How many characters there are usually in each episode, if you count main characters and co-stars?

In all honesty, I don't see the point of any of the characters. Bozer, Riley or Dalton. Although i don't necessarily mind Riley's character (And no, its not because she is attractive), she just comes across as a "nice" person which makes me wonder why she was in prison. Doesn't fit the character profile. Especially given the extremeness of her capture. You'd think a character like this would have attempted to take a chance on the pilot episode, only to be persuaded otherwise by MacGyver, or so that is how i would have written it. Instead she was just given the "Do the right thing" speech from the beginning.

That argument is absolutely stupid and if you look at the situations we've seen MacGyver in in this new show you can see he doesn't have time to look stuff up.

If your trapped in a burning building are you gonna spend time googling "how can I get our of a burning building with [insert items here]? Or if you have someone attacking you, shooting at you, whatever.. are you gonna use your phone to look up what you should do? Of coarse not!

The whole point of MacGyver is that he doesn't need to do that.. the science and objective thought is already in his head. The rest of us might eventually get there after spending some time googling stuff... but MacGyver has it all pretty much straight away... that always has been and always will be the magic of the character - he doesn't need a smart phone to figure out how to do something!

I don't agree with RDA about the smartphone deal... I'm one of those 80's kids who owns a smartphone. The original MacGyver relied heavily on life experience and common sense, which is seriously lacking in today's society. Having a smartphone doesn't ruin anything because if you're smart enough, you really don't need it. I don't live by my phone... and I can go a whole day without even looking at it.

At best, a smartphone is "convenient" if you want to look something up quickly, and it's good in emergencies. Even the original MacGyver had a phone in his Jeep. However, smartphones do have their imperfections... for instance, you still have "dead zones" that make them utterly useless.

Riley herself is not needed in every episode. I think she would make an excellent secondary character, almost like Kate from Ugly Duckling. Even still, Kate was on par with MacGyver, as he had some pretty decent computer and hacking skills. I think if they needed a serious hacker, Riley would be useful.

But there are a lot of imperfections, and I do agree with RDA that the reboot has missed it's mark. Though it's not an awful show, it's a typical, shallow action show with a ton of explosions..... which isn't my kind of thing. The original, at least, had some substance.

A phone to make calls not to use as a solution for everything. If it comes to hacking maybe they should've brought Dexter along.