Does it get better?

i have been rewatching it again myself and do laugh at a few episodes but do still enjoy it. it does not look like anything today and does feel dated for the most part, more so than i could remember as it has been years since i last watched it. i think it all just depends on the episode for what you get. so don't know which it might be for you although i think it steps up later on. guess it depends on where you are rewatching. i am in the middle of season four and just watched the episode Gold Rush, which i enjoy, and then followed up with Runners, which felt like an afterschool special.

For me, there's much more good to see than bad acting. MacGyver is a classic and I love it. That makes it easier to overlook imperfections. To address your concern, though, several episodes throughout the series have some bad acting. I hope that won't deter you from watching.

I've been re-watching it again as well, but my reaction has been different than yours. Every TV series has some episodes that are not particularly satisfying, and MacGyver is no different in that regard. But in general, I have enjoyed looking at it again. I enjoyed the first season very much, and I think the show holds up well, even after so many years.

Nope. I enjoy the show for its nostalgia factor. And MacGyver really is a great jack of all trades hero. Some of the episodes are old pulp novels come to life. IMO Every season has more stinkers than it does homeruns. One thing that surprises me now is I actually enjoy the "lame" eps where Mac is just helping folks out and not being an international super spy. Good or bad, the show has a strong moral backbone and good charm. They really don't make them like this anymore.

"I said no camels, that's five camels, can't you count?"

I never watched it first run. I bought my husband the DVD collection for Christmas and I've watched the first four episodes with him. Yikes. I agree with you, they were BAD. Not just the acting and writing, but even the directing - the pacing is terrible. Sorry nostalgia fans, but I think the reboot is better.


"Two gin and Frescas"
"Shaken, not ridiculed"

I think part of what ruined the production values was that it fell into that gimmick of shooting on film before transferring to video tape where it's bound to look cheap (look at Star Trek: TNG before it was remastered).

" destroying my nostalgia"

The word 'nostalgia' refers to PAIN anyway, so I don't see how it can be 'destroyed'..

There's a lot of crap in the show, but if you endure it, there are some 'golden moments', too, that you can actually enjoy.

Richard Dean Anderson's charisma is always enjoyable, their fights with Dalton are hilarious.

Murdoc (or was it Murdock? I forgot) is _SO_ stupidly insanely cartoonish supervillain that can't die, it's actually really fun to watch him, if you have the right attitude about it.

So if you turn your brain into a 'silly cartoon'-mode, you can enjoy this show quite a lot, but beware of the stupidities, repetitions of plot, devices, and gimmicks, and the feminázi preachy crap where women are always better and stronger than men, and other typical TV-tropes like that.

This show never got to soar in the heights it deserved to, but you can see the potential. The first season is pretty bad, so it does get better, and sometimes even dares to 'fantastic' plotlines, like the UFO episode that I like, often it's just pretty predictable, typical TV garbage with nothing much to offer, it all depends.

I do like the eighties charm and the musics sometimes, and how some episodes do try something different.

Of course even this show has the typical TV trope of 'amnesia' - why does every single TV show have this? Is amnesia really this common? Knight Rider did it, too - both for K.I.T.T. and Michael separately.

At least we don't get the 'long-lost twin' that looks exactly like MacGyver..

..do we? I sure hope not.