Friday, September 23, 2016

MacGyver Reboot -- Episode 1: The Rising


Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:
MacGyver is in Italy to commandeer a biological weapon, but some terrorists steal the weapon from him and kill Nikki, his girlfriend and co-worker.  MacGvyer tracks the head terrorist to San Francisco where he discovers that Nikki is not only still alive but also is working with the terrorists. After capturing Nikki and neutralizing the threat, MacGyver and his team abandon the now compromised Department of External Services and start the Phoenix Foundation. 

Memorable Quote:
What exactly do you do, Mr. MacGyver?  ~Riley
You know how you hack computers?  Well, I hack everything else.  ~MacGyver

Highlight:
I was very impressed by Lucas: excellent actor, good voice, charismatic, and able to be both serious and charming. If nothing else, I think the show will last because of him. And most importantly, his hair is much better now than in the scrapped pilot.

As for the best moment of the episode, it was when MacGyver sees Nikki in the San Francisco hotel. Surprising in the moment and some excellent dramatic tension.

Lowlight:
The music was a letdown, particularly the opening theme.  Somebody recently cut the original theme and replaced it with Lucas's MacGyver, and when I first saw that I got really excited thinking it was the actual theme that was being used.  Instead the theme they went with is pretty short and uninspiring.  To Peter Lenkov's credit, he said he had to fight the network just to get any theme at all because they see it as lost ad time.  That's a really dumb philosophy by the network people when you consider the degree to which a good theme song can engender devotion and distinctiveness to a show in a way that will pay big dividends in the long run, certainly more than an extra 30 second ad.

The rest of the music wasn't bad per se, but as one of the world's biggest fans of the original MacGyver score, it's going to take me a little while to realize that Randy Edelman, Dennis McCarthy, and Ken Harrison aren't walking through that door.

Best MacGyverism:
Mixes muriatic acid, ammonia, and tin foil to make smoke.  We've seen this MacGyverism (minus the tin foil) in D.O.A. MacGyver

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
  • I haven't seen a new episode of MacGyver in 24 years, so I've broken out the popcorn, the swiss army knife, and my Phoenix Foundation t-shirt.  That episode in '92 was The Mountain of Youth which happened to be the worst episode of the entire series, so it can only get better from there, right?!
  • Angus the cat is also ready to go (if you consider licking yourself ready to go).
  • The series is not more than a minute old and MacGyver and Nikki Carpenter have already shown more sparks than in 6 episodes of the original (I talked at length about the original Nikki here).
  • The boat chase in the beginning would have been the perfect time to bring back the boat chase theme from A Prisoner of Conscience.  Bear with me, I'm just going through the five stages of grief over the loss of the original MacGyver music -- in a few weeks I'll be all right.
  • Some nice shots of the Griffith Park Observatory near MacGyver's home -- that's a throwback to the original pilot where it actually was his home.
  • Speaking of his home, I like it -- seems like a chill place with a lot of natural light.
  • Clever of MacGyver to notice the time on the bad guy's watch, but even if they know what time zone he's in, it's a stretch to think that it's enough for Riley to find him in 10 seconds considering that this guy is on 8 different watch lists.
  • I like what I've seen from most of the core team:
    • Jack Dalton -- obviously nothing like the original Jack but Eads has charisma and seems like he'll make a good sidekick to MacGyver.
    • Riley Davis -- the computer whiz.  I like the actress and the character.
    • Wilt Bozer -- I like that he doesn't know about MacGyver's real job. 
    • The one character I wasn't wild about was Patricia Thornton.  I don't mind that she's a female (in contrast to Pete Thornton), but at least in this episode she didn't serve any real purpose to the story.  And she was also one dimensional and overly serious, and it's hard for me to see how they're going to develop her character and her relationship with MacGyver.
  • The MacGyverisms in this episode were pretty weak (especially the parachute at the end), but there's plenty of time to improve on those.  I wasn't wild about the captions appearing on screen, but I'll get over it.
  • The hour flew by which is a good sign.  As a child of the 80's and early 90's, I still prefer tv that breathes a little more and that is at a slower pace.  But that style of tv isn't coming back for better or worse, and so a fast pace it is.
  • I didn't care for was the joking references to tin foil, bubble gum, paper clips, etc. It feels more like playing along with the stereotype of the character as opposed to taking it seriously.  I remember Jerry Freedman (director of the original pilot) said about Richard Dean Anderson, "A lot of what made the character work, besides the good writing, was Richard. He had good comic timing and brought a nice sense of irony and reality to the role. It could have been cartoonish and sitcomy, but he made it seem real."  I agree whole-heartedly with that and I don't want to see it become like a cartoon.

