2.8 Packing Peanuts + Fire

Airdate: 17 October 2017
Writer: Lindsey Allen
Director: Stacey Black
Guest Cast: Billy Baldwin (Elwood) , Reign Edwards (Leanna Martin) , Luna Velez (Cassandra Glover)
Joseph Meissner (Wiessler) , Curtis Armstrong (Pawn) , Roger Floyd (Enzo Lemaire) , Amanda Lavassani (Michelle Baker)

When MacGyver and Jack “steal” a priceless painting in order to draw an infamous art dealer out of hiding, they wind up getting conned out of the painting by the dealer’s team. Also, Riley’s estranged father asks to be part of her life, and Matty sends Bozer to a spy training camp.

I thought this was poorly written. The three subplots had little fusion. Jack continuing to crack jokes and be the donkey's behind in the middle of an art heist was not realistic. Bozer lurking in the bushes Nancy Drew - like, and cracking an espionage ring was a bit far fetched, and the knock, knock scenes were uneasy and a 'joke' in their own right. Matty is just too annoying with the deadpan, monotone voice and the way she tells people to 'sit' like they were dogs is suppose to be funny? Dunno. Some amusing lines, some very good settings, and a promising story line , but it just didn't have any flow, imo.

Oh, one thing that I don't understand and it is the most annoying/defusing aspect of the reboot: How does Riley track every step of Mac & Jack from a remote position and more importantly from a plethora of angles when in a foreign building/residence? Does every building have the same, same hackable security wifi?

I'm at my Dad's this Weekend and haven't seen the Episode yet. Neither have I checked on the Twitter Feed during the airtime.

Preliminary Ratings are good - audience number isn't as high as last Weekend, but the demo held up. Ratings have been more or less steady for 8 Episodes, so I'll dare saying that we can expect a 3rd Season. They will probably renew the other Friday Shows as well. The "Holy Trinity" on Friday is too good not to renew it as a package - CBS even has better average Ratings on Friday than on some of the other weekdays. And in case one Show gets cancelled, they might put the "Magnum" Reboot in its spot.

table via http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-...11-17-2017.html

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I have to agree with Joe on this one... this episode just didn't gel together.

I think a big part of the problem is that the writers are apparently told that they MUST include every character in every episode, regardless of whether or not that character has anything to contribute to the plot. Bozer had nothing to contribute to the main story, so they put him in a stupid subplot, and it just detracted from the episode. Every time they cut to him, I just wanted them to get back to the main story.

I understand that Bozer is part of the main cast, but so was Dana Elcar, and yet there were plenty of episodes in the original series that did not include Dana. And of course the same is true of just about every other show out there. Can you imagine if The Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones tried to cram every main cast member into every episode? It would be ridiculous. And it's ridiculous here, too.

So, overall, I thought the main story was okay. Nothing great, but okay. But, it suffered from being constantly interrupted by Bozer's story. And while Riley's story could have been fine in a different context, it didn't work here because it didn't tie in to anything else. It was just another distraction from the main plot.

Not one of this season's better episodes.

I haven't seen the Episode yet and English is not my native language, but I stumbled over this screenshot today and have to ask: Is this meant as a joke or is this an honest mistake?

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Do you mean in that it's spelled wrong? XD Because yeah... that's kinda ironic, given it says "truth in details". Opps!

I kept thinking Bozer's little escapade was some kind of test to see if anyone would catch on... like part of the training.

Giving them too much credit? Yup!

I did get a tad excited to see Curtis Armstrong as Pawn. He was Metatron in Supernatural... a somewhat hated, yet loved, sorta villain?

Other than that, it was an okay episode. Agreed it was a bit too smooshed. Would rather not be forced to watch Bozer make a fool out of himself at training, but whatevs.

I do wish that they'd tone Matty down a bit. Her aggressive, disrespectful way of presenting herself just isn't making her come off as tough. If that is what they're going far... they're going about it the wrong way. =P

That's it from me... XD No other comments except an exasperated sigh and a "where's Murdoc?"

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I just remember him as Booger from Revenge Of The Nerds. Lol.

Finally got to watch the episode - and I didn't really know what to say about it at first. Doesn't happen that often to me

It's not bad, but I didn't really care for it. It might actually be my least favorite of the Second Season. Can't really say why. The ideas for the main story and the secondary storylines aren't that bad, but as others said before, they didn't really fit together.

Otherwise, it's the same complaints as always - too many characters with too many storylines. This time, it was Mac/Jack and Cage that took the brunt.

MacGyver doesn't even show up before we're about 6 minutes into the episode. He has like 2.5 minutes screentime, and then he's gone again. I guess it was fine cutting down for Cage-screentime, but on the other hand, it feels weird that she gets cut out constantly now after they shoved her unto us for the first five episodes. If someone joins the team, this person needs enough screentime - otherwise, why adding someone to the team?

