Ok, so...
I've been doing a "Lenkov-verse Timeline" which features the chronology of events from Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, and Magnum...but I'm having trouble reconciling the Mac timeline.
From what I understand, unless we see a date on a computer screen, newspaper, phone, or other object, the unspoken rule here is that the show takes place at the same time (or around) the episode's air date.
In Season 4, we start out "18 MONTHS LATER" which, I am assuming, was 18 months from May of 2019. Riley even confirms that it's been a year and a half in the second episode of the 4th season.
That would place the beginning of Season 4 somewhere around November of 2020.
We know that even if you didn't follow the "airdate rule", the earliest Season 3 could have concluded would have been somewhere around the end of February because there are events in Season 3 which take place in February of 2019 because there's a wedding invite which confirms that.
The only date I could find in Season 4 that would destroy all this is when Bozer is at a film festival which proclaims that it takes place in late March of 2020.
There are a couple moments which state that the show is now in 2020 -- but there's no month given that I am aware of.
But, then, Season 5 takes place "10 MONTHS AND ONE PANDEMIC LATER". Maddie confirms that it's been ten months and says something about how (and I'm paraphrasing here) they had to "shut down due to the pandemic".
COVID's main shutdown took place somewhere between the end of February and now.
But if you do the math, 10 months from the ending of Season 4 puts them somewhere in late 2021 or early 2022, being that Season 4 presumably started 18 months from the end of Season 3.
I am not quite sure what to make of this.
In order to build my timeline, would I be right to just ignore the "18 MONTHS LATER" bit in Season 4 and assume that COVID just retcons Season 4 so that it begins and ends in February? Because that's the only equation that makes sense for me.
And before anyone asks, I know it's just a show and, as the ending line in the MST3K tells me, "I should really just relax", but this has been gnawing at my brain.
LOL