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MacGyver and the New Citan

So, what did you think? I was a bit disappointed, honestly -- it was great having even a little MacGyver, but I would have liked a more coherent job of storytelling. I found myself thinking, "Hmm, I wonder if the people who made this know a lot about making car commercials but not so much about filming action-adventure in a way that allows you to follow what's going on."

I did get a kick out of Mac's voiceovers! And don't get me wrong: I'm glad they made the set, and I enjoyed it. It's just that I really would have liked more.

I realized right at the end that the (very shiny, brand-new) van Mac was driving was the same red as a Swiss Army Knife, and I adored that touch.

Did anyone else notice that, in the English language version of the credits, the word 'Africa' is misspelled? At least they spelled 'MacGyver' right! Some journalists can't even manage that!




* Added video clip of all 3 episodes joined together into one video


This post has been edited by KiwiTek on 21 September 2012 - 02:34 PM

yeah I was expecting a lot more than they delivered too. To be honest I'm more disappointing that they have completely ignored or forgotten MacGyver's past and invented a new one. MacGyver never referred to "the agency", never worked for Don and didn't have a daughter.

All in all I think the main let down was the shortness of the episodes making the story so sparse that there's really no understanding of why anything is happening.

Well, it's possible Mac had a daughter at a later age, like RDA. They probably thought it would be fun to give this 'MacGyver' a daughter because RDA has one, she even looks a bit like RDA's daughter. But more important: what is the point? Why is she in this production at all? Father and daughter apparently work together, but what does that add to the storyline? Nothing. Besides, she should still be in school, at her age, if you ask me. Anyway, I don't feel like there's any bond between them, and when he says he has to get to her, I couldn't care less.
But I agree with you, KiwiTek. Agency? Don? What's that all about?

The whole 'story' stinks, in fact, there i s no story. 'MacGyver' stumbles into a situation, but I don't understand what the situation is. Men disguised as women break in, knock out lots of people, steal a crate and later on they are all killed by the content of the crate. And then 'Mac' kills the robot. So what? Again, I couldn't care less.
Another disappointment: I had expected a lot of great MacGyverisms, and felt royally cheated with just that bag 'MacGyver' filled up with oxygen. Is that all they could come up with?

I didn't even like the voice-over – sorry Beth. His voice doesn't sound right to me. Strained, old. That puzzles me. I watched several videos of RDA at DragonCon and his voice there is great, nothing wrong with it. So what happened here?

Can I honestly say what bugs me most about this commercial venture? I think the people who made this haven't a clue about who MacGyver is, they just thought it would be cool to link MacGyver to the new car, and therefore asked RDA to promote it. And they did it in a way that borders on character assassination. I know, it's a harsh thing to say, but I still say it. Look at the first scene of the first 'episode': they turned clever, ingenious, unique MacGyver into into an ordinary elderly handyman with a toolkit. There are tens of thousands of handyman like that in the world, and MacGyver will never be one of them. Maybe it's meant to be funny, well, it didn't make me laugh. People who don't know MacGyver will think: 'Who is this pathetic old bugger, and what's he doing in this commercial?'
That's the reason I have put 'MacGyver' between brackets, because this character has nothing in common with 'our' MacGyver.

I truly wish they would have left Mac alone.

Correction: I meant 'quotation marks' of course, not 'brackets'.

I disagree,

I enjoyed to see this commercial with Mac Gyver.
Of course he's old, he has a daughter... and so what?
After 20 years he could become a father again, right?
And he might have worked in another agency, in the meantime...
Or "they", the producers, simply had copyrights issue.

I appreciated the voice over, it reminds me the original "Mac Gyver".

We can talk about the story, it's good or not, but we have RDA as Mac Gyver (with voice over), and it is enough for me .

I was really, really tired yesterday when I first watched them, and I actually found the story pretty confusing. Reading your posts, though, I realize I'm not alone. Agency? What agency? Of course, we haven't seen Mac for many, many years, he might have been involved with another agency after he left Phoenix, but... nah.

The daughter is rather plausible though, since she seems pretty young, and was probably born some time after 1994. The "What's that?" "That's an e-mail, dad!" was a nice bit of dialogue; a hint that he's not too familiar with smartphones.

That said... the voiceover didn't really do it for me, I'm sorry to admit it, but no, I hardly recognized his voice. Of course, he sounds older, but also so much less... dynamic? Energetic? Well, maybe part of it is due to the fact that RDA is much older now, but there's something else missing.

