It makes it less believable for me too...If anyone is familiar with LOTR you know that Tolkien's mythology works so well because there are no inconsistencies. It aids in the suspension of disbelief. But, Mac is a TV show, a rilly good show so I guess we overlook it... Katey look at my above postings- I had the same prob with quote boxing

I watched this episode last night.

It really doesn't work for me... it's watchable as nearly all MacGyver episodes are.. but I found myself getting bored and easily distracted throughout the show.

Tsk tsk tsk. Try again! That works for me.

I actually really like this one mostly for the suspense! Like MacGyver, I'm not too into the whole voodoo thing, but the medical/chemical explanation of the zombies was really pretty cool. I remember watching this one when it first aired and thinking how creepy it was that there's a compound out there that can do that to people. *shivers* I also like the study in how religion, whatever the flavor, can be used to put people in bondage.

And of course I have a nitpick or two...that I might have already posted... *trots over to see*

The whole time I was watching this episode I kept thinking to myself that it's a medical fact that after 3 minutes without oxygen the brain begins to die and suffer irreversible damage. Theres no way the body can survive for hours without oxygen.

But after sitting here pondering as I write this post, its occurred to me that there have been cases where "dead" people have been pulled out of VERY cold water and brought back to life.

Apparently the sudden shock of freezing cold can (in some case) put the body into a state of suspended animation (cryogenic suspension) allowing for resuscitation to be performed at a later time.

So I guess its possible that the Tetrodotoxin used in zombie powder could put the body into the same kind of suspended state, without deterioration of the body and brain.

I love the part where he takes his SAK back from the guy pretending to be Baron Samdi.

I've held off on commenting on 6th and 7th season episodes because it's been so long since I've seen them (if ever) but i watched this one last night and OMG... what a piece of CRAP!

I was embarrassed for RDA.... hell, I was embarrassed for MacGyver. I would have been kicking and screaming to get out of my contract if this was the crap they were putting in front of me!

*deep cleansing breath*

*exhales*

First of all, what is MacGyver doing living in this neighbor"hood"?

Most people live among others of the same social, economical or cultural class. We know money wasn't a problem for Mac so what's the deal?

And Mama Lorraine. I'll skip over the bad acting. How many childless, grandchild-less thirty year old women you know of that get called Mama? Irritating.

If Mac had been skating and got banged up... and got told by "Mama" (ARGH) to go to this store... why is he still carrying around his gear? And why did she send him there for a liniment, when, as he returns she's Doling out herbs and pastes?

There's SO much that bugs me about this episode!

I couldn't agree more. That is the stuff that makes my heart skip a coupla beats. And as you say, it is that RDA is such a good actor. I vote excellent on this one.



Sincerely,
Kate Mackay

MG--Most cocktails suck?? Then you aren't making them right!!!!!!!!!

This episode is one of the better ones from season 7. The toxin from the fugu (blowfish) is the real deal. It is extremely deadly and responsible for killing a number of adventurous diners who eat improperly preapred sashimi from this fish.

Datura has been used for centuries as a medicinal plant, so this element is also very believable and accurate.

Voodoo culture is not well understood by a majority of people. It was extremely prevalent in New Orleans prior to the destruction of that city in 2005 by the hurricane (another potent and tasty drink, BTW). I had the good fortune to spend some time in New Orleans in 1997 and 98. I spent a lot of time exploring the French Quarter, especially the smaller shops off the side streets and alleys. Some of them specialized in voodoo ceremonial objects, herbal medicines, writings and other assorted paraphenalia. Most of it was very intersting but sosme of it was downright creepy.

I loved Mama Lorraine in this episode. She spends a great deal of time and effort educating MacGyver and her efforts are validated when he admits he has a lot to learn about her religion. He transforms from a skeptical disbeliever of the power inherent in the rituals performed into a beleiver that voodoo is more than flash bang tricks and illusions. many of the voodoo rituals work because the people who seek them believe so strongly in them. The human mind is a powerful tool that when harnessed properly can literally achieve a state of mind over matter.

Here's a little experiment for you all to try. The next time you feel yourself coming down with a cold, tell yourself over and over in a firm positive voice that you are not sick. You are strong and healthy. You refuse to get sick. Visualize yourself well, and healthy. Repeat it as often as you need to until you beleive it to be true.

I did this 2 years ago when I had a really heavy training schedule. I was teaching 8 hour OSHA classes 3 and 4 days a week for 6 months. The flu was making its annual rounds through our facility. I wole up one morning feeling rotten. I couldn't call in sick to work, so I simply refused to get sick. By the time I arrived at my office, I felt great and never did develop the flu.

Out of all the episodes, this is probably my least favorite. Something about it just creeps me out. Voodoo, Mac in voodoo paint, drug indused stances. And I am not a big fan of the character of Mama Lorraine either. I've seen the actress recently in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, playing a teacher, and she was funny. Just something about the character and this episode that I find too weird, and unbelievable at times.

Yep. This is definitely one of the lowlights of the whole series.

It's really not good!

To me it's a typical episode of MacGyver with some 'not so cool' MacGyverism, and I voted good. I just wondering one thing : how could Mac still survived that long after taking two doses of the 'voodoo powder' while the girl immediately 'dropped death' after just one dose? Even before Mama gave him the antidose he could still breathing and moving around.

This smilie describes very well my feelings about this episode.

I also love the fact of the drug induces a death-like state. i als love the fact MacGyver dressed up as that undead guy, he looked just like him.

The part when MacGyver is in the zombie state reminds me of when he wakes up from the coma.

Check out the Walking Dead Episode, at about 25:02 take a GOOD look at the SAK, it has a reverse shield like the one in Strictly Business, it also looks like a 3 layer SAK as well!

