The New "MacGyver" is Really, Really Bad
Not since the September 2016 premiere of CBS's "MacGyver" reboot have I spoken about the show on this site. I was lukewarm on the pilot episode but saw some limited potential for a modestly rewarding series that might find its footing if given a full season. Subsequent outings in the weeks following the premiere were hit or miss, but mostly misses. The vibe of the original was nowhere to be found and the additional characters were crowding out the core of the franchise, which is of course MacGyver himself. Lucas Till was respectable as a young MacGyver and seemed as though he could do a decent job with the character if he was given better material and any opportunity at all to break away from the knuckleheaded supporting players constantly surrounding him. So even when it started to become clear by about halfway through the season that the show was a lost cause, I kept watching...just in case.
Unfortunately, things got worse rather than better in the second half of season 1. The stories got more generic. The MacGyverisms became more duplicative and uninspired. And the secondary characters took on an even larger distractionary presence. Worse yet, the cardboard cutout of a boss character played by Sandrine Holt was sloppily written out and replaced by an even more execrable Meredith Eaton, who has been in numerous shows and plays the same unappealing character in every one of them. If I watched the show without context and with the mute button on (not the worst idea!), I'd presume that it was the latest entry in the "NCIS" franchise as it has the same generic look, vibe, and character interactions that has defined that series and its spinoffs for more than 15 years. I was willing to give this series a full season to find its sea legs but if it hadn't found them by the spring of 2017, I had hoped it would be put to sleep.
Unfortunately, while the show got worse, the ratings did not substantially decline....so it got renewed. I had no expectation it would improve in its second season, and it's a good thing my expectations were low because the reboot has lived down to them completely in season 2. The last thing this overpopulated series needed was another new character who would take away even more screen time from Lucas Till, but they got one anyway with actress Isabel Lucas playing another thinly drawn secret agent joining "the team". The character has been a wildly unpopular addition with, er, "fans", and seems to be in a state of limbo right now while writers have vastly limited her screen time and seem to be trying to figure a way to write her out. Unfortunately, there are at least four other characters--and pretty much an entire crew of writers and special effects techs--who also need to be relieved of their duties. But they won't be....because the expansive cast eases the timeline for production. So expect to see the actor playing MacGyver to continue to have even less screen time than he does now on the show named for him.
Just off the top of my head, here's what doesn't work on this show....
Jack Dalton--I could see George Eads having some charisma if given decent material, but his "Dalton" character is dumb as a rock and more grating than a block of parmesean cheese. For every one line he's given that's amusing, there are at least 10 that make you want to strangle him. His character also has zero sense of proportion. No more how dire the situation, he's still cracking stupid jokes or dwelling on some trivial side issue that kills any sense of urgency in the primary action plot.
Bozer--Again, actor Justin Hires could probably be compelling with his low-rent Chris Rock shtick in the right context, but the wacky roommate-turned-part-of-the-team angle on this series seems forced, and would even without the context of its deviation with the original series. The writers seem to have already completely run out of things for him to do and have him gobbling up screen time with training exercises and other side projects in season 2. His character has simultaneously become a little more mature AND even more pointless this season.
Matty the Hun--The aforementioned Meredith Eaton is the most horrific character on this show, a "little person" (hoping that's the current PC term that won't offend) who overcompensates by acting tough and bitchy. The role almost seems like a parody of itself, and more one-dimensional than even the flimsiest guest characters that appeared in limited roles on the original, but she remains a constant on this series every week and manages to render every scene she's in unwatchable.
Murdoc--While actor David Dastmalchain is sufficiently creepy as a cartoon villain, he's in way over his head trying to fill the shoes of the psychotic hit man Murdoc played by English-born actor Michael Des Barres on the original. The updated Murdoc makes snarky zingers and is played off as more of a frat boy with a gun than a terrifying international assassin. It doesn't help that the writers don't seem to have any sense of direction with his character and the semirecurring storyline.
The special effects--Ugh! I'm not a fan of the transition to CGI generally but some shows and movies are able to do CGI well enough to make it only moderately unbelievable. Even the earliest blue-screen fakery of 80s TV--or in the case of the original "MacGyver", footage poached from old movies edited in with modern footage--is still more believable than the fourth-rate CGI effects of this reboot. The cheap-looking effects are even more obvious in season 2, which is hard to believe with as low-budget as it looked on season 1.
