I wonder where Magnum, p.i. fits in to all this? Magnum and his friends T.C. and Rick are amongst (if not the) first Vietnam Vets shown on primetime TV. Additionally, the seminal two-part "Did You See the Sunrise?" to start season 3 (1982) is a de facto made-for-TV movie directly confronting the horrors of being a Vietnam POW and the mental health challenges re-integrating into "the world," a/k/a "normal" civil society. I've read that Magnum received contemporaneous praise from veterans groups because it made Vietnam vets visible and not in a cartoonish or villianistic way.
Much of Magnum, p.i holds up as very good-to-great pre-prestige era TV, especially much of the first four season. In that vain, season 3 eps. 1 & 2 are worthy of inclusion into discussions about Vietnam movies, even if it doesn't rise to the level of an Oscar nomination or cheeseball action like First Blood: Part II.
P.S. "Did You See the Sun Rise" has a great ending and is worth avoiding spoilers. The ending alone is worth talking about in terms of the history of US television.
Magnum is definitely part of that equation. So much of what we related to in the 80s was Vietnam itself. I wonder if the same will continue to be true for conflicts like the world post-9/11 moving forward.
I'm looking forward to this conversation, too.
I wonder where Magnum, p.i. fits in to all this? Magnum and his friends T.C. and Rick are amongst (if not the) first Vietnam Vets shown on primetime TV. Additionally, the seminal two-part "Did You See the Sunrise?" to start season 3 (1982) is a de facto made-for-TV movie directly confronting the horrors of being a Vietnam POW and the mental health challenges re-integrating into "the world," a/k/a "normal" civil society. I've read that Magnum received contemporaneous praise from veterans groups because it made Vietnam vets visible and not in a cartoonish or villianistic way.
Much of Magnum, p.i holds up as very good-to-great pre-prestige era TV, especially much of the first four season. In that vain, season 3 eps. 1 & 2 are worthy of inclusion into discussions about Vietnam movies, even if it doesn't rise to the level of an Oscar nomination or cheeseball action like First Blood: Part II.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0639640/
P.S. "Did You See the Sun Rise" has a great ending and is worth avoiding spoilers. The ending alone is worth talking about in terms of the history of US television.
Magnum is definitely part of that equation. So much of what we related to in the 80s was Vietnam itself. I wonder if the same will continue to be true for conflicts like the world post-9/11 moving forward.