I said it before and I'll say it again... I liked it! I'm actually looking forward to Friday night for the next episode! Could do with fewer explosions... but even the ORIGINAL series' logo was MacGyver written in front of an explosion

Anyway... Can't wait to see how they develop things going forward. And with all of the social media comments, etc.. I'm sure they're listening to us old farts... but also cognizant of the fact that we aren't the main demographic they're shooting for... just sayin'

True, true... >_<

My opinion and lack of views won't hurt them any, I'm sure. My opinion is kinda torn anyway. One minute I'm happy about the reboot, and another minute I'm hating it.

Dunno why really... it just feels like something is missing, almost like the show has no personality. But maybe that will change in the next episode?

I was never a fan of James Wan... hated the SAW series with a passion, and his horror movies are pretty mediocre. So the fact I was somewhat disappointed with the pilot doesn't surprise me at all.

I can appreciate what you are saying... But if you remember the original series' pilot episode... Mac (as played by RDA) was cocky as h*ll... so I think one can't judge a series by its first episode... it takes time to develop... as it did the first time around...

Well, sure!

I wasn't hooked on the original until season 3. I actually skipped most of season 2, went back and watched it later.

I guess what I'm trying to say is part of the reason I didn't care much for the pilot was because James Wan directed it. I'm not a big fan of his stuff, so... that may be why I was a bit disappointed. If the other episodes are directed by someone else, I might like it better. I'm certainly gonna give it several episodes before I decide I like it or not.

I've given the reboot a pretty fair shot... and I'm gonna continue to be as fair as I can with it.

You'll have to forgive me... I'm a very picky person about what I watch.

Edit: I was just thinking, I wonder if my Dad will like this reboot... lol I'll have to annoy him with it when I visit him next... heeheehee

Really? Cocky?

You'll need to explain that to me and remember there's a difference between being confident and being cocky.

"If I want a weapon I'll make one" is definitely cocky to the point of outright arrogance.

"The bag's not for what I take, it's for what I fond along the way" is confidence. But even with the confidence he wasn't overbearing with it and was never 100% it would work. Unlike this new MacGyver.

"I hack everything else.".... Really??

Look, i can somewhat agree with what you are all saying. But there is truth to the imbalance of the two shows. Clearly this is not a copy of the original. Lenkov has been on H50 for sometime and took some of its formula to try to boost Mac.

"Some" may find the theme to Mac a little dated but the opening part to still carry a bit of validation. They wanted a more dramatic feel to fit with today's rougher audience so they took the one part that "Worked" for them and finished it with something else.

Television today is not campy. It is brutal. So it has to fit with the others. I also agree that there is a lot going on that i am not fond of. Hate the team thing, not liking Eads too much. The relationship with Nikki is 2 dimensional and couldnt care less if she dies or not. Wilt is always going to be there when Mac goes home (I have a feeling). He's going to be like a ghost or a haunting.

I liked the alone time Mac had. It helped you to connect to the character better.

I managed to watch halfway through the pilot, and I really must admit that it was quite entertaining. However, I disliked the whole team involvement.

I will rate the episode 8/10; A person should not continuously examine the contrasts between the original series and the reboot; it is not a sequel, but a complete remake of the series. Not bad at all!

And you only saw half?

The pilot was okay. But it did not blow me away. IMO of course.

The second episode was worse for me and i just didnt "get" it.

It was late so I decided to go to bed...

Forgive me if this has already been asked (I may have overlooked a post or two), but how did Nikki fake her death for several months? Mac and Jack both must have known where her body should have been, so didn't anyone actually look for her body before proclaiming that she was dead? Or did they just say, "Well, huh, I don't see her, but oh well, I guess she must be dead and her body just vanished."

Well...IMHO... Mac was shot himself and unable to return to the scene of the shooting... so since he had seen her "get fatally shot" he presumed her dead? As for hiding out for several months, I imagine her "other friends", the ones who faked her death, helped hide her as well

Possible. It just seems like a very sloppy way of handling it by DXS. They're supposed to be such a high-powered, top-secret organization, yet when one of their own agents disappears, they just assume she's dead and don't look for a body?
Mac saw her get shot, sure, but he got shot, too, and he survived, so why would he (or anyone) assume it wasn't possible for her to have survived, especially when her body was never found? Presumably somebody got Mac out of the water not too long after the shooting (since he didn't drown), so wouldn't they have also tried to get Nikki out? And if Nikki was no longer there, wouldn't that raise some concerns about where she went?