Final Analysis:
After the show ended I asked my wife what she thought, and the first word she came up with was "respectable."  And the connotation was positive because she was expecting it to be worse based on the mediocre reviews from the previous few days.  I think that "respectable" is a good word for it also. As an action-adventure it's my kind of show, and it certainly held my attention and I would like to see more. It wasn't perfect, but first episodes are probably the hardest to get right, and they'll have time to develop the characters and work out the kinks.

I'd like to see them get to a place where the series can stand on its own as something unique in the tv landscape, whereas presently it seems relatively standard compared to other shows.  The lone wolf hero isn't coming back (for some reasons that Mark and I talked about on a podcast recently), but they should try and develop his nonviolent character and his scientific expertise so that he is unique and distinguishable from other tv heroes. Whether or not they ever get to that point, I'll be watching.

29 comments:

  1. Replace your wife's word "respectable" with my word "serviceable" and our reviews would be pretty close to identical. It was an entertaining hour but felt like boilerplate CBS crimefighter procedural, particularly with the "team of agents that happens to include a guy named MacGyver" retread. That's not entirely a bad thing as CBS crime drama procedurals are pretty much all better than anything that was on network television in the horrific 1990s, but it never gave off an authentic and distinctive "MacGyver" vibe. Most disappointing was the MacGyverisms, most of which were recycled from the original. Maybe as they find their creative footing, the MacGyverisms will become more original, but then again maybe they'll lift them liberally from the old show in respect to the concept of a reboot.

    Eads was okay but I had trouble hearing a few of his lines and for some reason he seemed to be whispering quite a bit. I still expect he's most likely to bring some fun to the cast, although not to the degree Bruce McGill did. I was much more intrigued with the girl who played Nikki Carpenter than the Riley Davis character, who thus far hasn't left an impression on me. I also can take or leave Patricia Thornton thus far. The actor who plays Wilt Bozer is fresh off of another CBS reboot of the movie "Rush Hour", and his Chris Rock-lite shtick was the central gimmick of that show too. It's kind of funny as I expect it to be on "MacGyver", but he's effectively the same character he was on the "Rush Hour" series.

    As I said on my blog, it neither exceeded nor undershot my expectations, but I ultimately I can't dispute most of the negative-to-indifferent reviews that it seems uninspired. They seem to be doing their best to make it work though so I'll continue watching with you and hope they find their groove with subsequent episodes. I'd give this one a B-....will be serious to see how its received by audiences.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I checked out your blog, sounds like we're fairly close on this one. I also liked the Nikki character and actress. Between this and Five-0 I'm glad to have some new things to watch so I can't complain too much.

      Delete
    2. No complaints about Lucas. Thus far, he doesn't have the charisma of Richard Dean Anderson but he maintains the Midwestern nice-guy aura of the "MacGyver" we've come to know even if he's got some youthful snark and swagger. The one moment I really didn't care for was when Jack Dalton went all Jack Bauer with the nail gun on the guy in the alley. The original "MacGyver" would never have tolerated that sort of thing in his presence.

      Delete
  2. I was decidedly unimpressed. I found Mac to be too smarmy. I don't like Jack - he's far more 'Bauer' than 'Dalton'. Patricia was meh. Bozer wasn't there enough to form an opinion. Ditto Riley. Nikki was predictable character-wise.

    In the moments when Mac was written more Mac-like, Lucas did great. The rest of the time? Nope.

    Can't say I'll be going out of my way to watch future episodes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm about half a season behind, I think. I may get to catching up on s6 at some point, but that show keeps doing sort of the opposite of what it should. That show *is* an ensemble, but often the 'team' isn't together and it borks the dynamic.

