CBS’ MacGyver: Is the New Mac Loaded With Enough Cool Features?
MacGyver is back, still packing his trusty Swiss Army knife and so many paper clips. Will the CBS reboot be able to hack it in 2016?
The freshman drama makes clear quite early on that Lucas Till’s Angus “Mac” MacGyver, as an operative for the Division of External Services, is a bit more physical than Richard Dean Anderson’s original mulleted problem-solver, able to handle himself decently in close0quarters combat, nor thinking twice before holding into an airborne jet’s landing gear for dear life. At the close of the first op we see, Mac “loses” his field analyst girlfriend Nikki (Revolution‘s Tracy Spiridakos) to a negotiation-gone-bad, though the eventual twist is one we’ve seen often before. (Heck, even her first words to Mac, while “held” at gunpoint, were, “I’m sorry.”)
Three months later, Mac (who lives with his oblivious best bud Bozer, played by Rush Hour‘s Justin Hires) is called back into action, with former CIA agent Jack Dalton (CSI‘s Goerge Eads), DXS Director Patricia Thornton (House of Cards‘ Sandrine Holt) and convicted hacker-turned-field analyst Riley Davis (Vampire Diaries‘ Tristin Mays), to intercept the bioweapon they lost custody of in the opening op. Soon enough, Mac lays eyes on a very alive Nikki, and ultimately corners her inside the aforementioned jet. That leads into the final action sequence, where Mac drops from a helicopter into the baddie’s transport truck, to fend off one goon and then extract the bioweapon from the bomb it is attached to — before “paragliding” up and away to safety, the deadly virus intact.
In the coda, Thornton reveals that DXS is being disbanded and reconstituted under a different name — and Mac chooses “Phoenix,” after the mythological bird featured on a pendant he has from an apparently very interesting Cairo op. Nikki, meanwhile, escapes her prison transport, using the bobby pin trick her beau once taught her. Oops.
Of course, many a MacGyver episode is judged by its clever “hacks.” Such as:
√ Fingerprint cloning (what is this, Charlie’s Angels circa 1976?)
√√√ Jamming comms with a handmade electromagnet
√ Fooling a biometric scanner using plaster dust (huh?)
√√ Deflecting bullets with 12-gauge steel cocktail tray
√ Frisbee-ing said cocktail tray to KO a goon across the room
√√√ Rigging unmanned boat to crash into baddies
√ Freeing Riley from her prison cuffs
√√√ Setting off fire alarm with tin foil
√ Conspicuously dropping a fire escape on Vinnie Jones
√ Causing landing gear malfunction
√√√ Turning truck’s canvas top into parachute (but in 30 seconds??)
What did you think of CBS’ Mac reboot?
This show was godawful. Over and out by Dec!
We can’t go back to the 1980’s…but if you choose too… check oit Netflix or buy the DVDs… This is a 21st century MacGyver ;)
^Yes, this^
Otherwise, for realism, Mac needs to be shown cashing his Social Security check. Now that will rivet the desired demo. Lol
Exactly! LOL
YOUR wrong it’s more like a CSI show.
You’re wrong.. But let’s not get into a spelling war…. LOL
it had already had good remake named “Burn Notice”
You are so right! Right down to Michael narrating how his devices work!
Which was stolen from the ORIGINAL MacGyver.. who narrated his own MacGyverisms in each episode…
Agreed.
Agreed! I would not even air the rest of this mess
Awful. Absolutely horrible. Even the theme, in which they included about 4 seconds of the original series’ theme before switching to a totally different, horrible theme song, seemed like it was a giant “screw you” to fans of the original.
Never expected a total remake of the original. Nice to see a show where someone works with their hands instead for their mouth or cell phone. It was fine. Give it a chance. They had to reintroduce the whole concept.
pale comparison to the original
Grade C. I have fond memories of the original and wanted to like this one too, but it was just TOO MUCH! They managed to rip off Arrow, The Blacklist, and Sherlock in the first 12 minutes, then they managed to squeeze 2 hours of action into 1. Plus, the dead girlfriend who turned out not to have been dead storyline was tired. Maybe a visit from the original Mac could help..
He doesn’t want to touch the reboot with a ten foot pole, from what I’ve read
When I heard that Tracy Spiridakos’ charachter’s name was Nikki Carpenter, it was obvious that she would turn out to be a foe, or at least a very ambivalent character, much like the character played by Elyssa Davalos was in the original series. Too bad, I would have liked Tracy much more in the regular role as the analyst of the team.
The roles of a “team” and an “analyst” should never be in a show called MacGyver.
Agreed. The concept of a team behind MacGyver is completely different from the original show, and it doesn’t really fit the general idea of the character. But if there shall be an analyst, I would have much preferred Tracy.
I thought it was pretty good. The original was my favorite show as a child so it had a lot to live up to. It wasn’t great. But it was good. If it was just a brand new show/concept I think people wouldn’t be so hard on it.
Even not comparing it to the orginal, it was awful. Didn’t make it to the first break (<10 minutes). It was just stupid, the voiceover, the text on the screen, the lame jokes. Ugh!
Don’t worry, you could have guessed everything that happened after that. We did.
AWFUL show. The original was intelligent, this was an insult to intelligence.
I loved the original series and was a little iffy about watching this ‘remake’ and I was right, it was terrible, the only decent acting performance was by George Eads. Lucas Till is far too young to play Macgyver, he lacked maturity and experience. The voiceover and text were extremely annoying, I know that they want to bring in and appeal to a new generation but they should have been able to do that without making it look like an instructional video.
