MacGyver (which I'm watching for the first time in 2021 even though I was alive and kicking in the 80s, so I'm coming to it without nostalgia) is a great show, though it has a Jekyll/Hyde complex. Some episodes are funny and some are deadly serious. Some are strictly scientific while others are absurdly mystical.
MacGyver's morality is questionable. He never uses a gun even for show, and when one becomes available he kicks it away or tosses it into a pot of boiling water or disposes of it somehow. Yet in every episode he uses his sledgehammer fist. Frankly, I'd rather be shot than beaten to death.
And when he disarms the bad guys but still needs to round them up in his corral, he usually employs some Rube Goldberg device (or, if you're English, Heath Robinson) to clobber them good. This may give them concussions and causes them mental problems up the road or makes them die more slowly from brain damage or blood clots, when he might have settled their affairs with more safety by holding a pistol or rifle on them from some hidden spot until the police arrive. It also endangers the innocent, since rather than hold his villains at bay with a gun (even if he doesn't intend to use it--the baddies don't know that) he gets rid of it. So, say he's just rescued a hostage and disarms his enemies and disposes of their firearms rather than threatening them with their own weapons; he then has to think up some trick that, if it fails in one small part, may cause the just-rescued hostage harm.
However, it does add another level of suspense most television shows lack.
Despite that kink in his personality, MacGyver is clever. An ace at chemistry, he seems to know nearly everything else, like how car motors work and stuff. How he learned everything he knows at his age is a mind-boggling problem. As well as keeping fit (he obviously works out) he travels the world. Where does he find the time to read or do lab work? He's kind of like the Professor on "Gilligan's Island" who got a Doctorate in general knowledge. While MacGyver was probably a chemistry major and studied physics he apparently minored in everything else.
His other flaws? He's scared of heights. When he needs to be. Actually, he's often quite high up and doesn't seem bothered by it. There's no consistency of character here.
MacGyver (his first name is rarely used and when it finally was it's pretty disappointing considering the build-up of the mystery) can walk into any room and using amazing powers of lateral thinking sees how unrelated items can fit together to make . . . Well, whatever he needs at the time. He's lucky the scriptwriters always put just the right things in the room, otherwise he'd be up the creek in every episode.
The best thing about MacGyver the character (which puts him a little out of step in the twenty-first century) is that he's never rude. Never rude, that is, except to his dearest friends. With everyone else he swallows his pride and controls his anger and treats them well, however they treat him. With his real, long-term friends he's always prickly.
But then, his pals are a bag of mixed nuts. Recurring characters include his crusty grandfather (John Anderson).
There's Jack Dalton, a whacked-out pilot always pursuing get-rich-quick schemes and tricking MacGyver into following him (for a clever guy MacGyver's awfully gullible). Oh, and airheaded aspiring actress Penny Parker (Teri Hatcher, who never looked lovelier) who provides MacGyver with some of his better episodes. Every Penny episode is special. And there's his boss, Pete (Dana Elcar, who's been in everything from "Dark Shadows" to "The Sting"). Though MacGyver's boss and ostensibly pretty clever himself, Pete has a wonderful way of getting caught in any trap and tied up for the enemy to use later (they never just shoot him to get him out from underfoot). Pete also likes to throw his weight around, and there's lots of it to throw. If he ever worked out it was lifting the heavier doughnuts. Lots of sprinkles.
Also plaguing poor MacGyver are a flock of guest stars (mostly old television hands, but with a few notable surprises). Even when they're on his side, like Stephen Furst or Edward Mulhare or Henry Gibson, they cause him nothing but endless trouble. His allies, whether his pals or one-shot guest stars, are as dangerous to him as his foes.
Some of MacGyver's best episodes have him working with one or the other (or both) of the bounty-hunting Coulton brothers, Frank and Jesse (Clevon Little and Richard Lawson). In case you don't know your history, Frank and Jesse were the names of the outlaw James brothers.
Some of MacGyver's poorest episodes are rip-offs of movies (like Charlton Heston's "The Naked Jungle" or Michael Caine's "The Italian Job") where they borrow actual footage from those old flicks and have sets to more-or-less match the shots. One episode imitates "The Sting" down to the phony horse parlor. But, unless, like me, you're an aficionado of old movies, you probably won't notice.
Ah, yes, I mustn't forget his recurring arch-foe Murdoc, the catalyst for several top episodes. Murdoc is deliciously evil, has an unlimited supply of funds (apparently) and lives for no other purpose than to murder MacGuyver. Unfortunately, he's an artist in murder so rather than getting down to business when he should he lets opportunities flow away through his fingers. He's the type who demands sharks with laser beams on their foreheads. Well, it builds a MacGyver Mythos.
Possibly the most amazing thing is that MacGyver does all he does without cell phones (though in some episodes he had a crude early version) and his computers are primitive and probably work on kerosene. In one episode he mentions how many gigabytes his computer has and while it impresses the people of 1990 it's hardly impressive today (and MacGyver pronounces "gigabyte" with a J sound up front). And the Internet is still a gleam in Al Gore's eye. How does he even survive without mobiles or Google? Why, he drives for miles until he finds the nearest phone. Neanderthal stuff.
Then, somewhere around the fourth season, an extremely fun adventure show featuring an uber-clever, lateral-thinking character played by a winsome lead took a left turn and some of its episodes became polemics for far-left extremist politics. Others are less polemical but still use loaded terms ("animal lover" is one; hey. I'm an animal lover, just ask my cats, but I don't climb up on a high horse and announce it like a superior being). The better episodes of the later seasons are still flat-out fun.
Unfortunately, despite some later high spots (very high, including some of the series' tops) each season after the fourth yields diminishing returns.