Hmmm, so it could be the same knife from Strictly Business?

It sure looks like the one from Strictly Business!

Ok, I'm realize I'm about three years late, and MacNymph will probably never see my reply to her post, but here goes:

From a behind-the-scenes standpoint, of course, it was an attempt to make the show appeal more to blacks by getting him out of his all-white world.
Also, keep in mind that although Mac probably makes decent money, he was never the type to live in a ritzy area. And he does devote his time to the Challengers' Club, so I don't think he'd feel out of his element in the neighborhood that we see in this episode. And besides, his own apartment in season 7 is quite nice and spacious. It's hardly a ghetto. I'm guessing the neighborhood we see him in in "Walking Dead" is just adjacent to his own neighborhood. In the episode "The Hood," we see that his own neighborhood is primarily white, but the fact that Mama Lorraine is in both neighborhoods tells us it is probably close to the neighborhood that we see him in in "The Walking Dead." I guess in "The Walking Dead," he had to go a few blocks out of his way to get the liniments that Mama told him about.

That never bothered me. She acted as a "mama" to her neighbors by taking care of them. Though, you probably have a point about her age... it might have worked better if she were a bit older. But if we're going to get nitpicky about names, what about MacGyver himself? How many people could go through life without ever having to use their first names? Even when he goes to the lawyer in "Harry's Will," he only refers to himself as "MacGyver." So sometimes suspension of disbelief works best for this kind of show.

Presumably because he didn't go home to drop his stuff off first? I don't see how there's a problem with that.

Hmmm... yeah, you would think that she would have had it. I guess she was just out of that particular liniment. It happens. I've gone to pet food stores, and they've been out of stock of something, and sent me across the street to a different store. No biggie.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty decent episode. At least it had a good amount of action and suspense, and no moral lessons and no cringe-worthy attempts at humor (and, best of all, no knights in shining armor! "Good Knight MacGyver" has to be among the all-time worst episodes of any tv show ever.)

Actually I spent probably about 6 years living with the firm belief that I don't get sick and I'm pretty sure I never got a cold or flu during that time, I'd get a runny nose or start feeling like I might be catching something but that was as far as it ever went.

I quite liked this one, but it's not without it's problems:

Using Booker as a bad guy is a problem. It's not so bad when they recycle a bad guy as another bad guy, or a good guy as another good guy, but evil Booker messes with my head!

The story itself is fine, though some of the acting is a bit overdone. Mama Lorraine may not have wanted to be a showgirl, but some of the other Voodoo dudes have no such reservations!

The whole zombie drug thing is pretty good, though the idea of using Datura as an antidote is a problem. Whatever else it does, that much Datura is going to make the top of Mac's head unscrew and fly away - Datura is really hallucinogenic!

But I do like Mac sneaking around in the background, and I really like the look he gives the Voodoo guy when he finds out that he's pinched his knife!

My favorite scene is actually after they drug him and take him away in the truck. He frees himself, takes out the two guys with a shovel and the momentum from the final punch causes him to smack his face against the rear fender of the truck causing him to fall over. XD Of course, he gets up and spins around like he's totally out of it. Cracks me up every time. lol

Of course, I also love his reaction towards the bad guy when he gets his SAK back, like Rocket mentioned. And that is why I love RDA. His facial expressions are priceless.

You're right, they are priceless. I like when he finds out his SAK.

This isn't one of my favourite episodes, I like some others better. I just watched it again after some time and I found out that it isn't so bad.

I don't like the show and that music very much, but this episode shows how easy it is to cheat people using what they believe in.

This episode had so much potential for being (a) offensive and (b) ridiculous. But I think it pretty much works.

I don't think 's social or cultural class is easy to define.

Or C: we don't care what it looks like, we'll just have some fun.

This had an almost infinite capacity for being both ridiculous and offensive. (And one could argue that it was indeed ridiculous, but if we were interested in plausible plot lines, I think we would be watching something else. Not entirely sure what ...)

But potentially very offensive. I mean, Mac in blackface!!!! Literally!

What grounded it, I think, was the way it showed that the bad guys were relying on a mixture of tactics to keep people in thrall. Not just playing on their fears of voodoo by using theatrical tricks, but also using violence (on people who didn't go along with their protection racket) and powerful drugs to do their "bringing back from the dead" routine. Plus, their history of violence back in Haiti - it's hardly surprising that most people didn't stand up to them.

It helped that Mama Lorraine had already established a difference between her deeply held beliefs and cheap tricks.

It also helped that there had been African American characters on the show before. And that they were given things to say and do. Compare and contrast with watching the original "Star Trek" waiting to see if they ever gave Uhura a decent story line. Spoiler alert: she likes Tribbles and Captain Kirk once had to kiss her because of aliens controlling his body. Maybe she gets more to do in another episode, but I haven't seen it yet.

Otherwise, it could have gone terribly, terribly wrong.

I'm not saying that the show never had a trace of "white saviour complex". I thought the same about "Black Rhino", although of course one can argue that rhino don't care who rescues them. (I'm glad that "Black Rhino" explained that many poachers were motivated by dire poverty.)

Or C: we don't care what it looks like, we'll just have some fun.

I think we reached the point where everyone had given up on the whole "is this too ridiculous?" question several seasons back.

But the question of stereotyping still matters. Most of the time, the writing stands up well by today's standards. Although there are a couple of things in other episodes which are kind of annoying regarding mental health and stereotypes.

If you are looking for content that's offensive, you're going to find something in every thing.

You have to look at the context. In this case, MacGyver is hardly offensive and never was... even with blackface, because it wasn't deliberate or intended to be that way. Neither was the mental health issues.

I'm not offended, nor do I find it offensive.... =P

Then again, I'm not the easily offended type.