The advancement in technology has seriously encroached upon the MacGyver concept. The bells & whistles in todays vehicles, alone, would make the early James Bonds envious and often undermines Mac's raison d'etre. You can run, but you can't hide from it. Is there a happy medium/limit to this(re:technology presence) in melding the TOS with the Reboot?

Have they embraced technology a bit too much in this one or is it just sign of the times and all apart of Mac's theatrical evolution? There's no doubt that the more technology advances, and the more remote communications infiltrate, the lesser the magic of Mac's time-sensitive 'fixes'.

Can the new show do (much) better(or less) in this regard and as to elevate/grandstand the show's main asset?

Extract from an interview with Peter Lenkov about the crossover: https://parade.com/554276/paulettecohn/hawa...ssover-episode/

You’re very active on social media. Do you read responses to your tweets? Do pay attention to what the fans say? It doesn’t affect the show in terms of whether they like something or don’t like something, which they’re very vocal about, because we’re so far ahead by the time they see an episode. It’s not that I ignore it, but the good ones make me feel like, “Okay, we’re doing a good job,” and the bad ones probably sit with me a while longer than they should. We can’t tailor the show to a specific group that’s very active on social media because, again, we’re just so far ahead. But yeah, I definitely read as much as I can. I’m happy when they’re happy.

We kinda knew that already, but it's still a bit disappointing. But we've seen them changing stuff after the first few episodes and I believe they will take fans and critics' responses into consideration for a next season, so it's important we keep giving feedback.

IMO, I disagree. I mentioned it before regarding the pushing back of the goal posts and this is what i believe is happening.

The show is going to be more distant from the original in the second season than the first was/is.

Regardless of how far he is, this is still not the fundamental outlook of what MacGyver is. This is H-50 meets Mission Impossible. And it is still based upon the unaired pilot. It is in no way associated to the original show's characters. They carry the names but they are different in every way. You can put on his watch, his jacket and his hairstyle. You can even let him carry a SAK. But it does not make him the character. Its just an illusion.

No, they won't change this now. Perhaps a few degrees here & there. But it's ratings are decent and if ain't broke - don't fix it. It's a pretty good show (for today's demographic). Hate to even compare it to the old one, because it's not comparable but they leave us little choice in 'borrowing' the iconic name, and some key traits of the main character.
But that's about it .....

I don't think scientific know-how and improvisation ever goes out of style, no matter how technologically advanced the world becomes. Certainly the MacGyverisms need to evolve with the times, but there's always a place for them. One small example is drying out a cell phone with a desiccant in order to be able to use it to call for help. Sometimes modern conveniences fail us or they simply aren't enough to solve a problem.

True, they don't but it's much more of a challenge to 'tee them up' in 2017. Tech/comms are so omnipresent that they often render the basic premise of a macgyverism obsolete. The cellphone soaking is a prime example. The drying out of the cellphone is useless unless the battery is removed first because the device is continually trying to power up when under electrical duress and usually the touch screen will burn out first. Swappable batteries are back in vogue as of the last year or so, after being outed due to the thinner design trend. I'm not certain that the MacGyver tech depo did their due diligence on this one because surely Mac would have the last comms devices for his job. Anyway ,,,, typical protocol is to quickly remove the old one immediately after submersion - then you perform the desiccant dry, and then you insert a fresh battery and power it up.

I was sitting in the car today and thinking about this. I recently entered the automobile market for this first time in several years and the technology advances have been fast & furious. The satellite/cellular technology in particular has gotten extremely precise and although the Garmin/Sirius/IOS etc. does not track your location per se, the technology is there to do so.

I think there were several episodes in the original series that used some sort of embedded tracking signal ..... so cool at the time. But that's just the tip of the SAK, also have a hidden hard drive and USB ports that I can access and transmit data via dedicated software and voice commands. And that's just the vehicle.

The main point is - it's harder and harder to be totally cut off from the world - which was the overwhelming 'tee up' for the original MacGyver and associated macgyverisms. Alone, remote, cut-off, got to find a way out of this thing and with the time ticking down. Still more than doable but with that technology dark cloud always lurking and meddling in prospective scripts.

It certainly is a different world. And for the case of the new show, nobody expected it to be otherwise. It just does not contain the same formula that made the original work. This is alll about cutting out the shell of the character and replacing him with a stranger. And then have his lackeys follow him around 24 7.

This is a really bad mistake. BECAUSE .... it's already implicit that wireless WILL follow him around 24/7 and so now he has both a technological AND human umbilical cord that constantly undermines his modus operandi. They just don't get it.

And the creators just don't listen. Except of course, when the occasional fan posts, "Awesome show Mr. Lenkov" Which is really integral to their development and he replies with "Awww thanks".

Where's the constructive criticism?

LoL! You never get to the top by kowtowing to the masses .... even when they're(ermm we're) spot on!

I applaud RDA for not getting involved in the reboot as an effort to stay loyal to fans of the originally series. That said, I wonder if the show would be more "MacGyver-like" if he HAD gotten involved....Hmmmmm

I think this scenario might fall under a 'Catch-22'. As in he probably wouldn't get involved unless he had sufficient input, and if he were to be included, his input would be very much limited as to what he once was accustomed to. Could be very wrong, but that's my gut feel.