Overall, an enjoyable show. Educational? Perhaps, though I defy ordinary mortals to piece together the odds and ends MacGyver finds, to rig up anything useful.
MacGyver's morality is questionable. He never uses a gun even for show, and when one becomes available he kicks it away or tosses it into a pot of boiling water or disposes of it somehow. Yet in every episode he uses his sledgehammer fist. Frankly, I'd rather be shot than beaten to death.
And when he disarms the bad guys but still needs to round them up in his corral, he usually employs some Rube Goldberg device (or, if you're English, Heath Robinson) to clobber them good. This may give them concussions and causes them mental problems up the road or makes them die more slowly from brain damage or blood clots, when he might have settled their affairs with more safety by holding a pistol or rifle on them from some hidden spot until the police arrive. It also endangers the innocent, since rather than hold his villains at bay with a gun (even if he doesn't intend to use it--the baddies don't know that) he gets rid of it. So, say he's just rescued a hostage and disarms his enemies and disposes of their firearms rather than threatening them with their own weapons; he then has to think up some trick that, if it fails in one small part, may cause the just-rescued hostage harm.
However, it does add another level of suspense most television shows lack.
Despite that kink in his personality, MacGyver is clever. An ace at chemistry, he seems to know nearly everything else, like how car motors work and stuff. How he learned everything he knows at his age is a mind-boggling problem. As well as keeping fit (he obviously works out) he travels the world. Where does he find the time to read or do lab work? He's kind of like the Professor on "Gilligan's Island" who got a Doctorate in general knowledge. While MacGyver was probably a chemistry major and studied physics he apparently minored in everything else.
His other flaws? He's scared of heights. When he needs to be. Actually, he's often quite high up and doesn't seem bothered by it. There's no consistency of character here.
MacGyver (his first name is rarely used and when it finally was it's pretty disappointing considering the build-up of the mystery) can walk into any room and using amazing powers of lateral thinking sees how unrelated items can fit together to make . . . Well, whatever he needs at the time. He's lucky the scriptwriters always put just the right things in the room, otherwise he'd be up the creek in every episode.
The best thing about MacGyver the character (which puts him a little out of step in the twenty-first century) is that he's never rude. Never rude, that is, except to his dearest friends. With everyone else he swallows his pride and controls his anger and treats them well, however they treat him. With his real, long-term friends he's always prickly.
But then, his pals are a bag of mixed nuts. Recurring characters include his crusty grandfather (John Anderson).
There's Jack Dalton, a whacked-out pilot always pursuing get-rich-quick schemes and tricking MacGyver into following him (for a clever guy MacGyver's awfully gullible). Oh, and airheaded aspiring actress Penny Parker (Teri Hatcher, who never looked lovelier) who provides MacGyver with some of his better episodes. Every Penny episode is special. And there's his boss, Pete (Dana Elcar, who's been in everything from "Dark Shadows" to "The Sting"). Though MacGyver's boss and ostensibly pretty clever himself, Pete has a wonderful way of getting caught in any trap and tied up for the enemy to use later (they never just shoot him to get him out from underfoot). Pete also likes to throw his weight around, and there's lots of it to throw. If he ever worked out it was lifting the heavier doughnuts. Lots of sprinkles.
Also plaguing poor MacGyver are a flock of guest stars (mostly old television hands, but with a few notable surprises). Even when they're on his side, like Stephen Furst or Edward Mulhare or Henry Gibson, they cause him nothing but endless trouble. His allies, whether his pals or one-shot guest stars, are as dangerous to him as his foes.
Some of MacGyver's best episodes have him working with one or the other (or both) of the bounty-hunting Coulton brothers, Frank and Jesse (Clevon Little and Richard Lawson). In case you don't know your history, Frank and Jesse were the names of the outlaw James brothers.
Some of MacGyver's poorest episodes are rip-offs of movies (like Charlton Heston's "The Naked Jungle" or Michael Caine's "The Italian Job") where they borrow actual footage from those old flicks and have sets to more-or-less match the shots. One episode imitates "The Sting" down to the phony horse parlor. But, unless, like me, you're an aficionado of old movies, you probably won't notice.
Ah, yes, I mustn't forget his recurring arch-foe Murdoc, the catalyst for several top episodes. Murdoc is deliciously evil, has an unlimited supply of funds (apparently) and lives for no other purpose than to murder MacGuyver. Unfortunately, he's an artist in murder so rather than getting down to business when he should he lets opportunities flow away through his fingers. He's the type who demands sharks with laser beams on their foreheads. Well, it builds a MacGyver Mythos.
Possibly the most amazing thing is that MacGyver does all he does without cell phones (though in some episodes he had a crude early version) and his computers are primitive and probably work on kerosene. In one episode he mentions how many gigabytes his computer has and while it impresses the people of 1990 it's hardly impressive today (and MacGyver pronounces "gigabyte" with a J sound up front). And the Internet is still a gleam in Al Gore's eye. How does he even survive without mobiles or Google? Why, he drives for miles until he finds the nearest phone. Neanderthal stuff.
Then, somewhere around the fourth season, an extremely fun adventure show featuring an uber-clever, lateral-thinking character played by a winsome lead took a left turn and some of its episodes became polemics for far-left extremist politics. Others are less polemical but still use loaded terms ("animal lover" is one; hey. I'm an animal lover, just ask my cats, but I don't climb up on a high horse and announce it like a superior being). The better episodes of the later seasons are still flat-out fun.
Unfortunately, despite some later high spots (very high, including some of the series' tops) each season after the fourth yields diminishing returns.
Overall, an enjoyable show. Educational? Perhaps, though I defy ordinary mortals to piece together the odds and ends MacGyver finds, to rig up anything useful.