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bonus DVD review: MacGyver Season 2 |
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Written by Scott Yates
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Tuesday, 09 August 2005 |
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The name’s MacGyver. You’ve heard of him. He’s like the Clark Kent of government agents, an unassuming exterior hiding almost supernatural talent. Mac is the ultimate ’80s action hero, an ordinary guy with a mullet who spends his days dodging the Russian mob, evading Arabian horsemen and duping run-of-the-mill corporate scumbags. And how does he take down those nefarious villians? By building a bunch of whatchamacallits. You know, Coke bottle/safety pin/duct tape bombs, casserole dish fusion generators, also known as MacGyverisms.
Finally, after a decade of waiting, the first two seasons worth of the Swiss Army knife-toting MacGyver are out on DVD courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment. Each season’s box set comes with six discs containing 22 episodes full of bad plots, booby traps and Richard Dean Anderson’s god-like hockey hair, perhaps the finest mullet to come out of the ’80s.
Nothing is digitally re-mastered, so even the DVDs are grainy. The discs aren’t in stereo, either, so you might as well turn off that Dolby 7.1 system. But what MacGyver does have is the most quotable, yet useless, dialog, the like of which only Yogi Berra and Ace Ventura would be shameless enough to utter. In the midst of the action, Mac offers up pithy sayings like, “Look, if this works, it'll keep us from gettin' caught. If it doesn't, it'll keep us from gettin' old,” and “Old Minnesota wisdom - if you don't wanna be touched, look downright untouchable.”
“MacGyver” is as predictable as a recipe. The actors act about as well as sock puppets and the corny jokes are second only to the aged wit of Angela Lansbury in “Murder She Wrote.” Here’s how an average episode breaks down. An orchestra plays the corny theme music over action shots of chases and explosions while Mac’s voice-over narration gets us up to speed on his current adventure. It’s all sort of James Bond-y, but this Boy Scout gentleman agent is no 007. Enter the gorgeous dame, who almost always wants to rekindle some romantic past with Mac. She becomes the damsel in distress in a few short minutes and after facing eminent death with her by his side, Mac whips out his Swiss Army knife to cut free the hog ties. Then, with duct tape and a paper clip he, dismantles the bomb that was meant to blow them to bits. In this triumphant moment, the orchestra starts playing again. The girl looks longingly at Mac, his innocent charm her kryptonite, but our hero is too bashful to handle the passionate kiss his chick is dying to give him. Each show usually ends with a sappy one-liner that leaves Mac smiling that JC Penny smile that got him the acting job in the first place. After all, Anderson has said “MacGyver” was the acting era in his life during which he had no real business calling himself an actor.
Look out for the release of the third season on September 6, 2005.
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