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Television

Television

All About television

5350 members
Posted byMagessin/television-Sep 24, 2016 at 10:33 AM

Someone ask me my thoughts on the New MacGyver

So that way I'll feel compelled to answer since I'm not going to rewrite that post.

Comments11
  • kslangleyOct 01, 2016 at 8:05 PM

    Okay, I have seen the second episode and I was not even as interested as I was with the first one. This "nuMac" is a little too young and a little too cocky for me. And it seems as if little more than "lip service" is paid to Mac's main talent of "making something out of nothing" to get himself and other innocents out of trouble.

    • MagessOct 01, 2016 at 8:07 PM

      Yeah, I watched the second ep, too. And it just seems like it could be any other spy show. It could be Covert Affairs. It's all international espionage and terrorism.

      Wasn't the original more... mundane than that?

      • kslangleyOct 01, 2016 at 8:15 PM

        Well, they did espionage and all that as well. And had vehicle chases and explosions and fisticuffs.

        And it sounds odd to say that any form of an "action show" possessed . . . charm . . . but that is the word that comes to mind and a quality I feel is missing from this new version. I think I have to credit Richard Dean Anderson for that, as he carried the original in a way that nuMac is not expected to.

        And I know that, each week we waited to see what clever and unexpected tricks Mac would pull out of his bag--what little they do of that in the new show gets glossed over fairly quickly.

        But I agree that they are trying to give MacGyver the same kind of zippy, slick make-over that they gave to Hawaii Five-O (never cared for the original and am bored by the reboot). And MacGyver didn't need a make-over.

      • highlander_iiOct 02, 2016 at 5:33 PM

        I actually was commenting else-net that the most recent nu!MacGyver episode could have been H50. It started with a 'cargument' and everything - Jack driving wrecklessly and Mac complaining about it. It was classic Steve & Danno. The characters are nearly indistinguishable from the H50 cast. =(

  • QuantumButterflySep 24, 2016 at 10:44 AM

    Chin in hands

    Please tell! As a fan of the original, I'm unsure about watching this.

    • MagessSep 24, 2016 at 11:05 AM

      All right.

      Here's the thing.

      You cannot remake a cultural icon. Right? You can't. Because when they made the original they weren't making a cultural icon. They were just making a thing no one had ever seen before and magic happened. Being a thing "no one had ever seen before" was part of the recipe. Therefore, you cannot remake an icon by definition, imo.

      So... I watched the pilots for both shows last night, and I feel they are qualitatively different in the types of problems that Mac solves.

      But more... Mac was a lot more folksy than I remember from my childhood. He has a kind of drawl to his speech, he talks about palaminos and dresses like Johnny Appleseed.

      NewMac's opening scene is literally out of a Bond film. Fancy car. Tux. Expensive Bad Guy Party where all the fabulously unlawful spend their time. And he's there to do very Bond or Leverage-type things. He's gonna steal a weapon from an arms dealer.

      Mac's situation? He's got to save people from an underground lab that's leaking acid.

      NewMac's problems and solutions are like, hey I don't have enough fingerprints for this handscanner and how will I get away from this explosion quickly enough?

      Mac's problems were how to stop a leaking acid tank with what he had on hand (apparently a satchel full of chocolate) and how to lift a girder (by expanding a fire hose underneath it).

      One of the major differences, I think, is focus. People liked MacGyver because he was presented with ridiculous problems and formulated even more ridiculous solutions, which probably would actually work. But the point of the show wasn't the stunning plots or the character development. The reason it became an icon was because of the Rube Goldbergs.

      NewMac is, weirdly, more concerned with plot and character. Not that the plot was great, it was pretty standard action TV. It could have been a Hawaii Five-O ep. Or that the characters were compelling. But the show spent more time on those things than it spent on Zany Situation and Impossible Solution!

      So it's not really doing the thing that everyone loved the original for.

      Moreover, NewMac just isn't as endearing as Mac. He's all military SuperSpy! Straight up, he was trained to defuse bombs by the military. And he looks ready to sneer at all the mundanes who don't understand what he's truly capable of. Plebs. Whereas Mac looks like a farmer someone dragged in from somewhere and while no one thinks he's up to the task, he doesn't particularly begrudge them their opinion and seems overall just generally more humble. Confident, but in a way that isn't flashy. NewMac wants you to know he's clever. And he doesn't come across as a scientist who just thinks science is awesome.

      Aside from "I fixed it with a paperclip," I'm not really sure why you'd try to saddle this new show with a legacy it can never live up to, ensuring you let everyone down in the process.

      The pilot, at least, was a dozen shows you've already seen but they did it better. A little Leverage. A little White Collar. A little H5-O.

      It might last a season, but I can't see it going beyond that.

      As someone who liked the original, I think you should watch the pilot of the new one and see if I'm off in my thinking here.

      • QuantumButterflySep 24, 2016 at 11:11 AM

        Sounds terrible. But I have OnDemand and nothing else to do today, so Ill watch and report back later.

      • QuantumButterflySep 24, 2016 at 1:14 PM

        I almost noped out 5 minutes in. But I stuck it out in the hopes that I could find something to refute your points.

        Nope, that's not Macgyver. That's using a name that triggers nostalgia to try to get an audience for something kinda similar. Just can't see this guy dealing with army ants (not my fave episode, but most memorable).

      • kslangleySep 24, 2016 at 2:37 PM

        Here are my random thoughts, in no particular order.

        I loved the original, and I am delighted that modern technology has provided me with the opportunity to pull out the DVDs at any time for a binge.

        I was rather leery when I heard about the reboot, because . . . why? It seemed a given to me that in trying to "update it for the modern sensibility" they would lose what made the original special.

        And for me, what made the original special was only partly the "Rube Goldbergs," as you call them. I also loved the character and the actor who played the character.

        I was a little annoyed by what I kept reading in the press about how they felt that Mac was a loner and he needed people to interact with in the new one. Mac interacted with people in each and every episode of the original!

        I agree with you that the new version is too slick and NewMac is not as endearing. The young actor playing the role is appealing (if . . . well, young).

        Also, I am really cheesed that one of the revisions they have made to canon is to lumber Mac with a gun-totin' back-up man who will kill people with guns in a way that the original Mac never would have.

        All that said--I will watch the next episode or so . . . just to see how it develops.

        ksl

      • MagessSep 24, 2016 at 6:25 PM

        I think I'll also watch the next few to see how it goes, even if just to fill my schedule.

      • highlander_iiSep 27, 2016 at 2:28 PM

        Also, I am really cheesed that one of the revisions they have made to canon is to lumber Mac with a gun-totin' back-up man who will kill people with guns in a way that the original Mac never would have.

        THIS! So much this! This is one of the things that really bothers me about the reboot.

        That and the removal of Mac's humility. The man was never a braggart and the nu!Mac is very smarmy. It bothers me.

Television

Television

All About television

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