MacGyver 2016- Mid Season overview

I grew up with Macgyver in the 80's and 90's. It was and still is one of my favorite shows. The original series went on for 7 seasons, and 2 direct to TV movies after it ended. So when they announced a remake for 2016, I was skeptical at first to say the least.

How has it fared 16 episodes in, as of this writing? Let's take a look:

Cast:

Macgyver:

For this remake, the producers decided to go with a much younger Macgyver. Richard Dean Anderson was 35 when they cast him as MacGyver in the original series; for this version they went with 26 year old Lucas Till fresh of off X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past success as Havok / Alex Summers.

Lucas manages to capture the MacGyver "i'm pretty handy with engineering, chemistry etc..." -isms rather well. I'm sure its good acting on the part of Till, and he does many times remind me of RDA in a good way. He gets the light comedy as well as the science and does both very convincigly while still keeping his own spin on the character. I do believe now, he was a good casting choice for the character even if I was not sure about him when he was first announced.

Jack Dalton:

Played by George Eads of CSI fame, this is a completely different character arquetype to his Nick Stokes on CSI. While Nick was serious and uptight, Jack is laid back, and funny much like his 1980's counterpart. Unlike the Jack Dalton played by Bruce McGill in the original show however, he's not a schemer and pranskter, he's an EX-CIA operative now working with Mac as his partner. George Eads really digs down into his Texan roots to give us a Jack Dalton that while still retaining much of the original Jack's general personality, make it all his own. Jack is now expert in hand to hand combat, weapons, and covert missions.

Patricia Thornton:

Played by Sandrine Holt, this is a complete departure from Dana Elcar's Peter Thornton. Sandrine is neither here nor there in that role, quite bland unfortunately and not very likeable. This is an update that simply does not work, and I think the producers realized this.

Beyond that, the producers decided to add two brand new characters to the midst. Riley Davis, and Wilt Bozer.

Riley Davis:

Played by Tristin Mayes, she's your typical movie hacker, and its annoying to no end. Their hacking inevitably devolves into a couple of random keystrokes and some technobabble that makes no sense most of the time. This part of the character unfortunately is poorly executed, and laughably researched if researched at all. It seems the writers just make her whatever she needs to be for the episode at hand. It simply does not work and its very unfortunate because her chemistry with Jack and Macgyver is pretty good. More work needs to be put into her hacking skills, otherwise its just plot convenience 101. She can do whatever they need her to do by hacking into something always. It just ends up being too unbelievable in a show that already stretches your suspension of disbelief quite a bit. Tristin does a good job at the relationship with Mac and the banter between Riley and Jack. But the hacking sequences are starting to be more of a crutch than a helpful tool. The writers need to tone down the hacking, make it less important. Riley should have other computer and tech skills that can help Mac and Jack outside of hacking.

Wilt Bozer:

Played by Justin Hires, is... how can I put this nicely, supremely and impossibly annoying and unnecesarry in every plot he's in. His character is just a very annoying and badly done Chris Tucker impersonation. He really adds nothing to the team other than mildly amusing comedy at best and high unlikeability at worst. It really seems like he was just conceived to exist as a recurring character rather and than a main one. In later episodes he's shoehorned into missions he has no business being in just so he can have some annoying exchanges with Riley about their non-existant relationship. As I'm writing this I just realized he takes on the role of the annoying friend with weird schemes that they removed from George Eads' Jack Dalton. While Bruce McGill's Jack in the original could get annoying he was kept as only a recurring character, so the lesser doses of it helped to diminish the annoyance and highlight Bruce's comedic talents. Bozer just seems to be in your face the entire time and adds nothing for most of it.

Mac and Jack work pretty nicely for me, with their banter, and onscreen chemistry. It does feel like they've known each other for a while. Thornton is just bland and her only purpose seems to be exposition. Riley and Bozer need a lot of work. The writers need to really make them functional and believable otherwise you just want to get rid of them the entire time, and that really does not make for a show you want to keep watching.

Plot

The plot is essentially un-changed from the original show. Mac works for a government organization as a covert agent most of the time, and takes on missions to save the world or recover some stolen item of the week. Unlike the orginal however, Mac is now part of a team. I understand why they did this, as Lucas Till may still be a little green to be able to carry the entire show on his own, so a few more characters help the show move along.

Beyond that, there's nothing earth shattering about the show's overall plot, but removing the nostalgia goggles for a minute, the original did not have that much plot either. Adventure of the week is the name of the game here, as it was before and it works.

Many are claiming this pales in comparison to the original, but again removing the nostalgia goggles, the original one could be very silly, and bland at times with really weird plot lines, and some out there stories through its 7 year run.

Nods

The show pays a lot of homage to the original series in every episode. MacGyver's voice over from the first season of the show is present in several of the episodes, but like the original show, it seems to have been reduced or even outright removed for later episodes. Not sure if this is intentional to mirror the original's use and subsequent phasing out of the voice over, or sometimes show don't tell works better and writing the voice over is just not working at the end of the day.

Peter Thornton's covert agency from the original show, the DXS, Department of External Services make an appearance in the first few episodes and is then transformed into the Phoenix Foundation, Mac's employer for most of the original show.

Unlike the original show however, Macs first name is widely known, and he does not appear to have an issue with it. Or at least they have not really made a point of it in 16 episodes. Its there, even Mac uses it frm time to time, but there's no major issue with it unlike the original show which had us guessing until several seasons in.

The writers have also chosen to showcase many of the secondary / recurring characters from the original show in slightly different ways. We've seen the likes of Penny Parker, Nikki Carpenter, Murdoc, and even the Coltons, the family of bounty hunters that was supposed to be spun off into their own show in the 80's but never materialized.

So far this has not worked all that well. The Murdoc episode was not only bland, it was ridiculous in how Murdoc simply chooses not to kill any one even though he has ample opportunity. While David Dastmalchian is a decent actor and offers and interesting take on Murdoc, sadly he does not have the character and charisma of Michael Des Barres in the original show. Michael's take on that character made him unique, and so much fun to watch. David Dastmalchian needs to up the ham (really, hammier is better in this case) a bit more for Murdoc to work. We get it, he's evil, but he also needs to be very theatrical, something David's interpretation lacks.

Penny Parker is so far just there for the name in one scene of one episode, and Nikki is now friend or foe depending on what the writers need her for at the moment. Hopefully this will get corrected and finalized in upcoming episodes as so far her motives and background just have not worked out as they probably expected them too.

Overall

The show is not terrible, but its not great either. I can tell you the first season of the original show was not all that great either, and most people remember it not for its first season, but generally for seasons 2 through 5 where the characters were established, interactions worked out and defined, and the format and function of MacGyver was at its best shape.

I'm pretty sure this version should find its way later on as the writers find more things that work, and remove things that don't. Currently its a work in progress that seems to be receiving steady ratings for its first 16 episodes. Hopefully they can improve the writing and characters as it goes along for the remaining 7 episodes, and hopefully it gets a Season 2 to let them develop these characters more and move away form the shadow of the original show.

The only thing I wish they kept from the old show is the intro theme. As it stands they made a new more modern adventurous theme that starts off like the original did but then devolves into really unlikable sounds with no real feeling to it. Good thing its short though. They definitely need to rework that intro.

Its good to pay your respects to the original, but sometimes you need to just go out and do your own thing. With the crossover with Hawaii Five-0 coming up, its a prime opportunity to learn from the Hawaii writers how to take a good premise, and do it your own way. There's a good reason Hawaii Five-0 is now in its 7th season and still going strong.

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