Reboot MacGyver Episode 1: The Rising

I had another post written for today (which I might post later in the week), but I feel like I owe you guys a follow up on the CBS MacGyver reboot now that the first episode has dropped.  I did watch it, and in my opinion it definitely could have been worse.  It's pretty clear that after all the internet backlash over the trailer CBS scrapped what they had shot and made a new pilot.  On the one hand I'm happy that they're trying to make the fans happy.  On the other hand it's always a little concerning when storytellers tell a story just to make fans happy rather than telling a story that they want to tell.  But at least they made lead actor Lucas Till look a bit more like classic MacGyver with an 80's haircut and brown leather jacket.

They also decided to at least pay lip service to supporting characters from the original show.  Lip service is all it is though, as these characters share the names of classic characters but are clearly completely different people.

Jack Dalton is now muscle bound comic relief.  And he's an ex-military sharpshooter.  I'm a little unclear as to how Mac, with his aversion to firearms, became best buds with with a sniper.  Seems a little hypocritical if you ask me.  So this Jack is a far cry from the original practical joker with a new get-rich-quick scheme up his sleeve every episode.  He is still a pilot though, and is able to tell what kind of jet our heroes are trying to track down just by the sound of the engine.

Nikki Carpenter (now a computer hacker) is kind of the polar opposite of the original character.  In Season 3 of the classic show Mac and Nikki had a subtle 'Will they?  Won't they?' type relationship.  Here they are lovers, and things get a little steamy.  Remember what I said about in my last MacGyver post about my concerns of how they would handle Mac's sexuality?  Turns out all the steamy bits are story relevant though, so I may be willing to overlook it, but it is a red flag for me.

We also have Patrica Thornton.  I don't actually mind that they gender flipped Pete Thornton.  Actor Dana Eclar is no longer with us, and it feels like straight up re-casting Peter Thornton would be disrespectful, like Eclar was replaceable or something.  That said, MacGyver's working relationship with Pete was one of the things that made MacGyver a great show.  Patrica Thornton is a bit of a hard edge character.  It's early in the show, but I miss the 'best friends with my boss' element that the original had going.
 
There's also a new character named Riley Davis.  She's an ex-con and computer hacker.  She was rather refreshing because she's the only character I wasn't comparing to the original.  Although she does remind me a little of Skye from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D...

The episode itself was pretty good.  It deals with a mission to recover a biological weapon, the mission goes wrong, and then there are plot twists, betrayals, chases and explosions.  Good stuff here.  The structure feels a bit like the early episodes where there's a James Bond/Indiana Jones action sequence before the opening credits, and then the actual story starts, but in this case the fouled up mission in the beginning ties into the rest of the story.

Mac narrates the show in voice-over like the original.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it's cheesy and forced.  The same could probably be said for the original show, but I've got rose colored glasses, so don't judge me.  We also have words appearing onscreen to show his though process when he's inventing stuff.  Because Sherlock is a big deal I guess?  In a couple of years we'll look back on this new trend and say it was the cheesiest thing ever.  Those 2010s, man.

Most of the things MacGyver invents is stuff we've seen before.  Creating smoke to trigger fire alarms, tricking a hand-print scanner, and so on.  There is a clever reference to classic MacGyver when Mac has to diffuse a bomb that DOESN'T simply have two color coded wires 'like the good old days.'

The episode ends with our heroes renaming their top secret origination from a random set of initials that I've already forgotten (DSX?  DXS? CSX?) to the Phoenix Foundation.  This was a cool moment that really worked for me, but given the context of 'rising from the flames' it probably would have worked better if it had come later in the season when they had more flames to rise from.

There's a hook at the end of the episode to get you to watch more if you liked this one or didn't outright hate it.  And personally, I didn't outright hate it.  I don't love it like the original and don't think I ever could, but if it introduces Mac to a new generation that's not a bad thing.

-Geekboy.

Thoughts on the MacGyver Reboot Trailer

So.

CBS is rebooting MacGyver.

They just released a Trailer last week.

I mentioned this in an earlier post: MacGyver was one of my childhood heroes.  As such I have mixed feelings about the whole reboot thing.  But I'm trying to keep an open mind.

Richard Dean Anderson played Mac for seven seasons.  The newcomer, Lucas Till, has seven years worth of RDA's shadow to overcome.  And a haircut that looks like Harry Styles from One Direction.  The Richard Dean Anderson mullet was awesome.  Why does the MacGyver of the 21st century look like he belongs in a boy band?  Hopefully Lucas Till will either get a new stylist, or wear a ponytail for most of the show.  I could live with the ponytail.

I don't have a problem with the actor Lucas Till.  True, I've only seen him in X-men: First Class, but I thought he was good in that movie.

Original series creator Lee David Zlotoff is involved in the new series to some degree, so that's promising.

So, aside from the hair, what are some concerns I have about the show?

Target audience.  If this show is aimed at original fans or people who grew up with it because their parents liked it, well, reboot MacGyver will have to bend over backwards to appease these fans.  If it's aimed primarily at a new audience, that's a different story.  But it will have to win over people who have maybe never even heard of MacGyver and need to be convinced that he's the Bees Knees.

Original series MacGyver was a show that could be enjoyed by all ages, but I believe it may appeal most to young boys.  Hopefully this show will keep it kid friendly.  In this day and age, sex sells.  80's MacGyver had a girl of the week every week, but was always a perfect gentleman.  Hopefully the show creators will keep that element from the original show, as I personally believe it's a key part of Mac's character.