I don't know. And to be honest, we didn't see too much of the car either--advertising isn't really my thing, but do you feel the slightest interest in trying out the Citan car after watching these? I certainly didn't, and I'm a MacGyver fan. OK, maybe they do assume that the age interest group for Citans are mostly people from the MacGyver generation, but for those who don't even know our hero, would it impress them at all?

Hmm.

Please don't misunderstand me--my criticism isn't in any way aimed at RDA, I think the problem is with the script writers. If this is what we can expect from a movie... let's just say I doubt I'd watch it at all.

I think it's a difficult task to revive MacGyver--it is a great show, but for the 80's. Today, too many opportunities for MacGyverisms are replaced by smartphone apps.

He made an acetylene bomb. AND he used his SAK at the end.

Did anyone notice the MacGyver theme playing as he drove into the robot?

I've just rewatched the episodes and the story does make a little more sense now. The more I watch it the more I like it.

To me it feels like they had a pretty good story worked out and then cut it to pieces to make it fit into the3 minute time frame of each episode.

Did anyone else find the countdown with the water sprinkler reminded them of the start of Children of Light where Mac is fixing Pete's alarm clock?

I found the email remark quite out of character for MacGyver, as he was always on top of technology. Remember episodes like ugly duckling and Fire and Ice where he was very computer savvy. So the email comment bugs me.

I liked the voiceover idea to help tell the story and I think with the lack of story filling they needed to have them in there, but I agree the voice really didn't sound like MacGyver or RDA. Mind you the same applies to his Simpsons episode too, that didn't really sound like him either.

I think the main problem here is that the trailer set us up with the impression and expectation of an action packed full on MacGyver episode to rival the Superbowl commercial (which I get the impression is what they originally wrote) but what we actually got was a short and confusing commercial which in the end even fails to advertise the van.

Remember guys, this isn't a MacGyver episode, its a car commercial and I think in all fairness they had the ideas and the feel for MacGyver, but they were let down by the time restrictions.

Time restrictions, eh? Remember the Opening Gambits in MacGyver? Some of them needed less time than this commercial does. And they had great plots, very well executed. So the Citan people had enough time to establish the MacGyver feel, but failed. The email scene is a fine example. Like Kiwi says, Mac knows about these things.
It's perfectly clear to me that the producers went for the name, not the character.

MacGyver haveing a Daughter when did that happen, and when did he start working for this Don person? was it after Pete died and he came back? or was he recruited to work with Don? it also seems they named another character with the letter "K". Now what happened to Sam? did he marry,die or just went wondering like his old man did when he was that age. Now who is Kate's mother? could it be Nikki or someone else. They should of made it into ten episodes break the story down and explain all our questions.

Well, I agree with traveller, the poducters went for the name not the character. With a goog plot and a good director I am sure thar RDA can do it much better. He is older but he is a good actor and he was MacGyver for many many years, so as an actor, it is something that he will never forget. He know how to act.




The plot was not so good, MacGyver knows how to adat to the new times, he dominates new technologies, he used to know about computers, he learn by himself everything, so I think he know about cellular phones, internet, e-mails... as many people of his same age nowadays. I think they used the sentence "It´s an e-mail dad" to establish a distance in the different generations of both (father-daughter), but it was a mistake. They should had searched other thinks, but not new tecnologies.

Anyway I am glad to see RDA again acting as MacGyver, even in a commercial. And I´d like to see him acting in a movie some time. And of course I´d love to see him in new episodes of MacGyver.

Even i woudn´t care if I could see 2 different movies of MacGyver, one of them with RDA (and to know what happened to MacGyver all these years), and other one with other younger actor, in the same way that James Bond was interpreted by different actors and he is always young 60s, 70s... nowadays.

I just found a video which has all 3 episodes joined together into one.. it makes it much easier and better to watch. I've added it to Beths original post here at the top.

One MacGyverism? Did you watch it with one eye closed?

Here's the list I have so far

*Broke paper clip in half to replace the "trigger pins" in the water sprinkler system.

*filled trash bag with oxygen to breath while gas was released

*added acetylene to a trash bag to make a DIY acetylene bomb and used a strip of masking tape as the fuse.

and finally

*Used his SAK to cut the red wire to stop the robot.



Does anyone else think the scientist trying to operate the robot looks like the psychiatrist from the Prisoner of Conscience episode? The blonde guy?

