Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
It seems like this week is going to go down in history as the one with the most reboots. While Lethal Weapon was okay, I recently caught wind of a second reboot on CBS based off of MacGyver. I’ve only casually watched parts of the original series that was spearheaded by the great Richard Dean Anderson, who I knew better from Stargate SG-1. Therefore, this review will be focused around how it stacks up as a piece of entertainment, rather than through the lens of nostalgia.
In short, it fails on every level.
The Characters Are Cardboard Cutouts.
It’s a rare feat to not make people care about anyone in the cast.
Lucas Till stars as Angus MacGyver, a secret agent that works for the Department of External Services. If I am being honest, he is utterly forgettable in the role partly because of the writing, but also because we never got a sense of his range. He’s just there to do science-y things, hit people, and get to the next place to set up another sequence.
That’s fine in certain circumstances, but not in this case.
George Eads does a better job as Jack Dalton, who serves as the sidekick and heavy muscle for the team. His portrayal of the character is just okay, but again, that’s not good enough. These characters need to be charmers from frame one to win the audience over, and we are not getting that.
The rest of the cast doesn’t do much better. Tristin Mays and Justin Hires are just there as your typical hacker and roommate who doesn’t know what’s going on, respectively. Tracy Spiridakos pops up as the girlfriend, but I didn’t feel anything in her relationship with the title character. Lastly, Sandrine Holt delivers your usual, robotic director who is all business and never does anything likable.
It’s a bore.
The Plot Is Utterly Forgettable.
Discount Cast Of Strike Back.
The ideal scenario in an action-adventure show is to have interesting characters and intriguing storylines, but it is more forgivable if the characters take up the focus. After all, they can carry the show if the individual stories are not all that great. Unfortunately, this show has neither of those things going for it.
The story is just your usual snorefest that anyone who has ever seen old spy films would be able to see coming. They have to stop a guy from releasing a biological weapon. Oh, and the girlfriend is a traitor. Let’s just throw that in there in the opening ten minutes, even though we won’t feel anything about it.
Ugh.
Why MacGyver Doesn’t Work Now.
He should be dead here, but he’s not because plot.
The unfortunate thing about this reboot is not just that it is unoriginal and poorly executed, but it is completely out of step with the state of espionage and black ops stories in this day and age. Like it or not, we live in a world that has seen gritty stories like 24, Homeland, Strike Back, The Bourne Trilogy. In addition, we’ve also seen Daniel Craig completely change the game as James Bond. I can understand the need for something that is just a light-hearted action show, but an update to MacGyver should at least have one foot grounded in reality.
I’ll just start with one simple, but important issue. Why does MacGyver have an aversion to guns? I can understand it back in the 1980s because they might have wanted to keep it nice and clean for the kids. However, this new reboot is trying to establish itself as something a bit more serious than that. In the pilot, MacGyver shows that he is adept at beating people up and using the environment as a weapon, so why not have him use firearms as a last resort? It would make a bit more sense, but would also allow for the cool stunts and daring escapes that go with the spirit of the series.
Conclusion.
Make Television Great Again.
MacGyver is a disappointing ending to this week’s premieres. Everything that it tried to do did not work, yet it also failed to update itself for a 21st Century audience. If you actually want a spy series that is fun to watch, I would suggest looking elsewhere. Otherwise, you might get the impression that Hollywood is running out of ideas.
And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
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