Character:  Speaking of Mac's character, Lucas Till comes across as a bit of a cocky showoff in this trailer.  MacGyver isn't a showoff.

Supporting cast.  One complaint I've seen online is how this show is adding so many new characters.  In a way this makes sense.  Modern audiences are used to seeing a core group of heroes and continuing storylines, rather than be introduced to new supporting characters with new problems each episode, then have the hero ride in like the Lone Ranger, and resolves everything in 45 minutes.  But MacGyver did have a supporting cast.  Peter Tornton was a regular, Jack Dalton, Penny Parker, and Nikki Carpenter were all recurring.  Some people in online forums and comment sections are asking why not simply bring back these classic characters?

I see this logic, but on  the other hand, do you really want to see a new actor playing Pete Tornton?  Or Jack Dalton?  As hard as MacGyver's shoes are to fill, it may be even harder for the quirky side characters like Jack Dalton or Penny Parker.

There's also the concern that having MacGyver leading a team of field experts on weekly missions could be a bit to much like all the police procedurals that are all over the place.

Humor.  There's a joke right at the end of the trailer, where Mac asks, "Does anyone have a stick of gum?" Pause. "Or a cue tip?"  Yes, it's funny.  But it's also a joke at MacGyver's expense.  Sometimes there's a fine line between a wink at the fans and self parody.

So, with all that wining out of the way, what did I like about the trailer?

The added backstory.  This MacGyver escaped from terrorists using a little bit of nothing to make a homemade explosion and blow open his cell door.  It looks a little bit  like Iron Man's origin, and it brings Mac into 2016 nicely.

The part were he tricks the fingerprint scanner.  This is something Mac did all the time on the original show.

That exploding arrow made from PVC pipe. THAT'S SO COOL ! ! !

The new logo. Yes this is a small thing, but it helps differentiate from the original show.  I love the way Mac's iconic Swiss Army Knife becomes the V in MacGyver.

So, is this enough to convince me to watch the show?  I honestly don't know yet.  Like I said at the beginning of this post, I'm trying to keep an open mind.  I may try out the first couple episodes.  It will either be an enjoyable show, or it will cause me to weep over my RDA MacGyver DVDs.  Because we'll always have Paris, right?

On Villains...

 

We love to hate 'em.

I watch the show Grimm.  In the first season, Adalind Schade made my skin crawl.  By the end of season two, I was cheering every time she was on screen.  Sure she was evil, but she was also really cool and funny!  I realized that I loved to hate her.  And I loved loving to hate her.  She's one of my favorite characters now.

I've been doing lots of research on the great villains of classic British crime novels.  Ian Fleming's Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu, and Sapper's Carl and Irma Peterson of James Bond, Fu Manchu, and Bulldog Drummond fame.

My fascination with villains makes sense when you think about it.  I read comics, and great Superheroes need to have great villains.  Captain America has The Red Skull, Daredevil has both Kingpin and Bullseye, and of course Batman has Joker.

But my fascination with the arch nemesis goes back further than my reading of comic books.  Here are two of the first villains I loved hating.


First we have Lord Sinister.


Created by the Lego company in 1998, Lord Sinister was the primary antagonist for Johnny Thunder, Pippin Reed and Dr. Killroy of 'The Adventurers' toys and online comics.  Lord Sinister was know by different names over the years, and also depending on the country the stories were published in (All of the characters went through name changes.  In some countries, Pippin Reed and Dr. Killroy were know  as Gail Storm and Dr. Lightning).  Lord Sinister's aliases include Baron von Barron, and Mr. Hates.  I came onboard rather late in the series, with 2003's 'Orient Expedition,' So He'll always be 'Lord Sinister' to me.

Johnny Thunder is a thrill seeking Adventurer and Treasure Hunter from Australia.  He, Dr. Killroy, and Miss Pippin Reed, a photographer for World Magazine, travel to exotic locals in search of treasure to 'Put in a museum, where everyone can see it!'  While searching for treasure they usually found ways to protect the downtrodden and right wrongs and all that good stuff.  But you can bet that Lord Sinister will be close behind, allowing our heroes to do all the hard work, just to steal the treasure out from under their noses and put in his private collection.  Or at least he'll try.  Usually he'll end up triggering some kind of booby-trap, allowing our heroes to nab the treasure.




So, Lord Sinister isn't the most evil villain in the world.  He's a Snidely Whiplash type who wouldn't be out of place in a silent melodrama.  But he was a lot of fun and will always have a special place in my heart.



The other is Murdoc, Played by Michael Des Barres, in the hit 80's TV show MacGyver.  I was pretty much MacGyver's biggest fan, ever since I was first introduced to the show somewhere between the ages of 9 and 12 all the way through my teen years.  Murdoc was introduced as a master-of-disguise assassin, working for the organization-of-evil H.I.T. who has a vendetta against Mac and his buddy Peter Thornton.  He 'dies' at the end of every episode he's in, but is always back for the next season.  He's been blown up, fallen off cliffs, submerged in underground lakes of boiling oil, and fallen into snake pits.  Usually his last words are "MAC-GYYYY-VAAAAAAAA---!" shouted at the top of his lungs.





Murdoc's character evolves quite a bit over the course of the show.  He goes from from maniac-with-a-flame-thrower in Season 3, to a tormented Phantom of the Opera type character in the Season 4 episode 'Cleo Rocks'.  He and MacGyver even call a truce and team up in Season 5's 'Halloween Knights'.

You don't want Murdoc to win and kill MacGyver, per say, but you really don't want MacGyver to ever CATCH Murdoc either.  You like that their never ending chess-match is a stalemate.  And really, that's the way it should be.