Critic Reviews

With the breezy action comes some valuable knowledge about magnets and ammonias. Who knew TV could be educational? ... This reboot looks to be a pleasant way to start the [CBS Friday] lineup and the weekend.

It’s almost shameless how quickly Mac plows through the “classics,” including using soot and packing tape to lift a fingerprint, and I’m still unsure of what principle he uses exactly to outwit a biometric scanner. But these quick fixes remain a good part of the fun. ... It deviates from the comparatively “lone wolf” nature of the original, though that’s not necessarily to its detriment; it simply makes it more familiar, CBS procedural-y.

Some of us won’t be able to watch MacGyver without feeling like we’re getting a lobotomy with an unwound paper clip; others will be delighted by this energetic, easygoing update.

Lucas Till, as the 2016 version of the title character, doesn’t make much of an impression in the premiere, which involves a bioweapon that has fallen into bad hands. It’s nice to see George Eads of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” back on TV as Jack Dalton, one of MacGyver’s partners in disaster prevention, but the show is bogged down by its premise.

What you're getting here is a factory-made retread that is less MacGyver than MacGyver: Impossible, with the title character now just one member of an impossible mission team. ... The show does, however, have two saving graces beyond the easygoing charm of its stars. For one, the original was hardly holy writ, and tampering with it doesn't count as a sin. And for another, weightless may be just what you want on a Friday night.

The new MacGyver lacks [USA's "Burn Notice's"] creativity and wit. It’s clumsy and forgettable, and it’ll probably end up lasting seven seasons without anybody really noticing.

MacGyver isn't going to set prime time on fire. But it's watchable enough, and it seems like a good Friday night fit with CBS' "Hawaii Five-0" and "Blue Bloods."

The slick action is soulless, the voice-over is awkward, and Till isn’t faceted enough to add a human dimension.

CBS must have reasoned that the new version would have to be bigger and flashier. This reboot accomplishes that, but in doing so, loses the whole point of MacGyver in the first place.

While lead actor Lucas Till is charismatic as Mac, his voiceover and the tone of several parts of the show would remind viewers of another, better recent CBS show that was cancelled: Limitless. The pilot, directed by James Wan, at least keeps things entertaining on the action side; however, even with a near-complete retooling, some characters feel like the ones you’ve seen before on other recent CBS shows like Scorpion.