(I'm probably overthinking something that was actually just a case of lazy writing.)

Sloppy writing, more like. Yep, I had the same issue. When you're a person who analyzes things like plots etc, holes like that can get annoying. These days, too many shows jump around so fast that it can throw one off. They cram too much in too quickly and you can get lost pretty rapidly. Correlations between length of time between commercial breaks, and lack of narrative story telling and the development of ADD are pretty well documented. I feel like the writers of this show (and many others) suffer from the same ADD that their shows help to induce. The MacGyverisms in the new show are one such example. They happen so fast that there is no suspense (someone else mentioned this before on here). There is no wondering "What's Mac up to?" it's just BAM done and onto the next thing before one can even appreciate the ingenuity of what we just witnessed.

I know styles change in terms of storytelling formats and fashions, but I don't always think they are improvements merely because they are new. Our brains are wired to think in terms of stories. We process things that way and turn periods of our life into episodes even though it is really an unbroken stream of one thing after another. Stories, to be good, have to be constructed in a particular way for them to be meaningful and stick. I can remember many episodes of the original show. They stuck. I have the distinct feeling that many of the new episodes will be forgettable and all sort of blend together in my mind after the season is over. But, I'm 49 years-old. I was 18 when the original show started and I grew up watching shows that had four acts and an epilogue. Character development was more important, and people would actually watch something from beginning to end to see how it turned out. There didn't have to be a thrill a minute, watching each scene go by in a blur as if riding on a roller coaster.

Here endeth my cranky old man rant.

It's odd, because in some ways, you're right: With shows like this new MacGyver, everything is being done at a breakneck pace in order to keep the audience's attention. And yet, audiences, overall, have very good attention, as evidenced by the fact that we see much larger story arcs in tv shows these days than we did in the 80s. Back in the 80s, shows were done on an episode-by-episode basis. Everything was neatly wrapped up in 45 minutes (not counting commercials.) But these days, many shows give us huge stories and complex characters, spread out over many years. And people stick with those shows, and follow the intricacies of the plots and characters' developments very closely, so I don't really know why a show like this MacGyver reboot feels the need to speed everything up.

My sister watched the pilot last night... her opinion isn't as biased because she's not a big fan of the original. She thinks my fandom of the original is hilarious.

Some of the things she said you guys have mentioned already:

1. It's more Mission Impossible than MacGyver
2. This is the Jack Dalton and Riley show, MacGyver comes in secondary
3. It's too fast paced, and the whole team thing is done too quickly. Because of this, it gives little room for the audience to connect with the characters... especially MacGyver, who should be the first to connect with because he's the title character.
4. The MacGyver/Nikki love scenes are forced and uncomfortable... The whole handcuffs scene was ridiculous
5. Fake explosions are too obvious, and makes a mention that at least it's not a Michael Bay film. I said it was directed by James Wan, and she said: Well, that's obvious.
6. Humor is too forced
7. All in all, she said the show was "okay", but was too predictable.

She did laugh a few times and thought Jack Dalton was amusing. She said she'd be willing to watch a few more episodes though to see if it gets any better. She also said her husband might give it go... but only because Sandrine Holt is in it.

Finally I watched this episode.
This Mac is too young, the other cast has the same names of the old tv show but they are totaly wrong.
Also I admit I like the female version of Thornton.
I love her!
Many macgyverism are cool, with "references" to original MacGyver, but others are not much believable
The voice over is too intrusive and too boaster.
But I'll give it a chance, after all.

I've started my next little "side-project" on my blog by writing about the Pilot Script by Peter Lenkov - well, basically looking at "deleted scenes" that didn't make it into the episode that aired: https://dashboardonfire.wordpress.com/2017/...-scenes-part-1/

The script that has been floating around for a while is the Revised Network Draft from June 20. There were several revisions after that until the Table Read on July 8 and probably some more revisions after that. Then came the editing of course.

I'm not sure how many posts I will write. So far, I have scheduled another one for Sunday (about Siberia and the Helicopter Chase). Then I sure will have to write about the "Baywatch with Tanks" Scene .


I know not anyone can comment on my blog, but I will also bring the Deleted Scenes in here over the next few weeks if anyone wants to discuss them. I'm posting the shortest one for now because I have to crop and resize the other screenshots first...

Attached Image

Don't know where to put it but starting tonight the reboot will be aired in Belgium every Thursday night, 4 episodes after each other. Currently I'm a little overbooked with tv, so I'll have to record it and watch it afterwards. Now I'll see for myself what they came up with. I think my reviews on the episodes will be coming soon.

