I really liked the show "MacGyver" as a kid. I'm re-watching the series for the first time in maybe twenty years and like it again, but for different reasons.
1) The cheese factor. Television really has improved in the last few decades. Macgyver characters tend to have STEREOTYPE written all over their face. Still lovable, but hopelessly cliche,. like the Single Mom Trying to Raise Her Adorable Moppet But Gets Threatened by Mafia Guys. Who are, of course, Italian. Moppet predictabley does something immature and gets captured by Bad Guys. MacGyver does something improbable with paper clip.
2) Reasonably Good Science. Ignore the paper clip reference. Unlike say, House, MD, most of the weird crap MacGyver pulls with weird odds and ends has some reasonable grounding in basic chemistry, or applied circuits. I sort of appreciate that.
3) Man-whorishness with a more than generous splash of chivalry. I seemed to have missed this when I first watched the show. MacGyver is always sparking with the ladies, every single episode. And he has WAY more long lost loves of his life than seems reasonable. BUt it has a kind of earnest, honest quality when he falls for the girl and does ridiculous things in the name of chivalry.
4) Swiss Army Knife. This show was the reason I bought my first, second, and no more Swiss Army knives. They are actually sort of crappy. Once I bought a Leatherman, 12 years ago, I fell in love and never went back to the Swiss. If MacGyver was on today, he would have a Leatherman Juice. With pliers and not those crappy little scissors on the swiss army knife.
1) The cheese factor. Television really has improved in the last few decades. Macgyver characters tend to have STEREOTYPE written all over their face. Still lovable, but hopelessly cliche,. like the Single Mom Trying to Raise Her Adorable Moppet But Gets Threatened by Mafia Guys. Who are, of course, Italian. Moppet predictabley does something immature and gets captured by Bad Guys. MacGyver does something improbable with paper clip.
2) Reasonably Good Science. Ignore the paper clip reference. Unlike say, House, MD, most of the weird crap MacGyver pulls with weird odds and ends has some reasonable grounding in basic chemistry, or applied circuits. I sort of appreciate that.
3) Man-whorishness with a more than generous splash of chivalry. I seemed to have missed this when I first watched the show. MacGyver is always sparking with the ladies, every single episode. And he has WAY more long lost loves of his life than seems reasonable. BUt it has a kind of earnest, honest quality when he falls for the girl and does ridiculous things in the name of chivalry.
4) Swiss Army Knife. This show was the reason I bought my first, second, and no more Swiss Army knives. They are actually sort of crappy. Once I bought a Leatherman, 12 years ago, I fell in love and never went back to the Swiss. If MacGyver was on today, he would have a Leatherman Juice. With pliers and not those crappy little scissors on the swiss army knife.