The pacing--Apparently there's no such thing as a slow moment in modern TV action shows as producers and directors seem to like to paper over bad writing with a dizzyingly fast pace of action. This need for fast talk, fast moves, and fast action kill the element of suspense that the original "MacGyver" perfected, especially in its ticking time bomb scenes. The result is climactic scenes with resolutions that leave you feeling cold....and with a headache to boot!
The MacGyverisms--While the original series occasionally phoned it in with the inventive gimmicks, the new series has been more inconsistent in the quality of the off-the-cuff inventions that define the "MacGyver" franchise. To their credit, they came up with a few clever gimmicks in the early episodes of season 1, but even then the majority of the MacGyverisms were recycled from the original or else some ill-defined and hastily prepared bit of ridiculousness that usually involved Jack's cell phone. But in season 2, those fleeting clever originals have come to a nearly complete end and we're down to throwing a random chain up to an electric pole and knocking the wire down being passed off as a "MacGyverism". And of course the lightning-fast pacing ensures that everything he's doing happens so fast that the viewer can't possibly process it, negating its storytelling effectiveness.
I could go on with lesser annoyances over the music, the character backstory, and the wasted appearances by relatively big-name guest stars, but it would be easier to just say that nearly everything about the reboot sucks. So is there anything redeeming about it.....
Tristan Mays--At first I was entirely nonplussed by the generic "super savvy hacker girl" Riley introduced in the pilot, but her character has developed some personality and the actress playing her, Tristan Mays, is gorgeous and has enough charisma to salvage a few scenes where she's front and center. I wouldn't shed too many tears if her character went away tomorrow and the reboot focused entirely on, you know, MacGyver....but insofar as this trainwreck progresses on its current track, at least there's a hot girl in a leather jacket and tight denim with a bit of personality to offer some visual stimulation and rein in the foolishness.
The callbacks to old characters and episodes--The one recurring theme in the reboot that has kept me from abandoning it completely is that the reboot revives characters and actors from the original as frequently as possible, sometimes in subtle ways that only hard-core fans will pick up on. That's the thin reed with which I still view this show every week as it progresses into the second half of season 2. But after this past week's embarrassing wasted opportunity with guest star Michael Des Barres (who played Murdoc on the original) I'm not sure those callbacks to the superior product of yore is enough to keep me watching.
I predicted at the beginning of season 2 that the reboot's ratings would fall enough this year that it would be put out of its misery by season's end. With ratings holding up through the mid-point of the season, that no longer seems particularly likely. And while part of me just shrugs off this reboot as a poorly executed effort to revive a classic, its prospect for longevity is really starting to piss me off. With the series likely getting renewed for a third season and who knows how much beyond that, the legacy of the original will fade or morph into the cultural legacy of the unworthy reboot. An iconic character and show that may otherwise have transcended generational lines will have limited attraction to younger people who only associate "MacGyver" with the Friday night wallpaper currently on CBS. And that makes this reboot far more dangerous than I anticipated when it was first conceived. Of course then, I figured it would be no worse than a typical CBS procedural like "Scorpion". But it's way worse. And that makes it a scourge on the television landscape. When a reboot of a TV classic is worse than the average hour of television a generation later, then something truly pernicious has happened....and I now wish CBS had passed on the pilot and this hot mess had never gotten out of the starting gate.
Unfortunately, things got worse rather than better in the second half of season 1. The stories got more generic. The MacGyverisms became more duplicative and uninspired. And the secondary characters took on an even larger distractionary presence. Worse yet, the cardboard cutout of a boss character played by Sandrine Holt was sloppily written out and replaced by an even more execrable Meredith Eaton, who has been in numerous shows and plays the same unappealing character in every one of them. If I watched the show without context and with the mute button on (not the worst idea!), I'd presume that it was the latest entry in the "NCIS" franchise as it has the same generic look, vibe, and character interactions that has defined that series and its spinoffs for more than 15 years. I was willing to give this series a full season to find its sea legs but if it hadn't found them by the spring of 2017, I had hoped it would be put to sleep.
