Tag: Lucas Till

You have to admire the teaser open of MacGyver “Large Blade” just a little. Jack and Mac are struggling to move a huge prisoner across a roof. The big figure, with a black hood on its head, repeated headbutts Dalton, so much so that he is getting dizzy.

Midway through their struggle, their package gets loose and Mac breaks off to manufacture a better means of holding their prisoner as Jack gets roughed up some more. Grabbing a blue tarpaulin and some cord, along with a handy bungee cord, and a couple of belts, and Victor, aka Elvis for this mission, is “Hannibal Lector’d.”

After this long handled process they finally get the prisoner onto the helicopter just as the man’s friends arrive with guns blazing. This entire exercise has been set up for a number of reasons.

To introduce us to the chopper pilot, show how tough Jack is, how resourceful Mac is and to give Riley a chance to triumphantly shout that “Elvis has left the building.”

One has to admire the effort that went into an episode open that ends on a joke like that. That is part of the reason this iteration of MacGyver is so popular with the punters.

Although the swift and unforeseen removal of Patricia Thornton (Sandrine Holt) has a number of fans rather upset. Many are questioning just what happened there. Was Sandrine fired? Did she have another job offer elsewhere? (Which might just be the case, the woman is impressively talented.)

Still, at least her character was mentioned at the start of the episode. But so too was Amy Acker’s character from last week’s episode although, rather interestingly, Nikki (Tracy Spiridakos) was not. While it is all too easy to mourn the loss of London born Holt as a strong female character, this show does have a great many positive role models in the show.

Show creator Craig Siebels may have a MacGyver lousy with team members who surround his every move, but Siebels is not backward about filling the screen with capable female characters. For example:

Acker’s Sarah is one tough, capable and recurring character as is Nikki. Series regular Riley may not be tough as in able to leap buildings with a single bound strong, but she has plenty to keep up her end of things.

Even guest starring roles feature strong women. Cynthia the chopper pilot was no shrinking violet and did not let a fractured tibia keep her down for too long. The new Phoenix boss lady, the diminutive in size but not in stature, “Matty the Hun” (as Jack refers to her) is a tough cookie ready to pounce on anyone who does not get the point.

(She also looks like one of those bosses who might just be a bit of fun to work for.  It should also be mentioned here that perhaps Siebels intended to replace the towering Holt (5’10” tall) with the 4’3″ tall Webber all along. As visual gags go it is amusing in a sort of Mutt and Jeff sort of way. Along with Jack’s build up as well, it made for an funny end to the episode.)

The main storyline has the chopper brought down in the most dangerous jungle in the world,  which incidentally has no wildlife whatsoever, and when the aircraft crashes, Victor escapes.  Cynthia fractures her tibia and Jack spends the entire episode with a red “circle” almost around his left eye.

(That red circle was another funny sight gag that brought back memories of Hugh Wilson’s 1985 comedy western Rustlers Rhapsody. A character who is the film’s sidekick, which Jack Dalton most definitely is in MacGyver, paints a circle around his mule’s eye. There may be no connection at all but with the “Mutt and Jeff” gag at the end and “Elvis has left the building” it feels right.)

Mac manages to make a crutch out of the chopper’s landing strip, make a battery with a plastic water bottle, some jungle water, a pair of chain handcuffs, a little root salt and some lightening. He also uses a satellite phone battery to start a fire and subdues the dangerous Victor all by himself.

MacGyver “Large Blade” turned out to be the funniest and best episode of the season thus far. The only characters who got the short end this week were Bozer and Riley. They were stuck at Phoenix plugging away at a laptop and worrying. (At least Riley got to worry prettily as that nasty hairdo did not make a reappearance in this episode.)

Those little subtitled montages have, apparently disappeared for good and while the V.O. has also seemingly been done away with, this change is for the better.  Till is coming into his own as MacGyver and proved once again in this episode that he really does not need Jack.

(This is not a “get rid of George Eads” bit of schtick. We like George it is just that apart from a bit of comic relief, his character is a bit superfluous.)

MacGyver this week added a lot of humor, and poking fun at Mac’s ability to make things out of practically nothing, on top of using the entire episode to build up Thornton’s replacement.  It will be interesting to see if Matty-the-Hun will cut Mac’s team down even further.

MacGyver airs Fridays on CBS.

Cast:

• Lucas Till  –  Angus MacGyver
• George Eads  –  Jack Dalton
• Tristin Mays  –  Riley Davis
• Justin Hires  –  Wilt Bozer
• Meredith Eaton  –  Matty Webber

Guest starring Zulay Henao as Cynthia and Keith Jardine as Victor.

MacGyver “Screwdriver” sees the return of not one but two former characters and the exit of a familiar face.  Not only does Nikki turn back up but so does Jack’s old flame, and ex-partner, Sarah Adler. The difficult bit is that Sarah is not only getting married but she is after Nikki as well.

The episode starts with Jack strapped to a chair and attached to a sodium pentathol drip. He is being questioned by a terrorist about Phoenix. The villain wants to know who works with Jack and he tells the man everything.

Including the fact that Mac is outside the door. This whole exercise appears to show that George Eads can do comedy, which is an understood, and that MacGyver does not really need Eads’ character for protection.

“Screwdriver” manages to do a number of things. It clears up the “Nikki” issue and gives Jack a bit of closure on the whole Sarah thing. Clearly Dalton and Adler still have feelings for one another and it seems that her marrying this other chap is meant to force Jack to come forward.

