Magnum PI (Mondays at 9:00 on CBS)
Of the reboots currently populating the CBS landscape, Magnum PI is probably the most confusing, because the original was never popular for any reason that can be replicated. People loved and remember the 1980s Magnum because of one thing: Tom Selleck (well, maybe two: his mustache). Without Selleck (and the comma between Magnum and his title), there really is no Magnum PI. So why try to do it in 2018?
CBS, probably more than any other network, loves name recognition. They always have. Their schedule is full of franchises, reboots, and spin-offs, so I suppose the fact that their target demographic has already responded well to a host of modern reboots of bygone procedurals was the impetus to create a new version of Magnum. This time Magnum (Jay Hernandez, Suicide Squad, Bad Moms) is a former Navy SEAL living at the Robin's Nest guest house in Hawaii and working as security to a reclusive Tom Clancy-esque author and a private investigator. It's a fairly simple setup, not unlike Hawaii Five-0, SWAT, and MacGyver. And also like those two other reboots, this Magnum PI can be nice to look at but is fairly vacuous.
There are lots of car chases, directed with verve and style by CBS stalwart Justin Lin (who's previously helmed the pilots of Scorpion and SWAT, both of which had wonderful effects and action scenes that were never matched in subsequent episodes). There are some nice overhead shots of the islands. The fight sequences are brisk and well-staged. The opening shot of Magnum literally jumping to Earth from space is insanely stupid and made me want to immediately turn it off, but some cool stunts immediately following made me almost forget it. Still, I watched this episode four days ago and couldn't tell you a damn thing about the plot or characters.
I know one of Magnum's friends dies right off the bat, and that's what drives the rest of the episode. Beyond that, I haven't a clue. I remember Zachary Knighton (Happy Endings) plays an ex-military friend who's now... a bartender maybe? I remember him making a drink at one point. Perdita Weeks gives possibly the most annoying performance I've ever seen as the woman who runs the Robin's Nest. Part of that is the fault of her unfunny, stilted dialogue delivered as if she's the wittiest person in Hawaii, but the other part is Weeks' total lack of chemistry with Hernandez and the fact that she's playing a gender-switched version of the character from the original who actually was witty and fun.
Hernandez, for what's it worth, is just fine. He's charming... but he's not Selleck. He's not magnetic and effortlessly cool like Selleck was (is). And without that central it that the original Magnum had, this reboot is an empty display of explosions and car chases, like a poor man's Fast & Furious.
FBI (Tuesdays at 9:00 on CBS)
Speaking of emptiness, NBC cash cow Dick Wolf has brought his particular brand of by-the-numbers television making to CBS with FBI. You can tell it's going to be exciting by how creative its title is.
In all seriousness, this is the better of CBS's fall dramas. FBI has no real hook or twist to make it any different from any number of other investigative dramas on the air, but it has a distinct style that works. Danish director Niels Arden Oplev (Mr. Robot) takes a fairly rote plot about a series of explosions in New York City and infuses it with flair and interest through his lens. The opening scene of the aftermath of a bomb truly makes you feel like you're in the middle of the chaos with its POV mounted shots; quick pushes, unexpected zooms, grey filters, and more all give FBI a cinematic feeling that elevates the otherwise boilerplate stuff happening on screen.
As anyone who ever watched Rookie Blue knows, Missy Peregrym is a compelling lead, and in FBI she's the only one given any sort of character by pilot's end. The rest of the cast, including Law & Order holdover Jeremy Sisto, is just fine, but they're playing outlines rather than characters. They are solely defined by their positions or their skin (as 24: Legacy's Zeeko Zakai is), but Peregrym's Maggie Bell gets something of a mysterious backstory in addition to being defined by her gender and position.
But despite not being original or even all that memorable, FBI is slick and occasionally visually arresting, and the fact that it's the only procedural on CBS with a female lead is reason enough to give it a sample. It's not great, but it might be good enough to drop in and out of from time to time.
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