‘MacGyver’ Premiere: What Works, What Needs Work
Even in its heyday, MacGyver was an anomaly. Amid all the bullets and machismo of the ’80s, the show was a celebration of ingenuity and solving problems without (as much) violence. Today, it fits in with the likes of Scorpion as a light action comedy to counter the seriousness of all the dramas and police procedurals. It’s anchored by the charm of the bromance between star Lucas Till (X-Men: First Class) and George Eads (CSI) and here’s the best and worst of the series premiere.
What Works
Obviously, we’re all here to see MacGyver “MacGyver” something (look it up — it’s in the Oxford Dictionary). And the inventiveness of the stunts hold up. From the soot + fingerprint = cloned fingerprint (totally believable) to the plaster dust fooling a full-hand scanner (a little less so) to failed landing gear forcing a plane to turn around (more believable than Angus hanging out on the landing gear like it was a breezy day at the beach) to the impromptu smoke distraction (every kid in America is now googling “muriatic acid” to get out of that math test on Monday) and the parachute (completely unbelievable, but superfun), it’s old school and modern at the same time. Bonus points for Riley’s taking a hammer to a hard drive — an excellent Gordian knot solution, but three months is a long time for nobody at DXS to have thought of the same thing.
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The chemistry between Angus and Jack Dalton (George Eads) is spot-on. Not too fatherly, not too crass, and just annoying enough to be hilarious, the dynamic is Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, and it works. The interaction between the rest of the team — boss Thornton (Sandrine Holt), analyst Riley (Tristin Mays), and roomie Bozer (Justin Hires) — still feels unfinished. Probably because you can only fit so much into 42 minutes of TV. Once Riley’s probationary status and Bozer’s cluelessness about MacGyver’s work get cleared up, it will probably feel like a well-oiled machine.
Nikki (Tracy Spiridakos) will make an excellent foil for MacGyver as the season progresses. The hairpin lock-pick at the end of the episode suggests she may be just as inventive as Angus — a Moriarty to his Sherlock. The 30,000-year-old virus is also a fun target for the shadowy organization behind Nikki to pursue. Finally, it’s nice to see an action hero not have to shoot anyone. Guns are so ubiquitous on TV, you expect detectives to open cans of soup with them. Not that MacGyver has explicitly said he doesn’t use guns, but even if he rarely shoots one, it’s a breath of fresh air.
What Needs Work
Lately, it feels like television has more secret organizations fighting terror than normal organizations fighting terror — and there are a bunch of those. MacGyver adds one more: DXS — the organization that Mac and Co. work for — is so powerful it “can move Christmas” (as Riley says). Yawn. Still, we suppose it’s no more or less believable than the FBI’s trusting a tattooed amnesiac with a gun or a fixer solving problems for the president and then sleeping with him — but let’s hope MacGyver doesn’t bother adding even more layers of silliness to this already overused setup.
Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘MacGyver’
Meanwhile, computer graphics have made some pretty amazing things possible on ordinary TV, but they’re also subject to some pretty egregious misuse. The exploding motorboats were over the top (what, were the boats made of TNT?), and the exploding truck was even more ridiculous than when George Lucas redid the Death Star explosion. You half-expected Darth Vader to go whizzing past MacGyver after that one.
Line of the Night
“Thirty seconds on the clock: DIY or die.” Right there at the fine line between enjoyable and ridiculous, you’ll find MacGyver parachuting off the back of an exploding truck with a prehistoric virus, exactly where he should be.
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MacGyver airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
