#129: Final Approach

Season: 2

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver takes four gang members into nature as part of a Phoenix Foundation rehabilitation program.  On the return flight, the plane goes down and one of the youths is critically injured.  MacGyver figures out a way to get the plane to take off and gets help from the gang members, who learn to trust each other and work together. 

Memorable Quote:

If you can do what you just did, you can land this thing on the moon.  ~Ramon

Highlight: 

I like the first scene when MacGyver crashes a plane which is later revealed to be a flight simulation.  Then we learn that Pete intentionally set it to crash. 

Lowlight: 

As the gang members snip at each other, MacGyver yells probably his loudest scream in the history of the show.  "All right!  Can it!  You two wanna fight you put on gloves, but it doesn’t happen here!  Time out!"  Chill out, MacGyver!  

Best MacGyverism: 

MacGyver replaces the plane’s busted wheel with a hollowed out log which then glides along a muddy trough constructed by the gang members.  I was curious how MacGyver was planning on landing the plane at the other end, but he then says something like "I’ll get them to lay down some foam."  But wasn’t the radio broken, and is foam on the runway going to solve the problem of landing a plane that has a piece of wood for a wheel?

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• Our first visit to Season 2!  Season 2 has the best theme song.  But aren’t all the theme songs the same, you ask?  No, not quite!  There are some subtle differences in instrumentation, and Season 2 gets it just right.  Later in the series, the theme sounds a little campier. 
• I always enjoy looking up the actors’ resumes on IMDB.  Tom Cavanaugh, the social worker who bails on the group, is played by Gregory Itzin.  Hmmm, that name sounds familiar, where have I seen before?  Let’s check the link……Good god, that’s President Charles Logan!  I would never have guessed! 
• Not one gang member seems excited about this program, and Ramon allegedly killed Luther’s brother last year.  Probably shouldn’t have them together this far away from civilization, or at all.  The program’s not sounding like the best idea at this stage. 
• That must be the smallest plane ever – I’m getting motion sickness just watching.  6 people in a space that can’t be more than 4 feet wide by 7 feet long. 
• A rattlesnake invades the tent, and MacGyver subdues it with a stick.  Then he holds the thing by the neck and takes it outside.  Nice. 
• When Tommy and MacGyver confront the mountain lion, the full frontal shots of the lion are pretty clearly pulled from somewhere else, like a nature video.  It’s far from the only time that we’ll be seeing stock footage in the series, most notably in "Thief of Budapest" which liberally uses numerous shots from The Italian Job.  I checked the credits to see if there was any mention of the source mountain lion video but no such luck.

Final Analysis:

This episode was a little better than I remembered, and the actors were all pretty good.  It was, nevertheless, somewhat cheesy, awkward, and interminable, and there wasn’t much fun to be had.  We’ve now officially covered one episode from each season.  This is fun! 

#130: Hellfire

Season: 1

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver visits old friends who have discovered oil in a remote part of the country (West Texas?).  A light bulb breaks and starts a massive oil fire.  MacGyver and friends use dynamite to blow up and extinguish the blaze.  

Memorable Quote:

Well, I guess I’m gonna have to entertain a couple of theories a few o’ my buddies came up with a while ago.  Archimedes and Euclid, you may have heard of them. ~ MacGyver (in full hick voice)

Highlight: 

A scene where MacGyver is simultaneously talking and juggling onions, and he’s pretty good.  He even finishes with a high toss flourish.  RDA used to be a street performer, and it's cool he was able to show off his skills.  

Lowlight: 

The brief fight between MacGyver and Bill.  It was not as bad as I remembered – only one punch and mostly just wrestling.  Nevertheless, I’m not a fan of friends fighting. 

Tangent alert!  When there’s good guys and bad guys, fighting doesn’t bother me at all.  I don't like graphic violence but I love movies/shows like 24, Bourne, and Die Hard 2.  Boxing also doesn’t bother me because there’s (usually) no malice behind it – it’s just a sport and the fighters can hug it out afterwards.  But hockey fights or street fights between strangers really bother me. Once on a bus ride, the movie Happy Gilmore was showing.  I had never seen it before, and I remember feeling badly when Adam Sandler and Bob Barker were having their lengthy fight on the golf course.  Even just thinking about it now gives me an unpleasant feeling in the pit of my stomach.  

I do love MacGyver’s response to Bill’s concern that MacGyver’s going in alone.  “I think that’s my choice, son.”  

