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)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Other mistake: Hank Palmer appears in the closing credits as "Hank Sorenso", but his last name is pronounced by everyone (and logically so) as "Sorenson", and Rick says his first name is Fred. (00:31:00 - 00:48:00)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Continuity mistake: Magnum sits down with Saichi Goto leaving the girl on the pier. He asks him "what do you remember about 'em?", and holds his left hand with his right. Reverse shot and it's the other way around. (00:26:10)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Revealing mistake: Magnum usurped Higgins' desk while he's at the hospital. He is checking out of the article about Enoka running for Senate. If you look at the first article on the left, it begins with "The facts regarding the situation remain the same, state the authorities", the famous filler text that appears in dozens of props made by Earl Hayes Press. (00:16:35)
Forty Years from Sand Island - S3-E17
Continuity mistake: In the flashback, the one who supports Mr. Nakamura's head does it with the thumb raised above a cone of shadow and clear of his chin in close-up, not matching the previous and following shot. (00:04:30)
Character mistake: Bickering with his pretend wife after risking his neck with the falling crates, Magnums says "we can stop playing house, I can go back to being a private detective, which is exactly what I should have been in the first place." Magnum has a verbal tic during the series and he fiercely corrects everyone when they call him a private eye, or detective, as he goes only by "investigator" (the I in P.I, after all). He's using the wrong word here. (00:22:35)
