If you choose to call your TV show "MacGyver" you will get comparisons with the 80s, awesome, one-man-can-do-all TV show headlined by the great Richard Dean Anderson (afterwards in Stargate the TV series). That MacGyver went around the world all by himself, doing things with a paperclip and a mirror and being charming and cool. So, if you base your TV show on an old TV show that left an everlasting impression on its fans... you will have a huge wall to overcome.
This new "MacGyver" is very different from the original. Slick, too clean, a little bit in your face (really, do you need to put on the screen the names of the materials MacGyver is using?; well, probably they thought the voice-over of the original was too much too), this new MacGyver is a little bit too cocky and full of himself. He also works for the government instead of being a lone wolf, and has, from episode 1, a team around him. So, basically, nothing to see with the old MacGyver apart from the name and...
And the use of stuff that is around to do other stuff. However, where the old TV show was low-key (a thing of the era too), here it is all a little bit too flashy and, at the same time, simplistic (the invents in this episode are not original or interesting).
The plot is also very very poor: betrayal, silly MacGuffin and introduction of the characters. Characters that are not very charismatic (Lucas Till is a little bit bland, but it is great to see Sandrine Holt). The direction, though, by James Wan, is good, with great and original camera-work in the action scenes, and a secured pace (even if the plot doesn't help, as happens with many pilots).
What can be said then about this pilot? That is a very different beast from the other show (basically it uses the name and the excuse of creating things from what is around; oh, and MacGyver doesn't shoot, at least in this episode) that seems to be just another police/detective procedural with a bad-of-the-episode style. Little originality, but good enough for one hour in front of the screen. Let's see what future episodes have on offer.
This new "MacGyver" is very different from the original. Slick, too clean, a little bit in your face (really, do you need to put on the screen the names of the materials MacGyver is using?; well, probably they thought the voice-over of the original was too much too), this new MacGyver is a little bit too cocky and full of himself. He also works for the government instead of being a lone wolf, and has, from episode 1, a team around him. So, basically, nothing to see with the old MacGyver apart from the name and...
And the use of stuff that is around to do other stuff. However, where the old TV show was low-key (a thing of the era too), here it is all a little bit too flashy and, at the same time, simplistic (the invents in this episode are not original or interesting).
The plot is also very very poor: betrayal, silly MacGuffin and introduction of the characters. Characters that are not very charismatic (Lucas Till is a little bit bland, but it is great to see Sandrine Holt). The direction, though, by James Wan, is good, with great and original camera-work in the action scenes, and a secured pace (even if the plot doesn't help, as happens with many pilots).
What can be said then about this pilot? That is a very different beast from the other show (basically it uses the name and the excuse of creating things from what is around; oh, and MacGyver doesn't shoot, at least in this episode) that seems to be just another police/detective procedural with a bad-of-the-episode style. Little originality, but good enough for one hour in front of the screen. Let's see what future episodes have on offer.