The voice of the fans was listened to by CBS with their first pilot attempt and now it's time to speak up again.

A large number of fans have, and continue to, voice their concerns and disdain for the new MacGyver show. The only way to get these things fixed and make this show all that it can be is to direct our voice to the people making the show.

I strongly encourage everyone to let Peter Lenkov and the writers respectfully know your concerns for the show.

PLEASE make your comments constructive. They will be a lot more willing to listen and take notice if we provide good solid, precise feedback and even ideas on how to fix some of the issues rather than hateful, abusive or generally negativeness. Please remember these people are working hard to make a TV show we will enjoy, so lets give them the respect they deserve when communicating to them.

Please also make sure that you are voicing your opinion based on having actually seen the show and not just feeding of what others are saying. You can't give constructive feedback on something you haven't seen for yourself.

Many of you are already communicating through the channels listed below. This is great and please keep it up as each episode airs. Continuous feedback and commentary will reinforce our views and provide valuable indicators of improvements or decline.


People to contact:

Peter Lenkov (Show runner, writer, producer)
Twitter: @PLenkov
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plenkov/

Craig O'Neill (writer & executive producer)
Twitter: @CO_MacGyver

Writers: Twitter: @MacGyverWriters

General:
Twitter: @MacGyverCBS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MacGyverCBS/

Sorry but I'm not a professional .I know my limits. Pass .

I've thought of doing a video review when I get some free time... but it would greatly depend on how it would even turn out, or if it was even remotely helpful. But, I'm willing to give it a shot.

Unlike some folks... I would like to see this show succeed, as long as they're doing the show for the right reasons... but it doesn't seem like they even get that part of the character.

Eh... XD

Well i did my part. Started off by swearing at Peter. Then i went on to insulting the way the stars look with big ears. And then i said that i think it stinks.

Juuuuusssttttt Kidding!

But i did let Peter know via twitter a couple of things i wanted changed.

I'd be first in line but I haven't seen it yet. Guess I'm waiting till it airs here. That's at least how I wanna play it but I don't expect it anytime soon. If it airs here, it's probably after the holidays.

good initiative, although they already recorded more than six episodes so believe suggestions/changes would be reflected later on the season. At first I'm not impressed, not at all - the idea of having Macgyver as a team does not fit (in my perspective) or at least is a huge change in which they should've introduced the characters one by one, suddenly we have a new team for which I don't feel comfortable, in my perception Mac was a extraordinary human, able to speak several languages, also someone with scientific, engineering and computer knowledge. He does not require a team to complete the missions, also he never lies---

I do know that the production team reads our comments which is great, but some of the special effects that were used are out to date- too many guns were shown and I couldn't contain my frustration when they named PF with a beer, come on they should've taken a whole episode to re-establish such an iconic organization.

To be honest, I'd like to see a couple more episodes before I do anything. I think one slightly rushed pilot might be too early to pass final judgement on, or get a handle on what I like and don't. I am actually looking forward to seeing if episode two is better because they had more time with it...

If after about three its still not "Mac" then I shall send something appropriate and respectful.

Yes, they're shooting Episode 7 right now - which is why I want this reboot to succeed and being picked up for a full season (or getting a second one).

I want them to change their mistakes and make it better because I feel their heart is in the right place. They listened to the fans after the unaired pilot "disaster" and already made good changes. They are fans of the shows. Imagine what we could have gotten otherwise . Yet they still failed to really understand the core of Angus MacGyver and the original show and what made it so special. It wasn't just the MacGyverisms or the action.

Some might be due to pressure by CBS - I can imagine they insisted on a team or they don't want to anger potential viewers who are pro-gun etc. Of course CBS is mostly banking on a potential franchise and not on MacGyver's humanity. Yet I think changes are possible even within specific orders or boundaries by the network - and I want to see them.

Even if they don't change anything this season, they may change things for the next season. They did for the original... Season 2 Mac was very different from Season 1 Mac.

