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| MacGyver Online Forums > House Boat > Things you don't agree with |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 5 November 2019 - 04:56 AM |
| OK, so after nosing around on the Xena FB pages and finding out how many fans didn't like the ending of that show and are even in denial of how it ends and refuse to watch it again and accept it as a part of the show, (some of those fans are really out there) I was just wondering if there are things in MacGyver you didn't like or agreed with, even to that extend that you deny it ever happened or even refuse to watch it again? I know some of us felt Mac did a great injustice to Pete by quitting Phoenix to go on a journey with his son and basically telling him to get over it because it was bound to happen and things change. But besides that… I was always like the kind of guy, whatever comes I accept whatever the reason is for whatever happens. For example, could you have accepted that Mac would've died in the series finale? If Passages was the series finale and MacGyver did die, could you have accepted that or would you go into denial after that and never watch the episode again because to you it doesn't exist? We're probably going also into Magnum's territory because the fans pleaded for his life then while I could've accepted his death, just as I did Xena's. After all it's pretty much always an executive decision, I guess and there's hardly ever anything you can do about it but are things or decisions that you consider unacceptable for MacGyver as in a way that it was a slap in the face of the fans? |
| Posted by: perfectlykevin 22 January 2020 - 09:42 AM |
| I think I pretty much go along with however the story unfolds. I might not like certain things and I think most of us have the idea that Mac just keeps going, getting into adventures etc even after the show's timeline ends. |
| Posted by: MACGYVERISMYDAD 29 March 2020 - 04:58 PM |
| I don't like the way it ends. I hate that he gives up on pete who needs him more now then ever to go be with a son he just found he had |
| Posted by: Jediferret 29 March 2020 - 07:49 PM |
| There are some unrealistic things about the show I don't care for, but I'm willing to accept.... Like Nikki and Mac's forced bantering, which was more childish than anything else. I was kinda surprised that Mac would be that immature, but I've seen worse in supposedly mature people, so I can't really hold it against the character or the writers. The ending doesn't bother me, simply because people misunderstand it as Mac being gone forever but I doubt that was the case. Mac is known for moving around, and I'm sure he kept in close contact with Pete. The ending, to me, seems to be Mac's farewell not simply to Pete, but for the audience who is going to miss seeing Mac's adventures. I found the ending rather heartfelt... but that's just my opinion. Of course, I do pretend the Colton's episode just doesn't exist and always skip it. I've watched it once, and that was it. lol |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 30 March 2020 - 02:08 AM |
| The only weird thing about the ending is that he resigns from Phoenix. How about taking some time off? Motorcycle journey, fine, but he's not going to be gone forever. Maybe have extended leave of absence. From coast to coast on motorcycles. There and back again, sort to speak. |
| Posted by: Barry Rowland 30 March 2020 - 06:44 PM | ||
Exactly Jedi. |
| Posted by: Dragondog 30 March 2020 - 11:59 PM | ||
Probably an excuse to end the series on a 'final' note. |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 31 March 2020 - 02:04 AM | ||||
A lame one at that. There were so many other ways to do it, look at Friends. Mac starts thinking about doing normal things or that he had to go back to Minnesota for a final family matter and then decides to stay there or something like that. |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 1 April 2020 - 12:54 AM |
| The shooting scene in the pilot. I really wish they had cut that out as John Rich had wanted (and thought had been done). |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 1 April 2020 - 04:16 AM |
| I'm willing to give that one a pass. It was after all the pilot. Though it is indeed weird to see Mac shooting if the premise from the start was: no guns. |
| Posted by: Barry Rowland 1 April 2020 - 03:30 PM |
| It's funny how that scene has stayed in people's memories all these years though. |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 1 April 2020 - 11:26 PM | ||
Yes. I think that's why it has stuck in people's minds all these years. It's so out of place int he show. |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 2 April 2020 - 02:26 AM |
| Maybe it was an impulse on RDA's part? Or maybe to please the producers in case of changes? I think only the crew of the Pilot may have an answer on that. |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 3 April 2020 - 08:37 PM |
| The 2 made-for-TV-movies They have no connection at all to the show and therefore in my mind not part of the MacGyververse as we know it. |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 4 April 2020 - 05:50 AM |
But...  There were so many episodes like it. Legend of the Holy Rose for example, Eye of Osiris, Blind Faith (even though it did had Pete). Just Mac with people from his past or even he didn't know at all that he has an adventure with. Are those episodes not part of the MacGyververse either? |
| Posted by: Mac2Nite 21 August 2020 - 08:46 AM | ||
Couldn't agree more... the MacGyververse is all-encompassing... it was never just about the Phoenix Foundation.  |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 21 August 2020 - 03:12 PM | ||||||
Those episodes always had connections and queues that kept us inside the MacGyververse... The houseboat, the vehicles, maybe a phone call from a regular character, things like that.
Well if Pete's in it, of course, it's part of the MacGyververse ... it also had Pete's office and took place around the MacGyververse LA. 
