[DouglasPHill]

Didn't really care for the first ep. Too much group talk and not enough MacGyver gadget making. Tristin Mays wore a very conservative top compared with previous seasons. Saw a softer side Levy Tran compared to last season where her main job was protecting Mac. Will see if the reboot grows on me.

 

[mattack]

I haven't watched for a while.. I think I saw into season 2..

how was it 'rebooted'? (Or do you just mean the current version? I'm inferring you mean they changed something substantial in s4 compared to 1-3)

 

[DouglasPHill]

Jack left, brought in rich millionaire to arrange jobs, team now discusses everything rather than focusing on Mac and supporting cast. More like the old mission impossible series rather than Macgyver. Basically this will be it's last season.

 

[alpacaboy]

Are you sure it's the last season? If it is, I think I can stick with it.

I think by Season 3, I didn't feel like it should even be called MacGyver anymore. It's strange - the hook of the show is that Mac jury-rigs solutions to survive and/or save the day, usually using household objects or chemicals. But I think the show never found a way to embrace it. In the original, Mac was usually on his own so he would voice-over the science behind what he was doing. In the new show, it felt like they were too rushed to explain it. Sometimes they would flash an overlay of diagrams and equations, but it felt like they were constantly searching for a way to include it in the narrative. In the modern adaptation, I guess all action/adventure procedurals have to be teams now. But I think that made it more vanilla - now there's a fighty guy(now gal) and a computer "hacker" who pulls impossible magic. I didn't really like the "I wanna be a spy because spying is fun" tone, and thought it was ridiculous that they would reprimand Mac for choosing not to die and "improvising." It felt like such a horrible distortion of what the original was.
Then I went back and watched a couple seasons of the original. Oh man, that show was goofy. Maybe I can cut the current show a little slack.

Anyway, I'd been on the verge of quitting for a long time. I finally decided to quit after Season 3. Then I found out Terry Matalas was taking over as show runner. I LOVED 12 Monkeys, so I'm curious what he'll do with Season 4. So ooooookay, I'm back in for a bit. I felt like the last episode this season with the planes was starting to get better about explaining Mac's gadgets. I guess narratively they had a kid so they had an excuse to explain stuff.

 

[Worf]

I just wonder when they will get to the real MacGyvering. So far it's always irked me that practically none of the solutions would actually work in real life. And this episode was especially bad since the "problems" they had weren't even problems at all (well, OK, the pilot incapacitation one is real, but it turns out there are "pinch hitting" (a term from baseball) strategies that aviation is incorporating.

I don't know if the writers are especially clueless, but they could use an education in real science. I can accept things that may require more skill than an average person. I can even accept "tv hacking" that always seems to get the information you need. But MacGyvering stuff that isn't needed or basically is complete BS just doesn't sit well with me.

I always hope, and I always get disappointed.

 

[DouglasPHill]

Maybe they need Bill Nye as a production consultant.

 

[pkscout]

I just wonder when they will get to the real MacGyvering. So far it's always irked me that practically none of the solutions would actually work in real life.

When the original MacGyver came out when I was in high school. My physics prof set aside a part of each Monday's class to have us discuss the episode from Friday. None of what they did then (or now) would work. It was always based in some principle or theory that would work if the needed effect was 10 (100, 1000) times more than it actually was.

 

[cstelter]

The last episode really felt like it was originally written as a script for Scorpion-- trying to solve one problem but creating one even bigger in cascading effect. Only the science was even worse than the typical Scorpion and *that* takes some doing...

 

[Worf]

It was made even worse by the fact that for much of the episode, what happened were non-events that happen all the time and they actually have non-MacGyver solutions in real life. Add some "this was obviously a set up because in real life this doesn't happen" and it's a steaming pile.

Granted, it would be a rather boring episode if everyone simply followed what already exists, but them maybe the setup should just be abandoned and something else written to replace it.

There's a whole pile of interesting things that could be plausible MacGyvers, no need to do some BS ones. (A laptop computer is a great source of somewhat plausibles)

 

[Worf]

OK, wow, this very latest episode "Windmill + Acetone + Celluloid + Firing Pin" returns the MacGyvering to first principles. No magic devices, no fake electronics, but just good old basic science. Of course, with a fair bit of liberty associated with it, but at least it's "stuff that could work" rather than "science-y sounding deus ex machina".

Whether they really work or not is now something that would be testable, and if it fails, can determine what artistic license was taken.

Heck, they did get some of the history right as well - there are German towns which have dedicated bomb squads and which find these old bombs on a weekly basis. (The usual reason for failing to go off is because they landed with the tip end pointing up, so the acetone doesn't actually contact the celluloid hoding the firing pin in place. But the acetone fumes do degrade them, it just takes decades instead of hours.