As long as they're listening, I can overlook some minor differences.

I think it would be great and maybe add some substance to this MacGyver's history if the writers were to bring Richard Dean Anderson on for some episodes playing this MacGyver's dad. what do you think?

This post has been edited by oldskhool on 6 February 2017 - 09:36 PM

Richard Dean Stanton??? You mean Anderson?

And no, its probably not going to happen. He has already stated that he will not appear in the show.

I know this sounds like a tiny nitpick, but it bugs me to always see Jack driving Mac everywhere. It makes Mac seem almost childlike, as if he needs a chaperone and can't fend for himself. Even if the showrunners insist that Jack MUST accomany Mac on every adventure, they should at least make it feel as if Mac is the one in charge, and one way to do that would be to have Mac in the driver's seat (literally and figuratively.)

I realize that sometimes they need to have Jack in the driver's seat since Mac is doing MacGyverisms while they're traveling. That's fine. But when that's not the case, let Mac take the wheel.

I hadn't even noticed this. Too inundated with characters interacting. However and having said that, I don't think it's being too nitpicky and if anything serves to further undermine rather than glorify the character. Let's be frank here, the photo ops of Mac driving in an open jeep in the original series produced some of the most iconic angles/clips in the show and were in may ways 'signature' of the series. If they think that Mac riding passenger in a rental sedan are comparable to .... then I think they're sadly mistaken and dropped the ball .... down a bottomless manhole.

Yes its hard to see MacGyver as the lead role in this show when he's always in second place.

Has anyone also noticed how we've had nearly no character depth given to Mac?
We keep hearing about Jacks past and everyobe is obsessed with his background but we have nothing about MacGyver. He's just a secondary character.

Yes, and that's always been my main complaint. We know more about the backstories of everyone else than about MacGyver. Since it's a reboot and they changed his backstory, they could at least give us something about the main Character.

Yep. Definitely noticed that. Mac's just the guy who comes up with creative solutions. That's it.
I've said it before-- we know nothing about what motivates him, what he's passionate about, what his moral compass is like, what angers him, what he enjoys to do in his free time, etc, etc.
In the original, we knew he loved hockey, we knew he was passionate about environmental causes, we knew his feelings towards guns, etc, etc, etc. Heck, in this version, we don't even know WHY he doesn't carry a gun. Does he dislike guns? Does he have horrible aim? Does he just enjoy the challenge of coming up with alternative solutions? Nobody knows.

I wouldn't even care if they changed his interests from the original. If they decided to make him passionate about some sport other than hockey, for example, that's fine, whatever, but give us SOMETHING to develop his personality.

Lenkov IMO is hellbent on giving us another Hawaii 5-0 that he only wanted to build his own fan base. And for that, those are the only ones who seem to like this show. Or the only ones that seem to ask questions at his conventions.

For someone that was a huge fan of the original, he seems to show very little comparison to the 1980's version.
The characters are always joking around and its difficult to take anyone seriously. Many have said the same things over and over again. And its a frustrating watch for me. Its always the same 2 dimensional formula. The original always handed you unpredictable situations. The new show tries to copy that but ends up being formulaic again. This show is solely based on the first season of the original simply because everyone that's involved only saw the first season. Or few episodes of it.

OMG, that would be a helluva story for the Season Finale that will explain some of what had been going down in Cairo.

Cairo: Mac having terrible aim, shooting Jack in the leg accidentally instead of hitting the bad guy. That's why he doesn't like/carry guns anymore.

I would go berserk if they did that

Since to me, rebooted Jack Dalton will always be Lincoln (from the unaired pilot episode), I always declared this being Jack's OCD behavior (or production not having enough money to rent that Jeep once again).

Another reason why I want them to get a Season Renewal soon (and a budget raise). I think with all the feedback and a higher budget, plus more time to set up new scripts and plotlines (the overturn for the unaired pilot messed big with production value, I think), Season 2 could actually get quite good. It still feels to me that they have good ideas and intentions, but fail in execution (e.g. Episode Titles, Paperclip Art, Character Evolution). This season really feels as if they "MacGyvered" it together from spare parts (sadly, not in a good and satisfying way).