Nikki claims to be a deep cover CIA operative who is after a mole known as   Chrysalis. Sarah and Mac’s team join forces to first capture Nikki, which they do, and then to help Mac’s former girlfriend catch the mole.

Wilt and Riley go undercover as well. They work to find some proof of the mole Nikki claims to be after.  The noob and the computer expert go to see Murdoc in prison. There is a “Hannibal Lector” vibe to their short Q&A, which Wilt alludes to in the very short interrogation.

Murdoc actually delivers although it is doubtful that the assassin thought they could really use his information.

Jack believes that Nikki is lying about her mission and the mole. It looks like he may be right after they are jumped by an outside agency twice. The first time by two three men wet teams and the second time by Patricia Thornton.

The latter intrusion sees the Phoenix director telling Nikki that she is under arrest and that there  was no mole. Wilt and Riley prove that there is, in fact, a Chrysalis and it is Thornton.

Patricia is the mole and has been for some time. Nikki is really a deep cover CIA operative and Thornton is led off in handcuffs.

MacGyver has given back Nikki her “good guy” status and removed one member of Mac’s team.  “Screwdriver” also managed to give Tristan Mays a break in the hair department. Throughout the entire episode, her character’s “do” did not once look like a bird’s nest pulled through a hedgerow…backwards. Well done.

Something else missing in this episode were those annoying screen titles explaining what every little thing is that Mac is using to make his impromptu weapons, et al.  Of course in this installment very little time was spent explaining what he was making.

Lucas Till’s voiceover explanation was also missing. He does explain about the Cheetos used on Nikki’s phone but he remains silent about all the nifty things found in his ex girlfriends log cabin that he uses to make a bomb.

This episode was all about giving Nikki a chance to clear her name, Jack a chance to reclaim Sarah and getting rid of Patricia Thornton. It also gave Wilt his first bit of spy “street cred” and, as mentioned before, it allowed Riley to dump that “rebellious” hairdo.

MacGyver airs Fridays on CBS. Tune in and see if series creator Craig Siebels continues to trim Mac’s team down. 

Cast:

• Lucas Till  –  Angus MacGyver
• George Eads  –  Jack Dalton
• Sandrine Holt  –  Patricia Thornton
• Tristin Mays  –  Riley Davis
• Justin Hires  –  Wilt Bozer

Guest starring Amy Acker as Sarah Adler, Tracy Spiridakos as Nikki Carpenter and David Dastmalchian as Murdoc.

MacGyver “Pliers” sees Angus as the prodigal student returning to the school he first began his life as a high-powered nerd. Boze relives the old days with Riley as MacGyver talks to his old science teacher’s class. The spy meets a young, female version of himself.

After the class the youngster; Valerie, is kidnapped and Mac is told she will die if he interferes again. Jack and Angus speak to the girl’s father who refuses to let them help. They realize that the man is lying to them.

The mission then becomes a fact finding exercise with Boze coming through with some important information. Jack and Mac chase down Valerie’s dad and then free the little science prodigy from the bad guys.

While this version of MacGyver features an Angus who works with a team, there are enough fans of the show that a second season has already been approved by CBS.  Purists, those who remember a time when Angus MacGyver worked solo, are not quite enamored of this new show where the show’s hero is surrounded by people on every mission.

Till is slowly become more acceptable as the scientific spy who does not rely upon guns to complete an assignment. The show’s producers have followed the familiar theme of making something from nothing.

In this episode, Mac makes a small bomb, and a directional microphone. He also amps up Jack’s mini-van’s speed with a gallon jug of hydrogen peroxide. Boze and Riley make Mac a directional antenna so he can avoid the cops.

Angus and Jack rescue the little scientist and she is hidden away in Mac’s old treehouse lab. On a sidenote: Valerie; the scientific prodigy, sports glasses and an earnest look on her little face and is socially awkward. In essence the kid is a walking trope.

Despite being trapped in a cliché, Miller makes the most of her role and the interaction between her character and MacGyver works well. We learn more about Angus’ backstory along with a good look into what makes Boze tick.

This episode uses the science experiment that Angus does for Ericson’s class at the beginning of the episode to foil the baddies. It is a nice touch, as is Jack’s dubbing MacGyver “Geekachu.”

Jack explains that if Mac were a Pokemon character that would be his nickname. “It was either that or nerdasaur…What about Brainmander?”

The criminals are caught, Thornton finds out that they have been on an unsanctioned mission and Mac gives his old treehouse lab to Valerie. The implication is that the girl will grow up to become the next MacGyver.

It would have been nice if the kid scientist was more involved with helping her father out. Clearly the eighth grade prodigy is meant to be a future “Mac.” For some reason, rather than approaching the story from that angle, the show’s producers opted to keep to the backstory and team plotline.

While Eads does a good job as Jack, the man is, admittedly, good at all this “action hero” stuff, it would be much better if Angus worked more on his own.  The show has been working overtime to turn MacGyver into a “buddy” show.

The concept works to a degree but despite the effectiveness of the team members, Angus MacGyver worked better alone. (And yes we realize that we have mentioned this twice.) Team Phoenix are slowly growing on us but all these people serve to water down the potential of the show.

MacGyver airs Fridays on CBS. Tune in and see what you think. With a season average of 8.152 viewers per episode, they must be doing something right.

Cast:

• Lucas Till  –  Angus MacGyver
• George Eads  –  Jack Dalton
• Sandrine Holt  –  Patricia Thornton
• Tristin Mays  –  Riley Davis
• Justin Hires  –  Wilt Bozer

Guest starring John Heard as Arthur Ericson and Amiah Miller as Valerie Lawson.