The series follows one of the staff of a clandestine organization within the U.S. government, relying on his unconventional problem solving skills to save lives.
Till may get more of a workout than Minnesota's Richard Dean Anderson did in the original series, but he needs better dialogue if he wants audiences to keep running with him.
CBS has owned Friday nights in recent years with a lineup of scripted originals that includes Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods. This reboot looks to be a pleasant way to start the lineup and the weekend.
It is trying very, very hard to fit in. It has the right elements; what it hasn't yet quite figured out yet, though, is how to combine them into something that will be truly explosive.
If I were 10 years old, I'd probably love the new version of MacGyver.... As I am not 10 years old, alas, I have to say that the MacGyver reboot is that rare thing: a likable bore.
Till's got charm and his on-screen bromance with Eads is one of the few elements that actually works. But patience and bromances won't save this. A smart, compelling, up-to-date rethinking just might.
The new MacGyver is an ill-conceived, sterile reimagining of a series that is such a product of its time that it shouldn't have been updated in the first place.
This one thinks borrowing the names and rushing through the wizardry is enough to bring back the warm fuzzies of that time Richard Dean Anderson's MacGyver made a defibrillator using nothing but candlesticks, a microphone cord... It's not hat easy.
It looks cheap (even though CBS decided to scrap the entire original pilot and make a new one), the action sequences are rote, the dialogue is mostly generic, and the characters are all one-dimensional.
