child, which is a fair summary of Jay Hernandez's version of the character: reckless, arrogant and charming in equal parts. What wore Higgins down was that Magnum was also decent. She came to see him as an equal, then as a partner, and after dreams, a therapist and some soul-searching, she let herself act on it. The kiss was the result.

The secret couple

The episode opens on the aftermath. Magnum and Higgins are together, shower scenes included, but Higgins, who is contained and analytical, wants to keep the news private for now. Magnum would rather be open and jokes that all their friends have been rooting for them. Higgins answers that anything worth doing is worth doing right, and adds a practical reason: if it does not work out, everything gets harder. The argument is funny and believable, and it sets up the comic engine of the hour, in which Higgins hides under the counter when Kumu arrives with a new client.

Perdita Weeks and Hernandez are comfortable with each other and play the new status with more confidence than the earlier teasing. The writers resist the temptation to make the romance the whole point. It sits beside the case, and each informs the other, which is the correct balance. A couple that solves crimes together is a stronger premise than a couple that spends every scene talking about itself, and the fifth season's early minutes understand the difference.

The decision to open on the couple instead of the case also tells long-time viewers what the season is about. The premiere spends time on the awkwardness of going from partners to something more, including the way a private relationship complicates the working one. Higgins's caution is more than a comic beat. It is a character note, consistent with her control and her habit of planning, and it keeps the romance from feeling like a prize the show hands out after the kiss.

The case: a car crash with a second passenger

The client is a woman whose husband, a doctor, seems to have died alone in a car accident. Traffic camera images show a woman in the car with him. The widow trusts her late husband and still wants Magnum and Higgins to look into it. Their search points toward a possible affair with the woman in the images, Melinda Parker, played by Karissa Lee Staples. A custom fingernail found in the wreckage supports that idea, and Magnum does his best impression of a cop to obtain footage showing that someone was chasing the doctor and Melinda.

Digging into Melinda's background, they find that her husband has criminal connections. They visit the couple at home. The performance is polished, but Higgins notices Melinda's hand trembling as her husband answers every question. The case becomes a rescue. Magnum and Higgins go after the woman being held against her will, and learn that the dead doctor was not her lover. He was trying to get her away from an abusive husband who beat her. He was killed for his decency, and the same fate looks likely for the investigators when the husband draws a gun.

The cavalry arrives with sirens, and the reason matters more than the rescue. When Magnum asks the new detective, Childs, how he knew to be there, it becomes clear that Childs steered the private investigators into acting predictably and then moved in. Childs is not a friend like Gordon Katsumoto became, and he may be a threat. The detail does what a premiere should: it gives the season a pressure point.

Childs works as an antagonist because he is plausible. He is not a corrupt cop or a cartoon rival. He is a detective who sees two private investigators who have a habit of bending rules, and who is willing to use that habit against them. When he catches Magnum and Higgins flashing a fake badge in the dead man's office, he is within his rights to be unimpressed. Compared with Katsumoto, who could be cold but always came around, Childs makes his predecessor look warm and loving, and that comparison is the point.

The supporting cast on NBC

Most of the ensemble made the move intact. Rick, T.C. and Katsumoto return with smaller arcs. Rick, played by Zachary Knighton, is a new father who spends the episode with his baby daughter when he is not trading barbs with Thomas. T.C., played by Stephen Hill, investigates a side story about the disappearance of Captain Buck Greene. Katsumoto, played by Tim Kang, has been fired from the Honolulu police department and spends the hour doing some soul-searching. Amy Hill's Kumu is as central as ever, bringing the case through the door.

The final minutes tie the threads. Katsumoto is persuaded to fight for his job. Magnum courts Higgins in Robin's wine cellar. T.C. keeps looking for Greene without luck. Then the episode ends on a scene of Greene himself, kidnapped by men who want him to name the teams he assembled, people like Magnum, Rick and T.C. It is a cliffhanger that points the second half of the season in a new direction.

Verdict on "The Passenger"

The strength of Magnum P.I. season 5 episode 1 is that it knows what the show is. Magnum and Higgins do their usual walk-and-talk investigation: flirt, bicker, pick locks, call in favors and get into trouble. The case is investigation-heavy and has a real emotional core, and the humor is well measured. The loss of Katsumoto's easy cooperation with the HPD gives them an obstacle, and Childs gives them a mystery.

Not everything is perfect. The villain in the case is a stock type, and the quick leap from an affair theory to a domestic abuse reveal moves faster than the clues earn. The premiere also trims the ensemble. Not every familiar face from the CBS years appears, and viewers attached to the missing characters will notice the gap.

Still, for a show that had been canceled and revived, the premiere is reassuring. It treats the switch to NBC as a chance to tighten the formula instead of reinventing it, and it hands the central couple a plot that is about more than their feelings. The fifth season was announced as the final one later in 2023, which gives these episodes a particular weight. For fans of the relaunch, Magnum P.I. season 5 episode 1 is a good start and an easy recommendation. Newcomers can start here too, since the case is self-contained and the episode takes a few lines to explain who everyone is. With an abusive husband, a dead doctor and a detective who plays both sides, the episode also has more plot than its romance-forward opening suggests. The only thing a first-time viewer will lack is the history behind the kiss, and the show supplies enough of that to follow along.

Sources

• Magnum P.I. (2018 TV series), Wikipedia — cast, season 5 episode list and air dates