The scientist looks like a Samantha Carter turned guy being forced to do something he doesn't want to do.

The Main bad guy reminds me of murdoc, but murdoc doesn't play well with others.

Yes, I've watched it with two eyes, again, and liked it even less. The fast editing, the rapid succession of shots, suggests a lot, but it is nothing but a rapid succession of shots. What were they thinking? Let's do a Jason Bourne?
The bomb, ah yes, the bomb. A little gas in a bag. That's a Great Macgyverism? Because that's what I was talking about: Great MacGverisms. I don't see them. What I saw was mediocre at best, and makes me want to rewatch all those great MacGyverisms in 'MacGyver', the series.
And Kiwi, do you really consider the use of a SAK a MacGyverism?

By the way, I keep hoping you will comment on my note on the Opening Gambits.

Yes, Traveller, I totally agree with you regarding the opening gambits--they do work as standalone stories, they *are* really entertaining and they *definitely* have the MacGyver feel to them.

They are driven by the action, and frankly, you don't have to know *that* much about the background stories, only the necessary facts (like, in the case with the map, you just need to know that he's been assigned to find it). They don't leave lots of loose threads hanging in the air, and they don't introduce too many new and important facts (and people, for that matter). Not too much dialogue either, only just as much as you need to follow the story.

To sum it up--they're pretty clean, literally "hands on"; driven by the action and yet clearly defines what MacGyver is all about. I think the Citan advertisements failed on many of those points.

Lets not forget this is actually a car commercial, not a MacGyver episode.

As for the MacGyverisms,the show had more than it's share of weak MacGyverisms too so not sure why your expecting "great MacGyverisms" in a car commercial.

Rapid succession of shots is a modern editing technique. lots of shows and commercials use it these days. Again not sure what the problem is with it. It's how they do stuff today. *shrugs*

What i meant by the time restriction was that I got the impression they had written a whole episode length story.. it certainly felt much bigger than what we saw anyway.. and then they had to edit it down to the fit the 3 minutes per episode. I think your right that if they had written and filmed it as a gambit it would have been better.

This has more MacGyverisms and more plot than the Superbowl commercial had, and certainly a lot better than those MacGruber clips with RDA in them and yet this is getting more flack? I can't understand that at all.

Voice over is not good maybe because he's talking low voice and mixed whispering, like in Golden Triangle episode, he little bit whispering in voice over when he hiding under the tarpaulin.

I think we all expected a new episode of Mac Gyver, but RDA is old, and the Mac character also, whether we like it or not.
Every one of us has his particular idea of a new Mac Gyver episode but it's time to face the truth: Richard is 62 years old and probably he doesn't know the character as us.p
He always played a character, trusting of the writers of the episodes as in this case.

Why on earth would I expect weak MacGyverisms? I expect great MacGyverisms because that is what MacGyver is famous for. I don't understand why you, of all people, bring weak MacGyverisms into the discussion. Are you saying that the producers of the commercial are excused for showing weak MacGyverisms because the series carried some? Come on, Kiwi!

I know that's how they do stuff today – at least the action movies. I live in this world, too, you know. And I love fast action movies, provided they tell a good story. But that is my point: the commercial, clearly set up to be a fast action mini movie, is cut like this to cover up the lack of a good plot.

Don't get me wrong: as a fan of MacGyver and of RDA I was prepared to love this commercial (and I don't think RDA is too old for this, Cirubit) but had to come to the conclusion that they screwed up. Still, I watched it again and again, to try and find some good things. And you know what I found? Yet another example of how they don't know Mac at all:
In the commercial 'MacGyver' says: 'There was a time when a gas mask was part of my kit.' Excuse me?! Except for the Pilot, MacGyver never carried a kit, let alone a gas mask.

Oh and about the Super Bowl commercial: that was far superior to this one: they made the most of what little time they had, with a nice simple plot (Mac is trapped and has to escape) and executed it with finesse, true to what MacGyver is about.

I agree the mastercard commercial was a very nice experiment!

But we don't forget also in some episodes of the original series, and in 2 tv movies, we have strange inconsistencies about Mac's life.

So, what is the problem?

There is no problem. Just a little discussion, an exchange of different views.

Sorry, I used the word "problem" in a wrong way.

You're right: this is only a discussion.

I had also posted to my blog, and we had a short discussion there; I had forgotten to come back here and check in!