      Delete
  3. I hope the show makes it. It was definitely better than the worst of the reviews led us to believe. George Eads is stealing the show and not in a bad way. I think if CBS had attempted to just make new episodes of the old show, it would not have been commercially successful, so anyone wanting that will obviously be sorely disappointed.

    I'm enjoying your commentary, and behind the scenes information. Keep it coming. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bradley! I agree on your commercially successful point -- much as I would enjoy an 80's style show, the original was never a ratings juggernaut even in the 80's, so it certainly wouldn't be today.

      Delete
  4. My word is “potential.” As is, it has got potential.
    Dad’s word is “promising.”
    First, I was waiting for the MacGyver music. It never came! Even Hawaii Five O kept the original music. If the music was cut because the executives wanted more advertisements, then they were wrong. I don’t remember a single ad from last night. The majority of my TV watching is either streaming or recorded (run through the ads). I was so looking forward this show that I actually watched it in real time. Never again…I will record it next week and run through the ads. This will be my personal protest to the no music decision.
    Second, why name the villain, Nikki Carpenter? It is just like the movie, Mission Impossible, when the villain was named Mr. Phelps. Why destroy the image? I have still not gotten that. Is Carpenter now going to be MacGyver’s new Murdoc? Lots of questions and so few answers.
    I agree with the comment on how they located the ‘person of interest’ in San Francisco. Just like in the TV show, Person of Interest, or the new Jason Bourne movie, if locating people with CCTV and facial recognition was so easy, why couldn’t the authorities, who have legitimate access to the information, have found the most wanted fugitive?
    I think the roommate is like an appendix. He is there but for no apparent reason. We will see how this develops.
    So, I will keep on watching. The jury is still out as to how this will go. Give it more time. I hope it does not go like Hawaii Five O. I watched for four years. But then the plot became hard to follow and unnecessarily complicated. The wheels came off the wagon and it stopped moving forward. I hope this does not happen to MacGyver.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll join you on your personal protest! As for Nikki Carpenter, I bet she's actually "good" but we probably won't find out for sure for a long time. Your "appendix" comment made me laugh.

      Delete
  5. The pilot has my feelings all over the place! It's like a love-hate-relationship - it's so bad and yet so, so good ;-)

    There is stuff I really didn't like; and it mostly has to do with the fast and shaky camera movements, the music, some bad CGI and the use of Jack Dalton (I might write some more about that later). So it isn't perfect, but the pilot of the original show wasn't either. And it's really not as bad as I feared after reading so many negative reviews.

    It definitely has potential! Also, it got so many people talking about it. When was the last time MacGyver trended on Twitter? Probably... never, I guess. But it trended last night and that's pretty cool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you got to watch it! What were the trending numbers on twitter like (I didn't see)? And any word yet on the ratings or audience size?

      Delete
    2. Oh I don't know, the Pilot of the original was pretty perfect! :)

      I anticipated the CGI was coming and trained myself not to let it be a dealbreaker. It was less awful CGI than Indiana Jones 4 so that's the metric I tend to use for acceptable usage of CGI. Low bar I know. I'm eager to see if there were any "MacGyver" fans who really loved this. Thus far, the sentiment seems to be consistent with the impressions of reviewers...a range from decent to weak sauce.

      Delete
    3. I don't know much about trending stuff and didn't see it myself; but the MacGyver Writers and MacGyver Online mentioned it last night.

      The ratings are just coming in and MacGyver is on top for the Friday total viewers!

      Delete
    4. I just saw that. Pretty good start. It'll be telling to see how it holds up next week. Total viewers was something like 10.9 million. Coincidentally, the pilot episode 31 years ago debuted with a 10.9 rating. The 10.9 rating is not the same as 10.9 million viewers as they've changed the way they've calculated ratings in the years since. Today's 10.9 million viewers is considered a strong debut but back in 1985 the original "MacGyver's" 10.9-rated debut was considered disastrously bad.

      Delete
  6. Did anyone catch when Lucas/Mac called Thornton 'Miss Elcar'? (I am assuming that was an alias that she was using at that moment). Nice homage.

    I, too, liked the Nikki character and actress. I think a lot of Nikki/Mac shippers would have preferred that the originals' relationship was similar to the rebooted ones' (especially that keyboard flashback, heehee!).

