Critical Condition: MacGyver

MacGyver (Prime, 7.30 Thursdays)

“But what would Patty and Selma say? That was the first thought I had when I learned about CBS’ remake of the hit ’80s series that starred Richard Dean Anderson as a guy who could get out of any jam with a paper clip and a piece of chewing gum. First reaction to the remake: They’ve updated everything but MacGyver’s hair.” — Boston Herald.

“MacGyver should have been one of the fall’s slam-dunks; the property is known and loved by many TV fans of a certain age, and its cheerfully inventive hero could have become part of a renewed TV franchise that drew in both old-school fans and gadget-loving newcomers. How hard could it be to find a charming actor to play a smart rogue who has a string of zippy, espionage-driven adventures? Quite hard, apparently.” — Variety.

“Once again, you have an ever-resourceful hero, saving the world with chewing gum, bleach and tinfoil — but no gun. If, however, you’re looking for something approaching the original’s simple DIY charms — or, for that matter, something even marginally original — look elsewhere. What you’re getting here is a factory-made retread that is less MacGyver than MacGyver: Impossible, with the title character now just one member of an impossible mission team.” — USA Today.

“Somehow battling baddies with ‘little more than bubble gum and a paper clip,’ as the show’s website says, seems out of phase in the digital age. The 1980s were still within shouting distance of the era when people were expected to change their own oil and fix their own lawn mowers. Today far fewer can or would want to. Watching MacGyver try to gadget his way out of a predicament just makes you think, ‘Isn’t there an app for that?'” — New York Times.

“Despite a blockbuster director at the helm, it’s a shoddy product made out of the sort of ill-fitting bits and bobs that Angus MacGyver himself might fashion into a bomb … That MacGyver finally is little more than a half-speed, quarter-brained version of last season’s one-and-done Limitless confirms that what CBS wanted was a show called MacGyver and the actual specifics of said show hardly mattered.” — The Hollywood Reporter.