Best MacGyverism: 

It’s a toss up between the ball-point pen and the gum wrapper!  It's good any time he does a "stereotypical" MacGyverism, and this episode had two.  I’ll lean toward covering the fuse with a gum wrapper because I like how he makes a point to chew the gum first.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• Wow, season 1 – so many thoughts, so little time.  It often feels like a totally different show from the rest of the series.  He is soooo young – was there really just a one year gap between season 1 and 2?  And he’s ten times more brash and cocky and often talks like a hick.  As I say in the FAQ, season 3 is my favorite, but season 1 is pretty awesome.  
• Not a huge fan of the lovefest between MacGyver and Bill/Laura throughout the show.  So excited to see you!  You’re my best friend!  Hugs all around!  I’m all for MacGyver having friends but you don’t need to fawn all over them, MacGyver.  Plus I don’t really like them that much.  
• This has got to be the smallest cast ever for an episode.  Four people! 
• Hindsight is 20/20, but having the light bulbs smacking against the oil derrick doesn’t seem like a great idea.
• I was curious if Hellfighting was a standard term.  From what I can tell from Googling, there was a John Wayne movie called Hellfighters which was probably where the idea for this episode came from.  
• Not only does MacGyver have previous firefighting experience, but he can outrun gravity.  When the boxes of dynamite start to give way, he runs out of the shed and takes about 12 steps before the boxes fall to the ground and the shed explodes. 
• They perilously haul multiple boxes of dynamite for fifty miles but then only end up filling a little thermos full of nitro?  Why couldn’t they have put the nitro in the thermos back at the abandoned site – it would have been much easier to drive back. 
• Group hug at the end.  Ugh. 

Final Analysis:

Good news – we’re no longer talking about episodes that I would be embarrassed to show someone else.  This one is impressively filmed.  For all the series sometimes does with bad blue screens and stock footage, the fire scenes are believable and well filmed.  I don’t care for this episode, however.  Between the fight scene, the incessant fawning over one another, and the unlikeable characters, it’s at the bottom of Season 1.  

#131: The Challenge

Season: 4

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

A white supremacist and his thugs aim to shut down the Challenger’s Club, a youth center for rehabilitating teens.  When they can’t do it legally, they instead kidnap and murder the Club’s leader, Booker.  An enraged MacGyver goes after them and is about to exact vengeance when Cuba Gooding talks him back from the brink.   

Memorable Quote:

That was luck. ~Cuba

No, that was Physics.  ~MacGyver

Highlight: 

MacGyver talking angles and physics while challenging Cuba to a game of 8-ball in the bar while the gang members quietly watch.

Lowlight: 

MacGyver discover Booker’s dead body and has a mini-breakdown as he screams in agony and punches the wall.  I haven’t seen this episode since I was a kid, and I had thought that Booker’s face had gotten “scooped out”, so I was surprised when they said his throat was cut.  Just different from what I remembered, but equally disturbing.  

Best MacGyverism: 

Applies rubbing alcohol on the drug package label and sees the ink rub off, proving that the label is counterfeit.  

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• Noticed in the opening credits this was directed by Dana Elcar.  How many episodes did he direct?  Let me guess, two!  Just kidding, I didn’t know that, I cheated and checked IMDB.  The other episode?  The Invisible Killer.
• I’m not a big Cynthia fan.  Not sure why, she just kind of bothers me.
• Breeze, however, is the man.  I didn’t remember that he and Cuba Gooding were in this episode.  Both of them give good performances here.
• Speaking of Cuba, who makes his first of four appearances here, how many other MacGyver guest stars have won an Oscar?  This one I don’t know and am not sure where to look up.  I don’t even have a guess. 
• The “street-life” scenes were never a strong point in the series.  They usually end up feeling dated and and inauthentic
• I prefer the calm and collected MacGyver, but it is kind of exciting at the end to see a rare glimpse of fired-up, vigilante MacGyver. 

Final Analysis:

Of all the episodes in the series, this was the one that I remembered the least before starting this project.  The reason for that is because I never liked it and skipped it when it was on.  If this were the Academy Awards, this episode would probably do well.  It’s substantive, well-acted, dramatic, powerful, and emotional.  But this isn’t the Academy Awards, it’s my rankings.  And I’m not a big fan of “disturbing”, and this is by far the most disturbing episode of the series.  Between Booker getting beaten by a baseball bat, having his throat cut, and then MacGyver having an emotional breakdown and vengefully going after the bad guys, this is one that you’ll want to have little fourth-grade Johnny skip over.  In fact, you might just want to skip over it yourself.