Also in this day and age it’s just not ‘believable’ to use all the tricks and hacks that Macgyver used in the original.
Who’s Nikki?where do I know her from? Good first episode. We’ll see how they go
Revolution‘s Tracy Spiridakos (as denoted in the text above)
Another failed series for this lady though, just from this one episode, if this lasts half a season it’ll be doing well. She’s going to get a complex.
Nikki Carpenter was in the original series.. Former foil and love interest of Mac’s.. . wound up working for the Phoenix Foundaion later on
Thought the voiceover was overdone. And George Eads really seems to be playing Nick from CSI. But I’ll give it another week or so. Pilots are often weird.
The original series was heavily narrated too
It was better than I thought.
I give the new MacGyver a C. Grew up watching the original starring Richard Dean Anderson but the reboot is a completely failure. Planning to tune in for next week’s episode that features Amy Acker in a guest starring role and after that I’m giving up for good. No complaining
Totally agree on watching next week only to see my girl “Root”. Then, I’m out
lucas till is way too young for the role. i think george eads should be the lead. he was great
McGyver in nappies no way….. If they had reversed the roles Dalton was McGyver and Mac was Dalton would have been sooooo much better. This show had so much potential but has been totally ruined. Prediction; show will be lucky to finish the first season….
That’s my complaint. Actor is too young!!! Wanted to like the show but was distracted by the poor casting.
They cancelled Limitless for this crap. Fail.
This
I have no idea why people don’t understand that they cancel shows because they don’t make MONEY. They replace them with shows that often aren’t even greenlit until well after the slot was freed up. So no, this bad show had nothing to do with the previous bad show.
In this case you are wrong. Limitless was cancelled very late, and had decent ratings–certainly good enough to warrant renewal. People were shocked that it was cancelled. And it was cancelled in favor of a Macgyver pilot that was so bad they replaced virtually everyone except the two leads. Cast, writers, everyone. They went back to the drawing board with nothing but a name people would recognize, and cancelled a fun, different show with an established audience in order to do so.
Not totally true. Some of the decision is based on how strong the new pilots they believe they have versus what is currently on the schedule.
A bit too glitzy. The action adventure and violence need to be toned down a bit. I liked but didn’t love the series premier. To keep me they need to tell more stories and not rely on kabooms & gun fights and stunts. Liked George Eads as Jack Dalton; different from the original but he’s got potential. The bad arse techie woman is too “done”. Seems each procedural of this type has a “wash, rinse, repeat” woman. Mac himself needs to be a little more humble, down to earth. Cocky, knows he’s charming, doesn’t endure me to him.
The bomb in the truck looked exactly like one from the original series.
Mac is now a teen twink? Oookkkkay.
Too cute by half
The new macgyver is not mature enough, he doesn’t have enough to gravitas for the role.
End of story!!!!!!!
Richard Dean Anderson with the long hair wasn’t exactly Nixon either. Lol
LOL… good point!
But he was humble and self-deprecating. A real down-home, down-to-earth type. This kid was a cocky douche.
The original Mac was actually quite cocky in the first episode. I suggest you revisit that episode to prove my point. Character development occurs over time.. give him a chance.
True, but Richard Dean Anderson was around 35 when he was doing MacGyver. I haven’t seen the anything but clips for the new series, but Lucas till’s Mac is very young. Original Mac’s grivitas also came from the fact that he was a humble guy who didn’t call attention to himself. NuMac seems like he knows he’s “too cool for school.” Plus, I echo the fact that Old Mac never had a team. Sometimes Penny or Jack would show up to help, but that was it. Nothing that I’m reading makes me want to view the episode on my DVR because it’s not McGyver. It’s a new action show that borrowed an iconic name but forgot the premise of the original. If anything, it sounds like a Scorpion spin-off.
So the current casting should should have been for someone in their late sixties given the the thirty years passing since the show was canceled. Bold choice.
I’m willing to give this variation a chance.
I went i with very low expectations and hopeing for a suprise. It was even worse than the liw expectations. I know however pilots can be over produced and poorly directed. Second and third episodes can be far better. So 1,2,3 stikes your out, lets hope it improves.
Sounds like you engaged in a self-fulfilling prophecy… Not surprised you didn’t like it.
Absolutely awful?, take it off the air really soon!
Not bad, but not strong either. Rather predictable. I’ll give it a shot and hope it improves quickly. Just hope they dispense with Nikki becoming some recurring nemesis as implied by the ending.
Aggressively mediocre. The acting wasn’t bad, but the script and effects were ludicrous, even for a show of this type. C-.
Over its seven-year run, Richard Dean Anderson played MacGyver from the age of 35-42, and it really showed. Experience was important in order for that character to be believable to the audience. At a young looking 26, Till doesn’t look the part, and he’s not going to get seven years to grow into the role. You can’t miscast the lead and survive.
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George Eads as Dalton, while very different from the excellent Bruce McGill, is good. I usually like Sandrine Holt as well. Their tech support is also good. The oblivious roommate is a hackneyed trope.
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Structurally, I’m not a fan of turning a show depicting a lone wolf operative (whose only tie to the rest of the world was an avuncular mentor in Thornton) into another CBS team-based procedural. Unless the show looks a good bit different from its pilot, I’m not sanguine about its chances, even with the low ratings bar that is Friday night.
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How did they manage to screw up the theme song so badly? You had one job to do, and that was just to remaster the original a bit.
Seriously, are they going to flash “paperclip” on screen every damn time? What is this, Sesame Street?
+1. From the my brief viewing time, it did feel like an instructional film for kids.
Peee-ew! This stinks!
Kill it, kill it now…. It’s a piece of crap.