During production break, they also have enough time to decide what they're going to do with the "secondary" characters. Remember the outcry after the the first teaser trailers hit; Justin Hires being marked as "the best friend" and people complaining loudly about them hiring a "black alibi guy"? Now we know from the Q&A panel at aTVfest that the character of Bozer actually WAS planned as the roommate and "best friend" with the funny lines and nothing more. After talking to Justin, Lenkov had a change of heart and started integrating the character into the Phoenix Foundation. That's the reason why they had to drop the storylines about his movie-making and getting Riley's phone numbers and why these plotlines were never resolved satisfyingly. (I mean, what happened to his movie and the "CELL-ebration Film Festival" after them shoving it down our throats for so many episodes. How good was MacGyvers performance as General Wang?)

In my opinion, this generated many other problems, though; e.g. now the team consisting of 4 or even 5 people on a mission and having 2 comedic characters (Jack and Bozer) that take too much screen time away from MacGyver. Maybe that's why they started taking Riley more and more out of the picture, letting her stay back with Bozer? (I mean, she was on every mission before despite not having enough agent training; now she's on probation and has to stay home and/or teaming up with Bozer every time? Additionally, shooting scenes with 2 people is definitely easier and faster than having to set up a whole team in the room.)

As for the lack of characterization for MacGyver, that's a whole other story. I might have stated it in other threads, though and don't want to start ranting again ;-)

I think that the closest thing to an answer for this that the reboot gave audiences was in the first episode, when he was being inspected and they only saw a SAK. He had a voice over which says something like "One of the main reasons an operative gets busted is because of a concealed weapon. If I don't have one, I don't get busted." It seems like a legit reason, but it is a crappy one compared to the original reason why Mac disliked guns because it isn't supposed to be only about him not getting busted, it was also for the safety of others. It shows his compassion, and the reboot fails to deliver this aspect of Mac's character, so I'm hoping there'll be a much more deeper reason shown in a future episode.

I've never seen a single Episode of Hawaii Five-0, so I can't judge.

But I've seen many H50-Fans complaining about MacGyver being exactly the same show. I've wondered if that's entirely Peter Lenkov's fault, though because there's a reason why they hired him although was already producing another show with 25 Episodes per Season (which is more than other shows get). They wanted to bank on the MacGyver Franchise and they wanted it fast without giving him extra time after that Unaired-Pilot-Overhaul. It's possible that they exactly wanted from him what makes H50 special and works for any other CBS-Show which led to a TV-Show that isn't as unique as the original was.

It's also interesting to note that the current season of H50 seems to deal in storyplots that would make good stories for MacGyver and would have been a good fit for the original show as well (e.g. gun violence, human trafficking).

Another reason why I think a Season Renewal would be very good for better outcome. He'll probably get a higher budget and more leeway for creativity; which means better sets, better writers, better storylines, more interesting characters and guest stars.

I've never seen a single Episode of Hawaii Five-0, so I can't judge.

I've only seen the first two or three seasons of H50, so I can't comment on what it's like now, but what I saw didn't feel much like this MacGyver reboot to me.
As I mentioned in another thread (I think), I watched H50 because I knew Lenkov made it, and I wanted to see what we could expect with MacGyver. What I saw in H50 was really encouraging. There was a good mix of drama, action and bits of comedy; the action scenes took place in some dramatic/memorable settings; and the characters were all developed well. MacGyver feels much more gimmicky, and more focused on silly banter than on character development, and the sets have been pretty dull for the most part.