    Agreed with many other commenters here and elsewhere that the action was verrry fastpaced; no time to absorb stuff and admire the hero's handiwork. And shaky cameras. I ABHOR SHAKY CAMERAS!!!!

    The Wilt Bozer character, I just...I don't get it.

    All in all, an entertaining way to pass the hour, especially after a long hectic workday. Looking forward to next week and to Nick's review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I missed the Miss Elcar bit. Nice catch.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the comment! I also missed the Miss Elcar reference. I think I'm going to rewatch it at some point this week to see what I missed the first time around.

      Delete
    3. There weren't a lot of 'shippers' for characters of the original show. Frequently, fans would insist the writers not give Mac a girlfriend, or take one away he had.

      Delete
  7. I hope the show makes it. It was definitely better than the worst of the reviews led us to believe. George Eads is stealing the show and not in a bad way. I think if CBS had attempted to just make new episodes of the old show, it would not have been commercially successful, so anyone wanting that will obviously be sorely disappointed.

    I'm enjoying your commentary, and behind the scenes information. Keep it coming. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. So I've been thinking some more about the use of Jack Dalton.

    From a production standpoint, bringin in Jack as the character he is... it's kinda brilliant because it means more action. (And George is a delight to watch.) But it's also an easy and lazy way what they're using him for.

    Because bringing Jack in as a gun-wielding CIA- and military guy makes MacGyvers unique way of problem solving void. If Mac can't do it, there's always Jack who can get him out while shooting the bad guys. So in the end, Mac doesn't really manage to solve the problem without guns (and unnecessary violence). He just let Jack do it.

    Remember "Halloween Knights" - it would have been an easy and lazy way for the writers to let Murdoc bring his deadly tools. But MacGyver made it a deal - no guns or I don't help you. It was the core of the show to catch the bad guys without the help of guns and bombs (or only using them as distraction devices).

    The writers have to be very careful not to utilize the character of Jack Dalton to keep the bad guys away by pointing a gun at them or by shooting them...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I agree with you. While it would have been nice for the new show to pick up on the subtleties of the old character (like the lack of beer drinking), I never expected or got my hopes up for that. But the nonviolent aspect is more than a subtlety, it was the core of the show. Not only would Jack's use of weaponry potentially kill the suspense of the problem solving, but it makes it more like every other show. Hopefully they will emphasize and illustrate MacGyver's nonviolence over the course of the season even if he is unable or unwilling to control Jack.

      Delete
  9. OK, excellent review as usual... but I have a bone to pick with you, sir. Under "Other thoughts...", "The MacGyverisms in this episode were pretty weak (especially the parachute at the end)." Whoa there, MacGyver-boy. May I remind you (and other interested parties) that there was another "weak" MacGyver-ism in your cherished original series which also involved a parachute (#85 The Wasteland), in which you said in your Highlight section no less, and I quote, "The MacGyverism at the end of the episode [ed: where Mac constructs a parachute using an old tent, a fan, and cables] is either amazing or ridiculous depending on your point of view." Here you waxed philosophic on the brilliance of the scene, though you had hoped for a bit more realism. Was the newer version not real enough for you? You aren't primed to like this new series, and more's the pity because it's more than respectable, it's excellent! Here's an 80s reference for a child of the 80s/90s: Move over bacon, now there's something meatier!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As a generic, CBS action show, it does pretty well. As 'MacGyver' it is doing a pretty good job of failing spectacularly. It's missing a lot of the subtle elements that made 'MacGyver' what it was. And that's disappointing.

      Delete
    2. Haha good memory, Liney! This latest parachute MacGyverism didn't seem very realistic to me -- it certainly wasn't as realistic as MacGyver the First building a flying parachute in 10 minutes from a tent canvas and a fan and then jetting off into the night while carrying a wounded old man between his legs.

      Delete
    3. While I don't think the idea of the MacGyverism itself was weak, the execution of it was. It happens so fast that you don't really get to enjoy it! Yes, the clock was ticking, but maybe they could have made that in a minute (or even two) instead of 30 seconds...

      Delete
  10. Oh, and MacGyver I (RDA) was wearing a helmet. Lucas, take notes!

    ReplyDelete