Unfortunately, while the show got worse, the ratings did not substantially decline....so it got renewed. I had no expectation it would improve in its second season, and it's a good thing my expectations were low because the reboot has lived down to them completely in season 2. The last thing this overpopulated series needed was another new character who would take away even more screen time from Lucas Till, but they got one anyway with actress Isabel Lucas playing another thinly drawn secret agent joining "the team". The character has been a wildly unpopular addition with, er, "fans", and seems to be in a state of limbo right now while writers have vastly limited her screen time and seem to be trying to figure a way to write her out. Unfortunately, there are at least four other characters--and pretty much an entire crew of writers and special effects techs--who also need to be relieved of their duties. But they won't be....because the expansive cast eases the timeline for production. So expect to see the actor playing MacGyver to continue to have even less screen time than he does now on the show named for him.
Just off the top of my head, here's what doesn't work on this show....
Jack Dalton--I could see George Eads having some charisma if given decent material, but his "Dalton" character is dumb as a rock and more grating than a block of parmesean cheese. For every one line he's given that's amusing, there are at least 10 that make you want to strangle him. His character also has zero sense of proportion. No more how dire the situation, he's still cracking stupid jokes or dwelling on some trivial side issue that kills any sense of urgency in the primary action plot.
Bozer--Again, actor Justin Hires could probably be compelling with his low-rent Chris Rock shtick in the right context, but the wacky roommate-turned-part-of-the-team angle on this series seems forced, and would even without the context of its deviation with the original series. The writers seem to have already completely run out of things for him to do and have him gobbling up screen time with training exercises and other side projects in season 2. His character has simultaneously become a little more mature AND even more pointless this season.
Matty the Hun--The aforementioned Meredith Eaton is the most horrific character on this show, a "little person" (hoping that's the current PC term that won't offend) who overcompensates by acting tough and bitchy. The role almost seems like a parody of itself, and more one-dimensional than even the flimsiest guest characters that appeared in limited roles on the original, but she remains a constant on this series every week and manages to render every scene she's in unwatchable.
Murdoc--While actor David Dastmalchain is sufficiently creepy as a cartoon villain, he's in way over his head trying to fill the shoes of the psychotic hit man Murdoc played by English-born actor Michael Des Barres on the original. The updated Murdoc makes snarky zingers and is played off as more of a frat boy with a gun than a terrifying international assassin. It doesn't help that the writers don't seem to have any sense of direction with his character and the semirecurring storyline.
The special effects--Ugh! I'm not a fan of the transition to CGI generally but some shows and movies are able to do CGI well enough to make it only moderately unbelievable. Even the earliest blue-screen fakery of 80s TV--or in the case of the original "MacGyver", footage poached from old movies edited in with modern footage--is still more believable than the fourth-rate CGI effects of this reboot. The cheap-looking effects are even more obvious in season 2, which is hard to believe with as low-budget as it looked on season 1.
The pacing--Apparently there's no such thing as a slow moment in modern TV action shows as producers and directors seem to like to paper over bad writing with a dizzyingly fast pace of action. This need for fast talk, fast moves, and fast action kill the element of suspense that the original "MacGyver" perfected, especially in its ticking time bomb scenes. The result is climactic scenes with resolutions that leave you feeling cold....and with a headache to boot!
The MacGyverisms--While the original series occasionally phoned it in with the inventive gimmicks, the new series has been more inconsistent in the quality of the off-the-cuff inventions that define the "MacGyver" franchise. To their credit, they came up with a few clever gimmicks in the early episodes of season 1, but even then the majority of the MacGyverisms were recycled from the original or else some ill-defined and hastily prepared bit of ridiculousness that usually involved Jack's cell phone. But in season 2, those fleeting clever originals have come to a nearly complete end and we're down to throwing a random chain up to an electric pole and knocking the wire down being passed off as a "MacGyverism". And of course the lightning-fast pacing ensures that everything he's doing happens so fast that the viewer can't possibly process it, negating its storytelling effectiveness.
I could go on with lesser annoyances over the music, the character backstory, and the wasted appearances by relatively big-name guest stars, but it would be easier to just say that nearly everything about the reboot sucks. So is there anything redeeming about it.....
Tristan Mays--At first I was entirely nonplussed by the generic "super savvy hacker girl" Riley introduced in the pilot, but her character has developed some personality and the actress playing her, Tristan Mays, is gorgeous and has enough charisma to salvage a few scenes where she's front and center. I wouldn't shed too many tears if her character went away tomorrow and the reboot focused entirely on, you know, MacGyver....but insofar as this trainwreck progresses on its current track, at least there's a hot girl in a leather jacket and tight denim with a bit of personality to offer some visual stimulation and rein in the foolishness.
