Saturday, March 7, 2015

Top 23 Check-In

I started this blog almost exactly 18 months ago. Initially it was challenging to motivate myself to watch my absolute least favorite episodes (though it turned out they were fun to write about due to their spectacularly disastrous nature). I pushed onward, secure in the knowledge that there were brighter days ahead, and the episodes quickly became at least tolerable. As time went on, things went from tolerable to average to decent to good to very good to great to excellent to phemonenal to specactular to mind-blowing.  And we have now crossed another threshold with the move into the top 23. I don't know about you, but I'm very excited to finally get to this point!

I'd rank the remaining levels as such:

23-19:  Transcendent
18-12: Life Changing
11-6: Nation Healing (the power of these episodes could end armed conflicts)
5-2: Universe Altering (these episodes shake the universe to its core)
1: Proof that God exists (because there's no way man created this)

 Let's take a look at the episodes that are left:
Season 1
The Gauntlet
The Prodigal

Season 2
Three for the Road
Phoenix Under Siege
Pirates
Out in the Cold
Partners

Season 3
Ghost Ship
The Widowmaker
The Negotiator
Mask of the Wolf
The Endangered

Season 4
The Outsiders
The Survivors
Deadly Dreams
Cleo Rocks
The Battle of Tommy Giordano
The Invisible Killer

Season 5
Log Jam

Season 6
Lesson in Evil
Strictly Business

Season 7
Obsessed
Good Knight MacGyver (1 and 2)

That is one mighty fine list! 15 of the 23 are in Mark's top 40, so I'm in good company! And Season 4 checks in with the most episodes at 6 - maybe Mark was right after all about it being the best season!  I can see some patterns emerging with the episodes - I'd break them down into the following categories (due to overlap I put each one into the category of best fit):

Early Season Magic - 6
Nature Takes Center Stage - 6
Supervillains - 8
Amish/Mob/Medieval - 3

I watched episode #23 today and was blown away. Afterwards I was concerned that maybe I had it too low, but they all can't be number 1, so in a sense they are all too low.  I have the #1 episode on a pedestal, but the gap between 2 and 23 is pretty thin.  And we still have the following things to look forward to:

  • The episode where the power went out in the middle, causing my mother and I to need counseling.
  • The third episode that causes me to shed tears (at least I think I will).  The first two were Passages and The Madonna.
  • The episode in the top 10 where I only remember half of it for some reason, but it's a good enough half to be a top 10 episode. 
  • The 4 greatest moments in television history.

Fun times are ahead - thanks for joining me on the journey!
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9 comments:

  1. MarkMarch 7, 2015 at 10:59 PM

    Looking forward to the journey. I got a good laugh at your pecking order for the remaining episodes. My #1 is also above and beyond all the rest for me.....and there's now a 1-in-23 chance we're talking about the same episode!

    But I guess I take issue with your assessment of the "spectacularly disastrous nature" of the worst-ranked episodes on your list? Were there that many "MacGyver" episodes that were that bad??!?!? I only rate four as complete howlers, and only "MacGyver's Women" struck me as 47 minutes of uninterrupted stupid.

    Anyway, looking forward to what's left....along with a few of your designations such as what "the 4 greatest moments in television history" is a reference to. Should we expect you to hit the four categories all at once or will the pecking order bounce around from one category to the next?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nicholas SweedoMarch 7, 2015 at 11:10 PM

      I'd only rate Mountain of Youth and Honest Abe as spectacularly disastrous. The Lost Amadeus was only somewhat of a disaster. And after that, things got better very quickly. Episodes in my bottom 10 like Kill Zone and The Challenge aren't bad episodes - I just don't like them.

      And I will most definitely be bouncing around between the categories!

      Delete
  2. Highlander_IIMarch 8, 2015 at 1:07 AM

    I'm through 28 of the episodes on my countdown and you're almost done. =)

    I found it almost as hard to rank the lower episodes as the highest ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nicholas SweedoMarch 8, 2015 at 10:26 AM

      Sometimes I went 2-3 weeks between episodes in the beginning - once you get to better episodes you'll get re-energized!

      Delete
    2. Highlander_IIMarch 8, 2015 at 11:18 AM

      Mostly I've been getting stuck having to rewatch episodes I didn't take very good notes on, which slows me down a bit. All that catching up on other shows and that work thing getting in the way! =)

      Delete
  3. AlMarch 8, 2015 at 6:36 AM

    I agree with Highlander -its hard to rank both ends of the spectrum. I've still got 2 contenders for my top 5 which haven't appeared on Nick'e coundown so am hopeful we're thinking along similar lines here - but worryingly there are still a couple that I've ranked way down which haven't yet appeared!

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownFebruary 3, 2021 at 12:38 AM

    just want to let you know that i have stumbled upon this blog a few days ago...where was this all my life. I wonder if any of you amazing people are still active. I would love to do a list one of these days... I will say from perusing these lists I tend to agree with Mark on some of the rankings the most, but nevertheless I appreciate all of you!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nicholas SweedoFebruary 4, 2021 at 12:16 PM

      Thanks for reading and for the kind words! The blog is still active but not updated as much, and I'm mostly tapped out of MacGyver content.

      Delete

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