I have a theory that the original idea may have been that he doesn't use a gun to solve the problem he's in, not that he is dead-set against guns altogether. I think we tend to look back at that now through the "MacGyver hates guns" lense, when in fact the original premise was probably more that he doesn't carry a gun. We actually see him use a gun a couple of times in the first season - the pilot and then again in the 'Beach house" gambit at the start of Target MacGyver. |
| Posted by: BrakeFluid 22 August 2020 - 07:25 PM | ||
Also the part where he looks up Barbara Spencer's skirt. That's just as out of character for MacGyver as using a gun is. |
| Posted by: Mac2Nite 23 August 2020 - 08:19 AM | ||||
It was made pretty clear that Mac is anti-gun. He winces even when one is fired near him. Much of the MacGyver character...to include his famous leather bomber jacket...hockey...non-drinker... etc... reflected Richard Dean Anderson's own views and core beliefs [or in the case of the jacket... his own wardrobe] and RDA is definitely anti-gun. And yes... he used guns in Stargate SG-1 because he was acting the part a USAF military officer... because he's an actor. I believe MacGyver was much dearer to his real heart and soul.  |
| Posted by: Slater 23 August 2020 - 06:14 PM |
| Casting an anti-gun actor as a character who doesn't like guns is perfectly reasonable. On the flip side, Tom Selleck is very much pro-gun and Magnum seemed comfortable with his M1911A1. |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 24 August 2020 - 01:13 AM | ||||||
A lot of people wince when firing a gun. Alan Rickman in Die Hard winced when he shot Takagi because of the noise. |
| Posted by: Miasma 2 September 2020 - 01:13 PM |
| This may sound sort of weird, but in retrospect, I have hard time accepting quite a bit of Season 1 as canon. It's not that I dislike season 1, but it just often feels a bit disconnected from the rest of the series in terms of MacGyver's personality, background, etc. As for the complaint earlier in this thread about him resigning from the Phoenix Foundation, to be honest, it had very little impact on me because by that point in Season 7, he rarely did anything with the foundation. So in a way, it felt like they were trying to make it emotional by having him resign, but my reaction was more like, "Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot he still works for that place...." |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 3 September 2020 - 02:50 AM |
| Yeah, but first seasons are always a little harder when you still need to establish the character. |
| Posted by: Krug 3 September 2020 - 09:19 AM |
| But Season 1 is my favorite season...kinda wish the show kept that vibe longer. |
| Posted by: Axminster 21 September 2020 - 05:50 AM |
| Not to pile on, but I also didn't like the final scene. Now, I haven't seen it in many, many years -- I'm gonna do a re-watch all the way through when the HD versions are available to stream -- but it came off to me, at the time at least, as just a little colder than I would've thought it'd be. I know Mac wasn't saying goodbye forever to Pete, but Pete was definitely down, and Mac basically came off to me as "Get over it." Again, this is what I thought/felt at the time, and it's possible upon another viewing, I'd take it differently. (After just now re-reading the first post, I see that this post of mine at this point offers literally nothing new.) Other than that -- this is kind of an odd one -- and I don't necessarily disagree with it per se, but does anybody else not see MacGyver the type to go to the beach and lay-out shirtless ("The Prodigal")? Maybe he was written a bit shyer after that, or maybe I am thinking about this far too much. (Like I said, it's an odd one. lol.) |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 21 September 2020 - 11:50 AM |
| There is a difference between first season Mac and later Mac. First season Mac lived at the beach, so why not go lay on it and get a tan, watch the girls arrive. Fourth season Mac didn't want to go to Hawaii, because Hawaii he said was boring. |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 21 September 2020 - 09:11 PM | ||
There's quite a lot of difference between season 1 and 2 really. Season 2 was kind of a reboot or restart of the series with a lot of the changes introduced there continueing through the rest of the show. There was also this document from the time of the second season planning which indicates season 2 did undergo a sort of reboot planning stage. https://www.macgyveronline.com/news-info/behind-the-scenes/background-bible/background-bible/ |
| Posted by: Miasma 28 September 2020 - 07:09 AM | ||
On a similar level, I thought it was kind of odd that MacGyver colored his hair. He was generally portrayed as an outdoorsy, rough, nature guy, so it feels out of character to picture him stopping at the drug store to pick up some hair dye and mousse after one of his adventures  And perhaps even more out of character to picture him going to the beauty salon to have someone else professionally dye his hair for him. But, then again, wasn't there a flashback episode that showed him with blonde hair as a kid? So maybe we were supposed to think that was his natural color. |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 29 September 2020 - 06:04 AM |
| Phoenix Under Siege had flashbacks with him as a kid with brown hair. Blood Brothers was blond. I don't know about kids dying their hair in the 60's even with parents consent but in the series in between seasons who knows. Of course we all know how it happened... |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 29 September 2020 - 10:53 PM | ||
We were. It wasn't MacGyver diying his hair. It was the producers changing the appearence of the character. Also, it's not uncommon for childrens hair to change color as they get older. I had blonde hair as a kid but it went brown as I got older. My sons both had blond hair as children and they too went brown as they got older. To be honest though I never relaly paid any attention to MacGyver's hair color at the time. |
| Posted by: sylvain1888 12 October 2020 - 12:15 PM | ||
he kept this atmosphere for 22 episodes. |