"Improvise" - MacGyver S03E01 Review

And so we start season 3 of another of CBS's reboot. If you're not happy with SWAT and Magnum PI and Hawaii Five-0 (or even if you are), then you've got MacGyver.

When last we left, Mac (Lucas Till) had finally found his long-missing father Jim (Tate Donovan). And discovered he was actually Oversight, the head of Phoenix, the vague paramilitary U.S. spy organization that seems to answer to no one except itself and maybe the President. And seems to have a remit that covers both the U.S. and the world at large. So it's a combination of the FBI and the CIA.

Mac was angry at his father for abandoning him as a child and so he left Phoenix. About the same time that master assassin Murdoc (David Dastmalchian) got his son out of protective custody after a season or two of on-and-off-stalking of Mac, the only person who had ever survived Murdoc's murder attempts.

Mac's teammates Wilt Bozer (Justin Hines) and Riley Davis (Tristin Mays) are doing behind-the-desk work. Their team leader, or director, or something, Matty Webber (Meredith Eaton) hasn't been able to find someone who can do what Mac does, and put tech Jill Morgan (Kate Bond) in charge of an anti-Murdoc task force. Assigned newbie spy and Wilt's love interest, Leanna Martin (Reign Edwards) to the team. And Mac's final teammate, soldier and bodyguard Jack Dalton (George Eads), has been at loose ends since Mac left.

We start the new season with Mac in Nigeria, helping a village irrigate their lands and falling in love with a local schoolteacher, Nasha (Sibongile Mlambo). Everyone is praising Mac as a wizard they can't do without, because that's what CBS does with Mac on the reboot.

Oversight shows up and tells Mac Jack has gone rogue and is teamed up with a eastern European dictator Roman Mareks (Ilia Volok) that Jack helped depose 15 years ago when Jack was a CIA operative. They've raided a Russian weapon depot and Phoenix is trying to figure out why. They need Mac because everyone needs Mac.

Mac is still on cold-shoulder terms with his father. But he comes back, says a romantic farewell to Nasha, and flies off to somewhere. Where he meets with Wilt and Leanna after they've broken into the depot to get the video of the break-in to Riley so she can confirm Jack is there. Jack leaves them what is presumably Roman's cell phone with the phone number of an arms dealer, Serhiy Yaroslav (Richie Stephens). As they're driving to meet with Yaroslav, Mac's former teammates reveal Matty has been unable to find anyone else who does what Mac does and so the entire Phoenix organization has been floundering since he left. Because Mac isn't just like a freelancer like in the original MacGyver series. He's the hinge pin of an entire secret spy organization. And Michael Westen got burned a long time ago.

They essentially blackmail the mercenary dealer into telling them he was going to sell mercenaries to Roman. And figure out Roman is after some diamonds Jack and his CIA team took 15 years ago. But another CIA team recovered 9 years ago. So they figure once Roman realizes there are no diamonds, he'll kill Jack for betraying him. Ruh-roh!

Mac and Oversight (who is still with them) have to parachute into Roman's former country, which is now under the control of another evil dictator, Oleg Vadim (Gil Darnell). So the U.S. deposed one evil dictator to replace him with another? I get the impression there's a political message in there somewhere. Oversight has trouble parachuting and Mac saves his life but then continues cold-shouldering him.

They get to the church where Roman hid the diamonds, beating out Jack and Roman. They then backtrack and Oversight distracts Roman and his men so Jack can get away. Mac and Jack have a reunion, where George Eads overacts as usual. It's part of Jack Dalton's charm, I guess. Oversight gets captured by Vadim, who doesn't seem too appreciative of the U.S. putting him in power.

He contacts Jack and Mac, and they offer him Roman in return for Oversight. Mac does his one on-screen MacGyverism of the night and builds a mechanical ascender out of an old shopping cart, some wire, and a heavy rock. They intercept Roman, but he manages to defeat Jack in a hand-to-hand fight (evil dictators are tough!) and drives away. Mac goes after him to where Roman's escape helicopter is waiting. Roman jams the accelerator and jumps out, and the car with Jack in the back heads for a cliff. Mac chooses his friend and rescues him, managing to get in the car and brake it to a halt. Because the steering wheel doesn't work, I guess.

It turns out Leanna has somehow taken over as the helicopter pilot. She captures Roman anyway, hands him over to Vadim, and they get Oversight back. At the end, Matty suggests Oversight retire from Phoenix so Mac will join back up. He agrees, but we find out Mac has already left. At the airport, he gets a cell phone and Jill's phone number. Murdoc is waiting in the back seat of her car, being one of those bad guys that will hide in the back seat of a car for hours waiting for his nemesis to call so he can make a dramatic appearance. Murdoc somehow rams the car Jill is driving into an underpass (don't drive and phone, kids!), walks away unscathed, and tells Mac he's really happy to have Mac back and he's going to kill Jill. And credit to David Dastmalchian: his demented murder persona/bromance with Mac is always the highlight of the show.

And... Next's preview has Mac going on a mission with Jack and his former buddies in special ops. So what happens with Jill and Murdoc, apparently they won't spend much time on.

"Improvise" was... typical nu-MacGyver. Lucas Till rocks the beard he's grown between seasons, and unfortunately shaves it off. Everyone else has apparently froze in place just waiting for Mac to return. There's the usual vague plot that doesn't make much sense when you think about it that hard (why doesn't Mac turn the damned steering wheel?). Jack, Wilt, and Matty are all pretty much the same. We don't see enough of Riley to tell if anything has changed with her. She did have a new boyfriend, Billy Coulter (Lance Gross). Wilt and Leanna have a thing, but other than Wilt finding Leanna's kung fu and piloting skills hot, we don't get any reference to that, either.

There's a brief mention of the plot that ended last season: Oversight's former partner Jonah Walsh (Brad William Henke) developing illegal performance-enhancing drugs to give to terrorists. But "Improve" is pretty much a standalone episode, and serves to kinda/sorta to reintroduce the loose ends from the end of season 2. Mac is still mad at his jerk of a father for abandoning him. Oversight is still trying to reconnect with his son. Wilt and Leanna are still in luv. Murdoc is still at large. But nu-MacGyver has always been primarily a series of standalone episodes with a few subplots to string them all together.

So nu-MacGyver is still fun escapism TV. Kind of old-school, where you can gasp as the heroic deeds and admire Mac's improvisation skills. With the exception of Dastmalchian, all the actors are good but not great. There's some nice cinematography--I like the long shots of Mac on the motorcycle rescuing Jack--but there's nothing that's going to win any rewards. So kinda like the original MacGyver, really, which had its ups-and-downs storytelling-wise as well. Although the acting was better, and nu-MacGyver making Mac part of a team tends to downplay him.

For instance both MacGyver and Mac hate guns. But MacGyver didn't want to be around with them. Mac seems to be perfectly okay with them as long as someone else (mostly Jack) uses them. Ditto with the hacking and tech stuff: Riley does the heavy-lifting in nu-MacGyver. Mac comes across as less of the original MacGyver's Renaissance man, and more of a guy whose only shtick is improvisation.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?