M*A*S*H (TV Series) Kim (1973) User Reviews

The Boy I Never Had.

[ExplorerDS6789 · 8/10 · 19 September 2014]

It's another long, hard slog in the O.R. for the surgeons of the 4077th. On this day in particular, included among the casualties was a little boy no older than 5. His name was Kim. Right away, everybody wonders what should be done about the little tyke. Henry decides it would be proper to send him to Sister Theresa's orphanage, and Hawkeye and Trapper call him a villain. All may not be lost, however, as Trapper gets an idea on how to help Kim, in probably the best way possible: he'll adopt him. It could be because he has a 5-year-old at home himself, or because he really didn't want him to be stuck in an orphanage. Whatever the case, Trapper promptly writes a letter to Louise, stating his proposition. In the meantime, the officers and enlisted men get real chummy with the little lad. Hawkeye takes him along on a date, Trapper teaches him magic tricks, Hot Lips reads him The Three Bears in Korean (or as best she can anyway), which disrupts her "discussion" time with Frank, making him pout; Klinger plays baseball with him and Radar shares his bunk with him...but not so much his teddy bear, and Henry keeps up a ruse about Kim having a fever to keep him at the 4077th.

It looks as though Trapper will be a father again, as Father Mulcahy personally delivers a letter from Louise, supporting her husband 100%. Trapper John was ecstatic, and to celebrate the occasion, Hawkeye takes out some old cigars. However, there was a problem. Where was the boy? Frank and Hot Lips took him on a picnic, but as they were having "dessert", the boy wandered off. As Hawkeye and Trapper came looking for him, the gang spies the boy in the middle of the minefield! Trapper tries to dart in after him and quickly finds himself stuck. Radar calls for a chopper rescue, but in the meantime, Henry finds a map to the minefield and tries to direct Trapper through it. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a World War II surplus map that is useless except for anyone trying to get to Berlin. Thankfully, O'Brien arrives in his chopper and rescues Trapper and Kim. No sooner do they touch the ground does Sister Theresa show up with Kim's mother! They take the boy away without even so much as a "thank you." "Thank you for taking such good care of my boy." "Oh, don't mention it. It was our pleasure." Some people. Well, Trapper had to bid adieu to the little lad, but at least he knew he had his "surrogate" son, Radar, to fall back on.

This was a good episode and a nice character builder for Trapper. He got so few of them because for whatever reason the show's producers decided to give all of Trapper John's credentials to Hawkeye (chief surgeon and top chest cutter), and they treated Wayne Rogers very poorly. But when they gave him a chance to take center stage, he did very well. He and McLean were hilarious. My favorite part of Kim is the chopper rescue. I love those choppers used on the show and the way the whole thing was filmed was incredible. So if you like Trapper, you like stories about little kids and chopper rescues, then Kim is definitely for you.

Guest starring Edgar Miller as Kim

[safenoe · 8/10 · 12 March 2024]

Edgar Miller guest stars as Kim, a Korean child who becames a favorite of the 4077th, and I wonder whatever happened to Edgar. In fact, there's an Edgar Miller who's a photographer, and someone asked him on his social media page if he was the same Edgar Miller in M*A*S*H, but not to me. Jeff Maxwell, who continues his famous role as Igor in this episode, Kim, has since 2018 been the co-host of the M*A*S*H Matters podcast, and I'd love for him to get Edgar Miller on the podcast. Kellye Nakahara, who also appears in this episode, was a guest on the podcast, along with many other stars. Anyway, a worthy episode.

It's Tear Jerking

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 25 February 2015]

This is just sappy enough to pull at the heartstrings and the little guy is cute. It makes the point as to what sorts of casualties there are in war. We can't imagine in a country as poor as this one (at least the portrayal in the show) that an orphanage would do more than meet the physical needs of child. Then along comes Trapper. He is a much more interesting character sometimes than his counterpart in crime. It shows us the hoops that need to be jumped through as well as the pitfalls of an emotional attachment. Once again, it is this unit's seeming job to try to cure the ills of a world gone crazy. Just a little too soft and sort of ordinary.

The one where everyone wants to help a Korean boy

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 17 April 2023]

This is a well meaning episode that I'd like to rate higher. But certain inconsistencies prevent me from giving it a perfect score. First, I find it patently ridiculous they still have Klinger walking around wearing a dress, after the recent episode where a psychiatric evaluation was done on him, and he objected to being labeled a transvestite and homosexual after deciding he didn't want a section 8 that way.

