#97: Live and Learn

Season: 5

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver and Pete are helping a local high school address the problem of dropouts.  They pay particular attention to Tony, an intelligent youth who is pressured by his father to drop out of school and work at a construction site.  Tony discovers that the site is not safe after witnessing a fraudulent cover-up by the foreman, and he and MacGyver arrive at the site just in time to save his father who is trapped under some stone after an earthquake. 

Memorable Quote:
Sometimes things are hidden under the surface.  You just gotta know how to bring 'em out. 

~MacGyver

Highlight:

I like the nighttime scene at the site where MacGyver steals the burnt document but of course makes noise, so Tony distracts the guard by pretending to search for his wallet.  

Lowlight:

George Fraley's character is a bit of a downer.  

Best MacGyverism:

Reconstructs burnt paper using glycerol, infrared camera, and a bright light.  I like this one - let's add it to the list.  

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

• We open with a fun and somewhat ridiculous scene where MacGyver is guest lecturing a high school Physics class.  He challenges a big football player to a pushing contest, and MacGyver goes low and flips the player on his back.  Then he coolly segues into talking about Archimedes and the lever.  Somehow the football player is not upset at all about getting flipped on his back by a teacher.  According to IMDB, the actor playing the football player actually did play football at Oregon and was a regular on Stargate, also starring RDA.  I haven't seen more than a minute of Stargate so I wouldn't have known that.  
• The chalk drawing on the blackboard is incredible.  We have seen MacGyver show off his painting skills in an earlier episode. 
• After class, MacGyver and the teacher have this conversation:
• "Seems bright, what’s he doing in a remedial class?"  ~MacGyver
• "Good question.  I’m afraid Tony’s well on his way to becoming one more of our country’s 700,000 dropouts this year." ~Teacher
• Issue episode alert!   Issue episode alert!  
• Some quotes from Pete:
• "Now we make it work here at Dillard, and it could breathe new life into this nation’s entire public school system."  Settle down there, Pete.  
• "Just heard from Washington, the Education Department is sending out an observer next week."  To observe this groundbreaking, nuanced, cutting-edge program where a student gets...a mentor.   
• Interesting that Jerry Wasserman (who plays Tony's illiterate father) has a PhD in English Literature from Cornell.  He gives a very convincing performance as Nick Milani.  
• 12/6 UPDATE - here's a conversation I had with Jerry where he shared some memories about this episode.  
• I’m all for believing in the best in people, but after MacGyver visits Tony in his basement, Tony’s turn from a smart-mouthed troublemaker to a polite model citizen seems a bit too quick.
• Conversation in the school:
• "Just another fine example of how the system has failed kids like Tony." ~Fraley
• "You know you’re part of that system, Fraley." ~MacGyver
• Snap!  MacGyver just throwing darts!  
• The guard at the construction site with a flashlight and hard hat - what is he guarding? And he's carrying a gun?  
• Neat how the rescue scene at the end involves a lever and fulcrum, about which MacGyver had been teaching the students in the beginning. 

Final Analysis:

Interesting episode here.  Like Hell Week, it's school-based and shows MacGyver in a non-typical setting.  The first half of the episode is slow and preachy, but the second half gets good once Tony witnesses the cover up.  I like how they go back to the site and get the burned paper and then reconstruct it and rescue Tony's father.  Tony is a likable kid, and it's a feel-good episode that does its job by making me feel good in the end.  

#98: Off The Wall

Season: 7

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

Lobo, a street graffiti artist and a friend of MacGyver's, has a grandmother who is being evicted by an urban developer working with the slumlord owner.  When the slumlord is found dead in the apartments, MacGyver suspects foul play and sets out to prove that the building inspections were forged.  After turning a small bomb back on the bad guys, the developer agrees to pay for Lobo's grandmother's new housing.  

Memorable Quote:

Mr. Lawton, your new complex is gonna look awfully funny with a tenement stuck in the middle of it.   ~MacGyver

Highlight:

I gotta admit, I like the rooftop chase bit.  Who knew Jason Bourne owes his inspiration to MacGyver? Cool music, too.  

I had originally been planning to go with the scene where MacGyver goes to the handwriting expert because I had remembered thinking it was cool.  But it let me down a little bit - there was less analysis than I remembered and more of, "Yep, it's the same guy writing all these checks."

Lowlight:

The first 3 minutes include a guy snooping around the legal office.  This part could have been 20 seconds, but the producers probably got to the end of the episode and realized, "We need to fill more time, let's have the snooper look through everything!"