I think that the closest thing to an answer for this that the reboot gave audiences was in the first episode, when he was being inspected and they only saw a SAK. He had a voice over which says something like "One of the main reasons an operative gets busted is because of a concealed weapon. If I don't have one, I don't get busted." It seems like a legit reason, but it is a crappy one compared to the original reason why Mac disliked guns because it isn't supposed to be only about him not getting busted, it was also for the safety of others. It shows his compassion, and the reboot fails to deliver this aspect of Mac's character, so I'm hoping there'll be a much more deeper reason shown in a future episode.

I forgot about that, but maybe you're right.

It doesn't really work, though, because that reason is only valid if he's trying to sneak into a place undetected. When he's already on the run or doesn't care about being covert, why not carry a gun? When Murdoc was attacking him in his house, why didn't Mac have a gun there to defend himself (I'm glad he didn't, since it would have REALLY been a deal breaker if Mac just whipped out a gun and shot and killed Murdoc, but the show needs to explain his aversion to guns at some point, or it just seems like a silly plot contrivance.)

Love it or hate it, we got RDAs full persona/agenda pushed on us in the original. All the eggs were in on basket to be certain in the TOS. Till's MacGyver (& Co.) is a shadow of this in comparison and there's a different egg in several colored baskets in this reboot. We can't really love him or hate because he's not letting us into his life in any way. The producer's have decided to rest their laurels on his few minutes of techo-houdini-isms, and build up the supporting cast's eggs and to maximize viewer diversity! That's about it. Secure, boring, generic, and with no risks to be taken at all.

The problem with the total direction the show is taking so far brings back a question I had long ago when they reshot the pilot: if only they had made the scrapped pilot much more like how Mac is (without that 'The crowd goes wild' smug attitude in the trailer) but still kept the grit and realism that they seemed to have wanted to take at first, would it have worked? Would people prefer a gritty MacGyver reboot or a reboot that often does not take itself seriously? Additionally, they seemed to have already got it a bit right because from the looks of the first trailer we had, it was more focused on MacGyver rather than his team (although he had one). Lenkov seemed obsessed with the idea of a team and for the first few eps, it was really evident.

I personally would have wanted to see a gritty version, and I don't even mind that long hair he had in the scrapped pilot as long as he had the original Mac's humility and character. I hoped they'd make George Eads Pete instead of Lincoln, but they made it into Jack eventually which made me disappointed a bit.

Also, for us who think that Mac's character isn't that fleshed out in what we eventually got, well I think the direction of the scrapped pilot is for us. Remember that it was supposed to be Mac's origin story...meaning the sole focus of the first episode or even first season was to be Mac's and it basically means that a lot about his character would get fleshed out, even more than the original I think, if they wrote properly. In the leaked character descriptions, he was described as a 'resourceful yet troubled young man'. That concept alone would have given us something about his character and why he is what he is. And remember...there were two other prisoners from the Mazari (the terrorist group that held Mac captive for 5 years) that he failed to rescue with him...and it haunts Mac...I think it could have been a plot device for the whole season. Lincoln was also a conspiracy theorist who was the only one who believed Mac when he suspects the Mazari has come on US soil, and that concept alone would have made the stakes high, so it could have probably made the show take itself more seriously. Now, through all of these info we had for the scrapped pilot, one can suspect that there's a whole lot more character and personality in scrapped pilot MacGyver rather than finalized reboot MacGyver, right?

Good points about the scrapped pilot.
I didn't even think the "And the crowd goes wild" line was so bad. The original Mac occasionally had moments like that (in fact, he used that exact line in one episode.) As long as he didn't do it all the time, I'd be fine with a bit of that.

I wish there was a way to see the original pilot, because at this point, it's all purely speculation. But one thing's for sure-- giving Mac an all new supporting cast (Lincoln, Gunner, etc. instead of Jack Dalton, Wilt Bozer, etc.) would have at least made it easier for us to accept them as new characters, and we wouldn't have been constantly comparing them to the original characters. And who knows? Maybe eventually Jack Dalton could have shown up, and he might have been more like the original Jack (a scheming, child-like pilot.)

