Credit: www.amazon.com
Creator
Lee David Zlotoff
The Cast
Richard Dean Anderson……….Angus MacGyver
Dana Elcar……….Pete Thornton
Bruce McGill……….Jack Dalton
Teri Hatcher……….Penny Parker
Murdoc……….Michael Des Barres
The Season
MacGyver, MacGyver, MacGyver, hurrah! As log time readers realize, I’ve seen too many damn episodes of MacGyver. Paramount has pumped out five seasons of MacGyver in just a hair over a year. So how does the fifth season of MacGyver stack up to the rest of MacGyver, oh loyal readers? Pretty well I say.
Here’s a quick break down of the story of MacGyver for the sadly uninformed MacGyver fans. MacGyver works for the Phoenix Foundation. At the Foundation, he does everything from fight terrorists to plant tracking devices. MacGyver is likes pro hockey, hates guns, and enjoys a fine liberal cause. MacGyver is really the bleeding heart superhero of the world. Rather then use guns, he essentially uses the power of recycling! Good lord, he’s like a Canadian (he’s from Minnesota, whatever) Captain Planet without all of the child molestation.
Season 5 has MacGyver finding God, or some form of God. MacGyver’s two part season premier has him getting caught up in searching for the Holy Grail. He also ends up searching for a stolen Madonna for a poor church that MacGyver frequents. The season finally has MacGyver in Egypt looking for an artifact that apparently grants eternal life. There are episodes that balance this out though as MacGyver has to deal with everything from getting caught up in a racial murder case to trying to find a way to negotiate his way through a tense situation Chinese citizen and what “really” has been happening in Tiananmen Square.
The plots are silly but fun for this season. The reappearance of Murdock and Penny Parker in separate episodes helps establish a continuity of characters. Murdock is pretty hokey, but damn, are his episodes entertaining. His return has MacGyver actually “helping” Murdock for once rather then fighting him along with, um, fighting him. On the flip side, Penny is nice as a pseudo kid sister since this season has so many pseudo MacGyver girlfriends.
The problems with MacGyver Season 5 are the problems that mar every MacGyver season, although slightly lessened here. MacGyver Season 5 does a few different things. The swap of MacGyver vs Murdock to MacGyver teams up with Murdock is a nice change. The religious aspects of several issues gave this season a nice feel of continuity, but most of the episodes don’t feel that well connected. The episodic nature of MacGyver mixed with the growing, “been there, seen that” feel of the show brings it down a bit. This season isn’t plagued by these problems as much as earlier seasons, but they’re still there.
Out of all of the seasons of MacGyver, Season 5 is probably the strongest of the bunch so far. It does enough differently to feel a bit more distinct then previous seasons, while the
“religious” episodes give the season a feeling of continuity. The fact that it’s still one guy using a bunch of seemingly random pieces of material to create a series of nearly impossible devices kind of takes away from the show’s originality. Without question though, this season is the one to pick up if you’ve been looking to get your feet wet with MacGyver.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
The Video
Seemingly nothing has been done to clean up the video for this release. This is about the quality of video that you would see if you popped on the television and caught an episode of MacGyver. Not great, but not awful.
The Sound
MacGyver has a decent Dolby Digital soundtrack. The stereo sound is pretty full when something explodes or when something… um… explodes. The dialogue is nicely mixed for this release and it never seems like the sound is trying to fight to be heard.
The Extras
MacGyver is lacking in the extras department. There are several trailers advertising other Paramount releases on DVD but that’s it. I haven’t come to expect much from these discs, but it would be nice if one of the two MacGyver TV movies found their way on to the two remaining seasons.
Score: 0.5 out 10
