![]() No spoilers, but if you don’t know how to beat a fingerprint scanner with dust and tape or that you can pick a lock with a bobby pin, you’re simply not the fan of the action/adventure genre that this show boasts itself being – so why are you here? This wouldn’t be a big problem if any of the “inventions” the hero comes up with during the show were remotely close to being inventive. Furthermore, while he never shoots anyone per the character’s trademark “no guns” policy, his body count plays fast and loose with his previous “non-violent” nature. It constantly reminds us that imagination and brains aren’t the strongest ally in a dire situation, a closed fist is. Allowing the hero to be a straight-up action hero, jumping out of helicopters and knocking out armed guards with his bare hands, undercuts the necessity of him needing to, I’ll say it, MacGyver things. The original series turned an entire generation of people onto the fields of engineering and applied sciences. The MacGyver of the new age is an absolutely unflappable secret agent who is so capable of throwing down in martial arts combat that one wonders why he needs the craftiness at all. If all that seems like a lot of information to take in through exposition, you’re not going to like the first 40 seconds of this series.īased on what we all know through cultural osmosis, he’s supposed to be a rather unremarkable man until it’s time to start solving some life puzzles and his usefulness is proven through ingenuity and guts. And, lastly, the team leader, Patricia Thornton, who has already infiltrated the scene but doesn’t do anything while there. The hacker/tech support person, Nikki Carpenter (Tracy Spiridakos), who leads the team from (of course) a van. There’s the muscle, Jack Dalton (George Eads), who backs up our hero and lends support through violence and blue-collar military humor. The reboot opens and wastes no time introducing us to our intrepid group of good guys. He doesn’t like guns, and that fact helped him teach millions of people that using knowledge as one’s weapon of choice can be just as badass and sexy as using a Walther PPK. Going into the 2016 reboot, we all know that MacGyver is a non-violent secret agent who uses his genius and near superhuman resourcefulness to get him out of sticky situations. ![]() However, like most people, I’m familiar with its cultural touchstones and still found a way to feel indignant about the reboot’s shabby handling of the beloved hero. It’s here at the top I should confess that I have never seen the original MacGyverseries, which enjoyed a respectful run from 1985 – 1992. The latest droplet rung out is the CBS reboot MacGyver. Where once it was a somewhat ineffable emotion that conjured wistful feelings in an individual, now it’s a dishrag that can be squeezed for profit for the masses. Nostalgia is a powerful thing in a post-internet-awareness society.
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