Magnum, P.I. (1980)

Tom Selleck plays a former Navy SEAL turned private investigator who lives in the guesthouse of a Hawaiian estate, with free use of a Ferrari 308 GTS and a caretaker, John Hillerman's Higgins, who disapproves of all of it. It is a detective show on paper, but the Oahu scenery, T.C.'s charter helicopter and Magnum's wry narration make it play as adventure. Eight seasons means some thin cases and filler. Start with "Did You See the Sunrise?", the two-part season 3 opener from 1982, in which the officer who held Magnum and T.C. in a Vietnamese prison camp comes hunting them. Its ending is the darkest turn the series ever takes.