I think they should have cut down on Matty instead and put Riley and her dad into another episode - the main mission with Bozer's story being the secondary storyline was more than enough. On the other hand, I think this should have been done back in Season 1; before Bozer was allowed to go onto his first real mission. It doesn't make much sense to me to send him to Spy School now that he's already done so many missions abroad. Also, Riley never had to go to Spy School (even after Matty took over), why should Bozer? It's not like Riley had any experience before she joined Phoenix.

And as said in here already, after Jack was more or less competent in Episodes 2x06 and 2x07, he's back to being the guy with no clue how to handle a mission.

Yep, this episode was all over the place. And yes, Mattys mean, unfriendly demeanor is just a little too much.

But it was good to see Booger show up. And Billy Baldwin. I thought it was Alec when he first appeared on screen. They
look so much alike.

Looking forward to the Bruce McGill episode.

There was a brief scene in season 1 that showed Patricia Thornton training Riley to fight, but yeah, definitely no spy school.

I kind of miss Patricia now. She wasn't a great character, but she seemed so much more professional and less annoying than Mattie.

So, was this closed circuit surveillance technique ever explained to us? I guess it must be as simple as hacking the building de jour system, hijacking the central control accessing all 'tripped' cameras and thus knowing who's 'on the move' or not? Is that how you guys see it, or did you just sort of accept/submit(like I did), that they're so technically advanced that they can just zoom in on any internal space at the click of a mouse and regardless of where they are in this world? That's a giant leap of a faith!

Riley's position is pretty well rendered redundant without it, but is it a too 'unmacgyver-like' an advantage? One of the original Mac's fortes was infiltrating buildings using a plethora of techniques. But we often see the reboot Mac, already inside and being guided by a remote colleague ... and in the latest episode, so smug, relaxed, cocky, confident while inside, that he/they can afford to crack jokes, talk loud, and get pretty sloppy.

It may make good techie tv, but at a big cost to the original 'MacGyver Code', imo.

I'm not a psychologist, but from my personal experiences, people like Matty generally use aggression to mask over their insecurities.

I've had supervisors like her in the past, and they don't really last long because they tend to create a hostile work environment.

A lot of her behavior wouldn't fly in a normal setting. Like constantly calling for updates, which could actually expose her field agents. If they don't pick up, she gets mad about it.

I mean... seriously... who acts like that during life/death situations? Nobody with any real common sense. lol

Final Ratings are in: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/show...11-17-2017.html

As always, audience numbers went a bit down, but only marginal this time. This episode still has the second highest number of live viewers this season.

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I'm not a psychologist, but from my personal experiences, people like Matty generally use aggression to mask over their insecurities.

I've had supervisors like her in the past, and they don't really last long because they tend to create a hostile work environment.

A lot of her behavior wouldn't fly in a normal setting. Like constantly calling for updates, which could actually expose her field agents. If they don't pick up, she gets mad about it.

I mean... seriously... who acts like that during life/death situations? Nobody with any real common sense. lol

Spot on, Jedi! Can you imagine if Pete was as annoyingly tyrannical, belittling, &/or condescending? If he was, I'll go out on a limb and say that I don' think we'd all be here and on this site today. There's only so much of that tone you can take and all too the detriment of the 'warm & fuzzy' part of our grey matter.

Well, I am a psychologist, and while I haven't worked in that field for years, I can confirm that you are right that this can be a reason (among others).

Meredith Eaton said in an interview that she had to become some sort of "tough cookie" similar to the characters she plays just because of her stature.

Personally, I can't even imagine what Meredith had to endure in her life just because of her height and I like that Matty is no damsel in distress. I'm pretty sure to reach such a position in an agency, you can't take no for an answer. However, I don't think that she needs to be so belittling and mean.

I honestly preferred Thornton's colder stance and no-nonsense-behavior towards Jack. She wasn't their friend, she was their boss that sometimes had to send them to dangerous missions. Yet she still stayed respectful and counted on their professional opinions (e.g. when she discussed Mac's emotional state with Jack in Episode 1x02 and if they should pull him of the missions for a while).

I think these scenes are just made up so she gets some screentime and lines to say. What else is there to do if she's not in the field with them? The same reason why Thornton was sometimes on missions (although she didn't have a reason to be; especially not in her position).

Another downside of having too many main cast members instead of recurring ones. I think the Original Show did it right with Dana Elcar. I liked Pete, but the show would have been very different if the had been in every episode - there would have been too many "office scenes" (e.g. briefings) and "Mac-at-home-scenes".

That's probably why there's always either a War Room Scene or team-bonding-scene at Mac's (now also Jack's) home. If they had dropped the War-Room-Scene in Episode 2x07, they would have had to put Matty also visiting Jack at home to get her some screentime. And because she wasn't part of the Bozer-Storyline here, they wrote her into dozens of scenes with her harping into the phone.