So what makes him think that by continuing to wear dresses and high heels this practice will still get him discharged? Especially if his earlier attempts had backfired? Wouldn't he come up with a new tactic? By now, continuing this long-running gag no longer makes sense. Unless of course, Klinger does like dressing like a woman, which would mean he really is a transvestite and the shrink was correct, so he should have already had a discharge on these grounds!

The other thing that I find inconsistent is how they write Trapper. Usually Trapper is a fun loving carefree sort of guy. But in this episode, he is much more serious and concerned about the welfare of a little Korean boy. It is like he has suddenly developed a conscience, something other characters like Frank and Margaret still don't exhibit.

When Trapper and Hawkeye treat the five year old Korean boy, Trapper talks about having a five year old daughter back home. In fact, he's said to have two daughters, though the age of his other child is not given. In 1979, when Pernell Roberts started playing the role in the present-day medical drama Trapper John M. D. the character had two children, and one was a son named J. T. (played by Timothy Busfield in the later seasons).

So does this mean Trapper went on to have three children, if his son J. T. was born after the war? Or does it mean that there was a retcon in the second series, where Trapper having two daughters was changed to his having a girl and a boy? I guess I cannot blame that on the writers of M*A*S*H who are not exactly responsible for alterations that may have been made later in Trapper's backstory on Trapper John M. D.

Oh another nitpick...the medics always complain about the food. But there's a scene in the mess hall where we see the food clearly placed on their trays...and this 'slop' looks pretty darn good, like it probably came from the cafeteria frequented by the actors on the 20th Century Fox lot.

Back to the story, and what I do like about this episode. I think it's great that we have a guest character everyone in the camp adores. It's fun to see the grown-ups bond as they become 'parents' to young Kim. One delightful bit shows the boy sleeping with Radar, clutching Radar's teddy bear.

Of course, we know Kim (Edgar Miller) won't become a regular character, since the show's producers don't seem to want to have a regular Asian character or even a recurring one on this program (houseboy Ho-Jon disappeared after a single season).

Kim won't really be adopted by Trapper, who would like to raise him as a son. In a way this type of story would have worked better if there had been a final goodbye episode for Trapper...where he met a kid like Kim, they bonded, he adopted the boy and took him home to the U. S. with him, to add to his American family.

Since this is not Trapper's final episode and it would cramp Trapper's style as a footloose and fancy free pal of Hawkeye's to have him adopt a boy at this point in the show's run, the kid has to turn out to not be an orphan like everyone thought. Ultimately the boy is reunited with his Korean family and we can move on to the next episode with no carryover from this story.

Nice Story for MASH Fans

[tonyhammer · 6/10 · 6 June 2023]

The main story itself is not bad. A little boy gets injured, the doctors fix him up, and the MASH regulars take turns spending time with him. Who wouldn't enjoy such a storyline? I especially liked the scenes where the boy genuinely seemed to be laughing.

One thing that bugged me more than usual is when Henry Blake goofed up reading the map. Not believable, as a viewer. An educated military man should've been able to easily identify what the map was, and what it was not. Quite bizarre. This kind of scene truly puzzles me, for as wonderful as much of the writing is, they still decided to include something like this. Plus, it's not even remotely funny, in my eyes.

The parting shot of Trapper standing and watching the truck driving away was a bit sappy, almost maudlin.

Trapper is his own person???

[netflixnkill · 16 August 2023]

Ok mind you I just started this series so my perspective is a bit new and not sat in nostalgia or the intended time period. I do enjoy watching though or else I wouldn't of made it to season 2, but there are some elements that rub me the wrong way and sorry if they seep through in my review.

Personally I like the few in between episodes where Trapper has his own mind and isn't playing second fiddle to the most childish man on the base whose moral code varies from person to person. Trapper seems better than that yet he is always following behind in Hawkeye's antics. Though their banter is usually funny, this was a nice break.

Here Trapper becomes fond of a little Korean boy who is brought in as his patient for minor injuries. When he finds out his parents are most likely dead Trapper wants to adopt the boy so he writes his wife a letter about it. Well maybe he is all childish like his bff if he thinks sending a random third child with his wife is a good idea when she probably already has her hands full with no father around to help, or it's possible she likes being a single parent. Either way it's intended as a nice gesture while he's away kissing other girls.

Also, them chewing Henry out for putting the kid in an orphanage like what else is he to do?! These are supposed to be fully grown men, DOCTORS, yet Hawkeye and Trapper have no sense of reality sometimes. I get needing someone to blame but the person who gives you the most slack all the time, really? Don't they take enough out on Frank? The writers try to make Frank a jerk here and there to justify how they treat him but it just makes them look like d*cks, especially Hawkeye.

All in all it was an ok episode with some heartfelt moments. The scenes of all the characters spending time with the kid were cute, well not the one where he was about to blow up.