‘Magnum P.I.’: Would You Want Another Season or a Movie? (POLL)
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Magnum P.I. series finale.]
Magnum P.I. could very well be over for good, but given that NBC picked it up for 20 more episodes following CBS‘ cancellation, it’s not out of the realm of possibility to consider it could come back.
In fact, Jay Hernandez (who plays Thomas Magnum) shared on X the day before the series finale aired, “I actually floated the idea of a standalone film. I suppose it’s still possible. If I’m being totally honest I didn’t love the show ending how it did.”
The final episode did leave a few things hanging, including the future for Magnum and Higgins (Perdita Weeks). She’d found an engagement ring earlier in the finale, though it turned out to be Magnum was just holding onto it for Rick (Zachary Knighton). That did lead to the couple discussing marriage, however, after she couldn’t stop thinking about her initial reaction to finding the ring. “I know that wasn’t a normal response,” she said, but he assured her, “I knew who you were when we first got together, and I love you just the way you are.”
Higgins did share her reasoning, explaining, “it’s just that peace has been very rare in my life and what we have together is so perfect that the idea of changing anything is terrifying.” Magnum wasn’t in a rush to change things, but she did let him know, “if in the future, you did ask me to marry you, I would say yes.”
It’s a much more satisfying ending for the couple than would have been the case if the show hadn’t been saved following the CBS cancellation; Season 4 left off with the two kissing but not together yet.
But with the couple together, according to Weeks, “there was a sort of shelf life. I don’t think we wanted to see them get divorced. Kitchen sink drama. It just wouldn’t have had quite the allure. And I told [showrunner] Eric [Guggenheim] this, whilst it is very sad to say goodbye to it, obviously, and everyone, I think it’s a nice place that we ended up.” And she could very well be right — who knows what kind of drama could have awaited them in a potential sixth season?
Granted, this wasn’t how Guggenheim wanted the show to end, he told TV Insider in October. Still, as we’ve now seen, he was right when he said “it works” as a series finale. And as he pointed out regarding the show coming back again, “I think anything is possible. In recent years, so many shows have gotten canceled and uncanceled, or renewed and then canceled, or canceled and then revived on a different network or on a streaming platform. And we’ve obviously seen countless revivals.” (Magnum P.I. is now streaming on Freevee, which did pick up American Rust after its cancellation by Showtime.)
But what do you think? Let us know in the poll and comments below.
