Character mistake: In the opening narration, Magnum says "Take my good friend Marcus, for example. I woke up one day and realised I was 32 and I'd never had a chance to be 22." In the second part of the very pilot of the series, Magnum says to Alice "One day I woke up age 33 and realised I'd never been 23."
Continuity mistake: When Magnum says "Murder's never private", his left hand moves from the bottom to the side of the diary. (00:42:15)
Plot hole: Magnum is amazingly naive in this episode, blindly believing the story about Tracy Spencer being a cop against every possible evidence of the contrary. This buffoonery aside, Tracy saves him from the two girls identifying herself as a cop, but a couple scenes later they both go meet their boss and try to set up a sting passing off as dealers of stolen goods. That does not make any sense.
Visible crew/equipment: When Magnum screams to Traci to get out of his life, forever, there' s a camera cut and on the left of the screen some equipment that is not supposed to be in frame is seen for a second. (00:39:50)
Visible crew/equipment: Aftermath of the sting gone wrong at Rose's. Tracy Spencer runs after Magnum saying "Please, just listen!" In the bottom right corner of the frame you can spot the boom mike shadow for an instant, then the operator's, following the movement of the two (and the camera's). (00:37:00)
Continuity mistake: Magnum's face after the beating from the 80s girls in leggings and hairspray gets suddenly bloodied on both sides of the mouth at the end of the scene. (00:27:20)
Continuity mistake: Magnum groans asking Tracy Spencer "Why didn't you pull your gun?" She has both hands joined, just one hand up in the next shot. (00:27:15)
Continuity mistake: When the "policewoman" arrives and yells "Freeze! Police!" thumping her chest, Magnum at the bottom of the frame is getting up. In the next shot her hands are off her chest and Magnum is very far away from even the thought of getting up. (00:27:00)
Revealing mistake: The man who gets kicked in the face and chest by the two wicked ladies inside the building is not Tom Selleck. (00:26:45)
Continuity mistake: Magnum goes around the market to show around Marcus' photo. Multiple extras, such as a man with a blue Hawaiian shirt and a kid with a white jumper with red sleeves, can be seen roaming the premises multiple times in different shots. (00:24:00)
Continuity mistake: Magnum takes a bottle of the infamous Coops beer from the fridge and puts it down while Higgins is doing his threatening smile routine. He puts it down with the label facing away from the camera. When he answers the phone, the bottle is again facing away from the camera, but the angle is the opposite than the earlier one. (00:13:10)
Continuity mistake: The threat about the Romanian mime troop does the trick, and Magnum stands up to go after Higgins for some begging. The cloth he's cleaning the crossbow with dangles in its length in the first shot, but it's draped over the handle in the next. (00:14:00)
Continuity mistake: Magnum's search for clues at Marcus' is interrupted by a banshee scream from the girl with glasses. In the first few shots of the sequence, Tom Selleck's left arm is never in the correct position, being low in frontal view and raised in reverse shot, doing the same movement twice in different shots, etc. (00:09:05)
Continuity mistake: Magnum follows his inner voice and gets inside Marcus' quarters. The camera follows him and he stops in front of the desk where a picture is balanced on one side on some stacked papers. In the close-up that follows, the picture is flat on top of Marcus' appointments book. (00:08:45)
Visible crew/equipment: At the beginning of the episode, Magnum's friend drives off in a fancy car, and Magnum is thinking about it as he gets on his own fancy car. In the door of the Ferrari you can see the reflection of set lights. (00:03:50)
Other mistake: Rick and TC are at the counter of the Chinese joint when they hear a bang and a car speeding off. The noises are almost simultaneous, which means the lone assailant exploded a gunshot from their car while they were at the wheel. Uncanny coordination, recovery time and reflexes, contrary to the parking custodian in a booth we see there, who reacts to the car passing by, but was unfazed and with their back turned after a shotgun has been supposedly been fired meters away from him. (00:28:25)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Plot hole: The culprit is in cahoots with the man that Magnum is trying to expose as WWII war criminal, and fears nothing from him, as he even explains to Magnum later; in fact he is his goose with the golden eggs. Yet he, a politician, kills his guy in broad daylight, for no reason, running the risk not only to be caught red-handed, but also more logically to be linked to him due to the investigations that will unveil the deceased as one of his major supporters. Instead, he does not touch Magnum, someone he has no connections with and tons of potential enemies. Let's not forget that the main motive that pushes Magnum to investigate is his assumption that someone wanted to kill Higgins, which is not the case, and the culprit knows that.
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Continuity mistake: Magnum approaches the Nakamura house getting out of the car with light beige shoes. The young and pretty granddaughter of the deceased walks him around the corner, to her father. In the scene with Russell Nakamura, Nancy's Father, Magnum suddenly has dark brown moccasins, which you can see when he walks towards him and then away. And then when Nancy walks him back to his car, the beige shoes are back. (00:20:10)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Revealing mistake: After the savage beating, the two other prisoners go check out what happened inside the restroom. The take of Kirin Nakamura lying face down begins with the actor stretching his finger before he has to play corpse for a while not moving a muscle. (00:04:25)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Continuity mistake: Nancy Nakamura steps away from Magnum telling him she "did not have to decide." Her hair is fully combed back. She is briefly out of frame, and Magnum walks back to her without her moving, but her hair is now cascading all over her shoulders. (00:39:00)