You haven't seen the reboot at all yet?
It'll be interesting to relive the first season through your reviews, in that case. Looking forward to your opinions!

Nope, there is a first time for everything.

I think i got to episode 4 of Season 2 and i gave up.

Sounds like you at least gave it a chance.

I dunno why I got the feeling you gave up before that. Just had to give it another shot, eh? XD

@MacGyverGod - Do let us know what your thoughts are. The more opinions the better, I say. I'm usually half awake when I watch them, so I'm always a bit out of it when I go to write down my thoughts.

Yes, I know... it's awful... XD

I actually did. Then with the opinions shared by others regarding how season 2 was going to improve, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. But it ultimately became more foreign than the first season and so i just stopped altogether.

I guess its just not that feeling of what i used to get from seeing the original.

The trick is not to expect it to feel or be the same.

It's a different show in a different era about the same character and that's really how it has to be watched.

Latest episodes are certainly entertaining, but it's still very dumbed down "no thinking required" entertainment.

Exactly and I think this is why most of us get disappointed. We're still expecting more of the same thing which it no longer is. I think this is one of the reasons why I wasn't that impressed with Lethal Weapon. Riggs with a mustache? A different wife with a different fate. Murtaugh as a heart patient? Songs during action sequences, but after like six episodes, it started to get better, like it found it's footing so yes I am curious to that second season while they are of course no match compared to Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

Guess I'll find out whether the new MacGyver is dumbed down with no thinking requiered. The original show was not exactly meant for the intelligent either. Can't think of one episode I couldn't follow as kid and I've been watching for 25 years. As a 6-7 year old of course I didn't understand a word he said nor what he was doing. Maybe Ugly Duckling. It was just cool when the old SAK came out, cutting things, connecting things and boom you can blow out a lock. To be honest, I think the original show was at least in some way educational without getting too 'schooly' or making you say: 'Should've paid attention in class'. That's what I like so much about the show. Everyone can understand it.

That's one way of looking at it.

I'm just not a fan of the team oriented format, and I'm also not that big of a fan of reboots. If it wasn't for the original, I wouldn't give the Reboot the time of day simply because it's not my kind of show.

I can remain objective... and I've been more than fair. Heck, I've even recommended it to my friends who wouldn't touch the original with a 10-foot pole. Interestingly, they have no interest in the reboot either. lol

I just feel that the reboot isn't anything new... it just kinda comes off as a typical and boring.

It's not a bad show though... it's just not my kind of show.

They're always feeding us the same thing. Everything bigger, faster and more spectacular with similar characters. It's like everyone can take out whole armies by themselves now. Rambo did that in the 80's when it was new, Xena did that in the 90's and pretty much everyone else after the year 2000. Of course nothing wrong with that.

But recentely I was thinking what if they now made a show like in the 80's and 90's, both an action/adventure and a family related sitcom with occasional drama and every week is a complete new episode with every now and then a two-parter.

Jedi, your friends really don't know what they're missing here. Try On A Wing and a Prayer or Humanity. Those would be two of my recommendations.

I feel that if a show is different and exciting, it will find its own way to pull you in. Simply holding onto the character as a form of a leash is just not good enough. Lenkov made his own show.Whether we liked it or not was irrelevant to him.

When you see it, you will understand. This is H50 / NCIS. There is nothing new here.

When the original show was released, NOTHING compared to it. I don't feel i need to mindset myself to watch it. As an audience, i expect to be entertained, not spoon fed. And this incarnation is filled with spoon feeding what i already had this morning.

Someone on the magnum-mania forum posted an article from the Guardian newspaper here in the UK, about the Magnum reboot - I copied and pasted this paragraph because I think it's absolutely spot on (apart from Lenkov's first name being wrong!):


Worse, the new Magnum will be produced by Paul Lenkov, who has made a cottage industry of watering down shows you used to love. Lenkov was also the mastermind behind the Hawaii Five-O and MacGyver reboots, which should be enough to give you pause. His speciality seems to be taking good, sturdy, landmark shows – shows which were undeniably key parts of the cultural landscape first time around – and turning them into wallpaper. His versions are bright and lively and absolutely hollow, full of grinning haircuts who operate without any meaningful motivation. They’re empty calories. They’re things designed to make noise in the background while you look up recipes on your phone. I’ve tried watching Lenkov’s Hawaii Five-O. I really have, multiple times, but it’s impossible. There’s no weight to it. It’s like watching mist.