Best MacGyverism:

Burns through plastic hand-ties using electric heating coil.  Though it's not clear why after he frees his hands, he continues to use the coil on his feet and Lobo.  Is he not carrying his pocketknife?!

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

• I'm a big Lobo fan.  In fact, this episode should have just been called The Lobo Show. A socially conscious graffiti artist who cares about his grandma, is charismatic, and has a cool name - what more do you need?  Well, if he provided a little muscle, he'd be a better wingman.  I'll still add him to the list since he's a fun guy to have around.  
• A John Considine sighting!  We've seen him before, and we'll see him again.  
• I wrote in my last review that I got The Prometheus Syndrome confused with Off The Wall since the abandoned apartment buildings looked similar.  I didn't realize that Off The Wall happened to be next on my list.  And yes, the buildings do look similar.  I checked the shooting locations on Kate Ritter's RDA site, and yes, they are the same.
• I like the old lady lawyers.  Though I gotta ask, if the evidence they had stolen was so important, couldn't they have secured it a bit more?
• 15:25 - one of the most incredible mullets I've ever seen
• 30:30 - strange how the bad guys watch from the shadows as MacGyver enters and leaves the slumlord's office at night, yet they don't confront him.  Seems like it would have been a good time to knock him off.  Though once again as my mother says, if they did that, then there wouldn't be a show.  This episode was 3rd from the end of the series, so soon after, there was not a show.   
• 37:00 - MacGyver using a cordless car phone, and rocking some interesting shades
• 42:44 mark - we hear for the first time in The MacGyver Project what I call the "Minor MacGyver."  This is my 9th favorite MacGyver tune, and I'll add it to the list.  We'll hear it many times throughout the countdown, usually in the later years when he is figuring something out. It's a great tune and one that I wish I had on a CD that I could play when I was trying to solve a problem.  
• I like the bomb scene where MacGyver simply says "Dang," after setting the bomb for 1 minute, and then he also gives a great low-key raise of the eyebrows after the bomb hits the getaway car. 
• Fun Fact - the actor who plays Ferris was married to Robin Curtis, aka Kate Connelly

Final Analysis:

I like this one.  Not spectacular, and a little light on action, but Lobo is great and there are some good moments.  

#99: The Prometheus Syndrome

Season: 7

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver is helping the arson squad catch a serial firebomber who calls himself Prometheus. After one of the bombs goes off and kills the squad leader, his place is assumed by the hard-hearted Rachel, who wants to do things her own way and without MacGyver's help.  Undeterred, MacGyver stays on the trail and discovers Prometheus's identity, but not without dealing with a few more bombs along the way. 

Memorable Quote:
Take my advice, MacGyver.  Make peace with your God.   ~Prometheus  

Highlight:

I like the way Prometheus's voice sounds when he uses the voice changer - kind of robotic and computer-like.  

Lowlight:

Holy Rachel, Batman!  She's about as unlikeable a "good guy" character as it comes.  Montana looks like the Snuggle Bear compared to her.  And the acting performance is so in-your-face negative and over-the-top that it doesn't seem believable.  

Best MacGyverism:

Attaches bomb to mini-forklift and guides it into the wall.   

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

• Early on we have a brief Mama Lorraine sighting!  I'm a big Mama fan.  Too bad we don't see her for more than just a few minutes.  
• 3:54 - explaining Prometheus as "a character from Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods."  I love when MacGyver drops historical/mythological knowledge.  
• The bomb scene where Earl dies doesn't make sense to me.  First, why are they risking their lives to disarm the bomb when everyone has been evacuated? Obviously it's ideally better to disarm the bomb than to let it go off, but was it worth having Earl die over?  The bomb blast wasn't even that powerful - it didn't level the whole city block or anything.  And why was Earl even there at MacGyver's side?  He wasn't adding any value in helping to defuse the bomb.  And why couldn't they move the bomb?  They say there's a motion detector, but later in the episode MacGyver picks up a different but similar bomb and puts it on a forklift. 
• I get this one confused with Off The Wall.  I think because the run-down apartment buildings look similar.  Maybe, in fact, they're the same - I'll pay attention to that once I get to that episode.  
• The jeep is back!  My favorite MacGyver vehicle. 
• If Boardman and Victoria started the cafe fire, how did Victoria get caught up in it? You'd think they would have been smart enough to get out of the building first.  
• 45:36 - little shake as he knocks out Prometheus

Final Analysis:

Not that great of an episode - should have had it a little lower.  It's a good mystery and is genuinely suspenseful, but there's not much about the episode that I enjoy (or "not much fun to be had" as I'm wont to say).  And Rachel is dreadful - as allies go, she might be MacGyver's worst in terms of personality and general unlikeability.