Tracking down the bad guys was all about dumb luck. They just happened to find someone who put a tracker on the ambulance they were looking for. Another person had access to a spy satellite to locate the boat. And then Magnum's buddy had a helicopter he was able to use to both locate the truck and save Magnum's life. Actually I can't think of anything that Magnum did himself in the entire pilot, other than wrecking two cars. Higgins found the identities of the killers, the food truck guy figured out the coordinates of the boat, and the cop connected the dead friend to the naval captain.

If the whole series is just Magnum showing up and having things done for him then it's gonna be kind of hard for me to care about him as a main character.