You're right of course, this is not standard mission-behavior. Since they wanted the Reboot to be about Government-Agency and Spy stuff only, they could at least make it more "official" and "military-style". Radio silence sure would be part of that; especially since they're so often undercover.

I get what Meredith is trying to do... but it still the wrong way to go about it.

Matty is just a poor leader, because anyone knows that a good leader doesn't belittle or threaten those under their power. A good leader sees the potential in others and finds way to bring that out.

Which is why the original MacGyver is so respected. Despite being a reluctant hero, he was a leader... which is something MacGyver 2.0 tends to lack. He's too compliant.

I guess the best example of a tough character, if we're going to go by stature, would be Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. Much like the original MacGyver, he listens to people and asks questions to find out how people tick... he uses that information to his advantage. He's also a very compassionate character, and highly intelligent. He also doesn't use his stature as an excuse. I'll post a video for reference.

If they went by that angle, Matty would be a much more respectable character. Her stature isn't the problem... it's her actual character and attitude that is. Rigid doesn't equal tough.

I learned that the hard way.... but I think I'm just preaching to the choir at this point. XD

OK. Clearly this episode leans to more negative reception then anything else, but I don't think it was all that bad, despite this episode may have been the one in which Till has the least screentime of them all. Squeezing three storylines into a 40-45 minute timeframe? I don't know. In the original I've seen many episodes squeezing the main storyline into 45 minutes while more then once it could've fitted over 90 minutes. Passages, On A Wing And A Prayer, Humanity, The Stringer, just to name a few and now three storylines in 45 minutes?

First of all, the worst one: Bozer.

The idea that Phoenix-agents needs to be trained that's fine but that is not how this is supposed to be. Looks like boot camp to me and if you fail you're out no matter what you do or say and they will notify your bosses. Bunch of squealers. Now more then ever I really have the feeling Phoenix don't know anything about their own agents let alone about their work. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to work for this Phoenix now but I would just stay there to stick with the team. If they need to be trained send them to MacGyverland.

Also that Bozer stumbled on something official didn't work for me. Just like Jedi says: I thought this was part of the training too. The guy was a Phoenix-agent testing them and shooting with blanks... but nope.

And what was up with that Rihanna look-a-like?

Secondly: Riley.

I thought her storyline was a lot more interesting than Bozer's. She's also a way cooler character then he is. I did like it that her father was played by Billy Baldwin, yet when he first appeared, I could've sworn I saw Alec. It's creepy how they look a like, but that's why they're brothers, I guess. And Jack beat him up? Billy looks rather tall and in his size he reminded me of Nick Nolte.

What I did not like in this storyline is that Matty just breaks in, in his room and starts threatening him if he hurts Riley whom she considers as family. That she even dared to use that word, the way she talks to the team... And this is not the first time she just appears in someone's house. If she would do that to me, I'll frigging sue her. I don't think she understands the meaning of the word family. The Fast and the Furious Family, that's a family and come to think of it: Jack could be Dominic Toretto, Mac is definitely Brian, Riley is Letty or maybe Mia and Bozer would be Roman Pierce. But seriously, I don't know what power she thinks she has, it's not making an impression. She can threaten as much as she wants but I'm never impressed, maybe it's because of her height, I don't know.

But those daddy-issues things seems contagious.

And the main story line.

Maybe the most interesting part on for me was: they came to Belgium. Even if it was just for a short bit of the episode. But it may have been better if it was like the Amsterdam episode. Now it was just in and out stealing the painting. Also the set up was nicely done. I know there was something wrong with that machine they used and then the switch...

I think they should've kept it with the main storyline and Riley's. But I do have to say that Bozer's story didn't bother me that much. I think it switched rather equally between the three of them only this show is named MacGyver. If they can provide Bozer of a seperate storyline with action so could they for Mac to be on his own. At first I was thinking: no not another opening gambit like when he came out of the car in his tux. This could've been a lot worse.

It's either one or the other but you can't satisfy everyone. Either she's in too much or she's hardly in it all. What do you prefer?

There's only room for so many characters in 45 minutes. I'd prefer the hero, the boss and the sidekick (male/female). In this case: Mac, Jack, Riley, Matty/Thornton. In the original: Mac, Pete, Jack and/or another guest star.

I hear you. But maybe that's the whole point and Matty is not supposed to be a very good boss. But it gets tiresome after a while with her demeaning attitude. That's what gets people burned out.

That's why I think Patricia had so much potential. Cold and distant at first but that she would warm up over the course of the show.

Exactly!

I wouldn't call him leader but the guy in charge. The guy you go to to ask what's next.

You're on a roll, Jedi. That's exactly who he is. He knows how to handle people and he would make a perfect leader. As you said, she might be insecure about herself but that doesn't give her the right to act like that. Especially not since they never made any condescending remarks about her.

Blog Post by Technical Advisor Rhett Allain about the MacGyverisms used in this episode: https://rhettallain.com/2019/06/04/macgyver...g-peanuts-fire/