I ended up being really, really annoyed at the "It's an email" line. That was just idiotic: that's what you'd hear between RDA and his daughter, not Mac. I'll go along with a 'AU' Mac who subsequently got into a relationship, had a daughter, and made sure he was around to raise her, but I'll never buy the idea that Mac would not stay on the front of the technology curve. ("I don't know much about robots" I took to be ironic.) In my own Mac-in-the-present-day story, I had him running his own server and contriving internet and intranet access while out in the woods and otherwise off the grid. Phoenix was always represented as being cutting-edge: they would've had email as soon as it became available, if not before. By now, they'd have an entire division doing online forensics and fighting cyber-crime.

I didn't have any problems with 'Don' or the Agency, but for very specific reasons. In the US, the CIA is often referred to as the Agency -- it has other nicknames, some of them unprintable, but that one is often used as the most generic. Spooks and ex-spooks can talk about 'the agency' when out in public: they know what they mean, and nobody else automatically knows. Based on that, I assumed they meant the DXS, and that it was a nod to canon.

Based on that, I also assumed that Don was just someone Mac had known in his DXS days. I was glad they didn't try to cast anyone else as Pete -- that would have been just plain wrong -- so they needed a different Old Pal From the Spy Corps, as it were.

For the commercials overall: well, they were scripted and filmed by a team of people whose profession is making commercials. That's what they know. They plainly don't know how to film action-adventure. As slick visual packaging, I suppose it was good. As visual storytelling, it was lousy. Gratuitous upside-down scene? Huge jumps forward without a through-line? But they weren't really trying to tell a story: they're trying to sell a car.

As for why I liked the voice-overs: partly because having them at all is consistent with the show, which means a lot to me. Partly because the folksy humour worked for me, even though it was sometimes more Jack O'Neill snark instead of MacGyver introspection. And partly because it did, at least, help the storytelling along -- and that NEEDED the help!

The MacGyverisms: not the best, not the worst. At least they were there: Mac was presented as competent and effective, rather than hapless. Some of the later season shows were a bit thin in that area, so at least the Citan version of Mac was doing a bit better. Given the short amount of total running time, they did a pretty good job of getting the MacGyverisms in.

You actually left one off your list, Kiwitek: MacGyver uses the Citan itself to take out the robot. He wouldn't have been able to get close enough to cut the wiring if he hadn't first smashed it with the vehicle. That did fit nicely with the car commercial aspect: Buy the SAK Citan! Use it to transport your toolbox AND save the world against killer robots!

I did actually think about the agency thing at one stage, probably when I first heard it in the preview, it's been talked about in here before, but haven't given it much thought since then. It does make good sense though and for me at least is a plausible explanation of continuity.

Again, another plausible explanation.

It should be a Jeep or Volvo commercial, because Volvo is sometimes used in episodes.
Or is it because i drive Volvo?

Thats good idea . I've heard some rumours that Jeep Wrangler (JK) maybe will discontinued in sometimes in 2014 or 2015, So RDA would be in a new Jeep Wrangler (?) commercial.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing RDA, but this was far from anything MacGyver. Thank goodness it's not "cannon", and just an overblown Mercedes-Benz commercial.

Never seen these BtS pictures before.

Found them on this blog about the Citan commercial: https://blog.daimler.com/2012/09/26/behind-...der-neue-citan/

That's very cool!

well, I saw the commercial. I have to say that I agree with the consensus of you all.

I just have a few comments.

Mac becoming a handyman and having his own business is perfectly plausible to me. Macgyver is getting older and it makes sense that he is semi-retired with his own business. We all know he would have to do something with his time. I would like Mac to be my handyman.

The daughter does not bother me. It is the weekend so she is with her farther instead of in school. He has been teaching her to be like him from birth. There is plenty of time for Mac to have a 16 year or so daughter. I would imagine Sam living his own life with his own family with a career of his ownso he was not mentioned.

The guy he used to work with was ok. We could of been at the Phoenix foundation that we just never saw like Pete's number 2 and then later took over or maybe he is from a different agency that Mac worked for after he goes off with Sam for a little while.

The email comment bothered me. It was a missed line. Out of character completely. Macgyver would of been one of the first to get a smartphone and he would of tinkered with them for years. It was a line written by an ignorant someone.

The same is true about robots. I don't know much about robots? Missed line number two. Just change those two lines and it would of eliminated most of my complaints about it...

Most importantly my main point is: I believe that anyone of us could of written a better commercial and told a better story but it was ok...for what it was..