The callbacks to old characters and episodes--The one recurring theme in the reboot that has kept me from abandoning it completely is that the reboot revives characters and actors from the original as frequently as possible, sometimes in subtle ways that only hard-core fans will pick up on. That's the thin reed with which I still view this show every week as it progresses into the second half of season 2. But after this past week's embarrassing wasted opportunity with guest star Michael Des Barres (who played Murdoc on the original) I'm not sure those callbacks to the superior product of yore is enough to keep me watching.
I predicted at the beginning of season 2 that the reboot's ratings would fall enough this year that it would be put out of its misery by season's end. With ratings holding up through the mid-point of the season, that no longer seems particularly likely. And while part of me just shrugs off this reboot as a poorly executed effort to revive a classic, its prospect for longevity is really starting to piss me off. With the series likely getting renewed for a third season and who knows how much beyond that, the legacy of the original will fade or morph into the cultural legacy of the unworthy reboot. An iconic character and show that may otherwise have transcended generational lines will have limited attraction to younger people who only associate "MacGyver" with the Friday night wallpaper currently on CBS. And that makes this reboot far more dangerous than I anticipated when it was first conceived. Of course then, I figured it would be no worse than a typical CBS procedural like "Scorpion". But it's way worse. And that makes it a scourge on the television landscape. When a reboot of a TV classic is worse than the average hour of television a generation later, then something truly pernicious has happened....and I now wish CBS had passed on the pilot and this hot mess had never gotten out of the starting gate.
posted by Mark at 9:14 PM
8 Comments:
Well put. I'm with you in that at first I didn't think there was much downside to a reboot even if it was bad, but that was assuming it didn't last for 7+ years and stain the original brand.
As you know, I haven't been watching since mid-season 1 when I threw in the towel. I was surprised by how little they mentioned MacGyver's distaste for guns (and how everyone else used them). Have they addressed that at all in season 2?
The scary thing is that CBS has the most reliable viewers in television and with the "MacGyver" reboot having settled in with a steady viewership number by the middle of season 2, it's entirely possible it could go on for many years. The ultimate indignity would be if the reboot went on longer than the original.
I believe MacGyver's dislike for guns was brought up once in season 2, but only as a pretext for Jack to shoot the place up with his gun. Like everything else on the reboot, "Angus's" dislike for guns was a mere punchline for Jack or someone else on "the team". Hard to imagine Lenkov and others working on the show don't realize how bad it is.
I only watch this show (recorded) because nothing else on...this show is pretty bad but there are is so much crap on TV what do you expect? Also dislike Magnum PI but it is a little better than Macgyver. I gave them both a chance but won't be watching them anymore...may stop watching TV programming all together because so bad!
The biggest issue is the culling of main characters from the show. Is it so hard to work with Tristan Mays?
Why have all the better side characters been diminished or deleted?
It points to a bad on set vibe that comes through on the show.
I used to like the show, but it went downhill when Jack left. And now I think Season 5 is just terrible. I hate to say that because I loved the original, but this one leaves me wishing I watched something else.
My husband is currently watching season one and I couldn’t figure out if I’m just too picky or if it’s truly this terrible.
Thankfully I’m not the only one who thinks it’s horrid.
Same with NCIS:New Orleans & the new seasons of NCIS (though I stopped watching when Ziva left…)
Meredith Eaton is by far the worst addition to this show period!!!! She couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. The show wasn't half bad until she was added in season two. It's hard to take any scene seriously with her in it. Mcgyver used to be one of my favorite shows in the 80's, now anything after season one with Eaton is just terrible and silly. Time to move on to some more garbage TV, pretty much all that's on the tube these days. Garbage garbage garbage.
To the commenter who tore Meredith Eaton a new hide for her portrayal of Maddy Webber...I agree wholeheartedly. Really, now, it IS possible for characters, male and female alike, to BE tough without having to ACT (or, in Eaton's case, "act") the part, but apparently, nobody told Ms. Eaton such a thing--especially not the writers, who clearly had NO problem writing Maddy to be a flippant, impatient, ungrateful, browbeating, venom-spewing Valley girl shrew who received WAY too much power than she deserved and who had ZERO problem cutting her subordinates' cojones off or out, Mac's included. Say what you will about Sandrine Holt and her supposedly generic character, whom I've never seen on this trainwreck of a program, but if the writers had any backbone and had killed Maddie off in its (thankfully) fifth and final season at the very latest, I wouldn't have shed a tear.
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