Regarding whether or not we'd get more fleshed out characters, it's hard to say. Sure, the premise sounded promising, but then again, the premise of this version sounded promising, too. I remember when Lenkov first mentioned that Mac would be betrayed by someone very close to him in the first episode, and that it would be a life-changing moment for him, I thought we were going to get some interesting character development, but it never really amounted to much.

From what i have picked up so far, Lenkov has NO intention of scrapping the team. That was his plan from the get go. Whether he was thrown into the production of the show or not, there have always been excuses such as, "We already shot about 6 episodes so you will have to wait til you see a change." to "Well the second part of the season will start to evolve" to "The second season will change things".

Moving the goal posts back a notch each time they conveniently need to doesn't make it justified.

My argument has always been the same.

Nobody is disputing whether or not this is a good show. It is. I said it.

What I am simply arguing is, its not MacGyver.

I saw H-50 for 6 seasons, as well as the original show. And no, its nothing like the original show. This is why he got away with it. Because not many remember it or even saw it. He still uses his own vision to make it just like he is doing for MacGyver.

It has the same humor, the same action and formula. There's always a command center. Twists and even guest stars are the same. In fact, there have been a few stars already who were in H-50 that resurfaced in Macgyver. Its the same kind of show.

Problem is, MacGyver was NEVER like that.

I agree, the team isn't going anywhere, and I stopped expecting it to.

The best we can hope for are occasional episodes when fewer members of the team are directly involved. There have been a few episodes when only Jack and Mac were out in the field, and I think those episodes generally work better than the ones where Mac, Jack, Riley and Bozer are all in the field. It's not even just a matter of trying to make it more like the original series, it's just that having too many characters on a case almost always makes the writing a bit contrived.

I don't expect a drastic change in the second season, but plenty of shows (including the original MacGyver) do change a bit in the second season, so it's not out of the question that we will see some differences as the writers learn what works and what doesn't work. But anyone expecting it to morph into a pefect replica of the original series will be disappointed.

There is some dispute about that, actually. Plenty of people don't think it's a good show. To be honest, I don't think it is a particularly well-made show. I can (and do) enjoy it at times, but for me it's very much a "guilty pleasure," rather than a "good show."

True. And I've pretty much stopped expecting it to be. Now I just want it to be good in its own way.

People's lack of memory is probably part of the reason it's accepted, but I think the other (and more important) reason is because it managed to be a good show even though it isn't like the original series. The difference with MacGyver is that it's (a) not like the original and (b) not particularly good as its own thing. There are some similarities between H50 and MacGyver, but H50 did it better. The characters were developed better (even within just the first season), the action scenes were better, the humor landed better, etc.

Regarding their decision to make Jack a series regular for the reboot, I decided to share an interview from 2012 with Bruce McGill that I recently unearthed. I really didn't know where to post this so, I thought it best to leave it here, Bruce says some stuff in the interview that could probably help the producers improve the show, I think.

http://www.avclub.com/article/irizzoli-isl...t-ianimal-79692

But what really caught my attention is that in the interview, he talks about his role in the original MacGyver as Jack Dalton. In the interview he actually says:

"They wanted me to sign up full-time, but I was maintaining my feature career, and MacGyver was a nine-months-of-the-year show. I was also quite sure they would not write for my character if they owned him every week."

It's kinda interesting because it kinda foreshadows the Jack Dalton we now have...a series regular in the reboot series. It's interesting to think how much the original MacGyver would have changed if only Bruce McGill was up to being a series regular. Would've MacGyver turned into a really bad show, or would it have improved or stayed the same? Would it be more acceptable now to have a series regular Jack if he was already a regular in the original? Any thoughts?

Nice one, manueloooord

I tend to agree. If it was originally meant to be a team effort, that is a different story. But it's called MacGyver because its about (Surprise surprise) MacGyver!

Not MacGyver & Friends. Its about a lone wolf. With occasionally annoying and or somewhat sidekicks on one or two episodes.

This new MacGyver cant go to the toilet without someone probably following him.