MacGyver reboot

So the "media" has decided that they are all out of decent original show ideas, all out of crappy original show ideas, all out of reasonable relaunches/reboots of old successful shows and have started picking at the corpses of old, bad show ideas.

In this case, they are planning a relaunch of MacGyver. I will admit that I used to watch MacGyver in the late 80s and found it enjoyable, until it wasn't. It was [generally] about a fellow that used his imagination and innovative skills to "make do" with whatever was laying round, to fix stuff, break stuff, solve problems, save lives, etc.

Maybe I was naive about the show's under-currents either due to my youth or my "innocence". At the time it never struck me as overly political. I stopped watching the series before it ended and I stopped watching rather abruptly. I still remember "the" episode that caused me to stop. As was typical for each episode in that MacGyver found himself and a couple of others "in harms way" and having to protect themselves from "bad guys".

One of the key elements of that show, for me, at the time was how he used the "stuff" he found in efficient ways to accomplish goals. Use the best tools you have to do the best you can and think outside of the box.

Well in this particular episode, MacGyver, some man and [I believe] a woman were being chased by bad guys with guns. The three or four "bad guys" had automatic weapons. They were in an industrial area. MacGyver confronts one of the "thugs" and manages to subdue him. The other two or three are "right around the corner" and closing fast. So what does the savvy and skilled MacGyer do? He picks up the unconscious thug's fully functional and loaded automatic weapon which is good and expected. Does MaGyver then take up a defensive position with his associates in order to engage the on-coming attackers? No. Does he try to make a controlled escape using suppressive fire? No. MacGyver, the MacGyver of "make efficient use of your tools" fame takes a perfectly fine, perfectly functional self-defense weapon and uses it as a fire-hydrant wench in order to pressurize a fire hose with which to attach two or three heavily armed assailants.

Are you FRIGGEN KIDDING ME! I actually yelled something similar to that at the television when he did that.

Pause for a moment...

Let us explore the feasibility of this action, shall we? I do not recall the make/model of the weapons that the thugs were using but they were smallish automatic weapons. AK-47s or Uzis or some such. Typical Hollywood automatic-weapons. With all the general knowledge that MacGyver demonstrated in every episode, he should have been familiar with the operation and characteristics [in general] of automatic weapons, even if only from a theoretical perspective. He should have known that the receiver of an automatic weapon is not so much of a high strength area such that the receiver could actually be used as a hydrant wrench. The main purpose of the receiver is to serve as control surfaces for and containment of the carrier/bolt group. The pressure from firing bullets is absorbed by the bolt face and the breach of the barrel. The bolt face has some number of "lugs" that lock into the breach face creating a high pressure container with only one [forward] exit. As a round is fired, hot gases propel the bullet down the barrel where some of the gas is vented rearward through a gas tube, providing thrust used to push the bolt rearward, causing the bolt-face to unlock from the breach, travel rearward, pull out the empty brass shell, and eject it, pick up a new round [if available], load it into the breach, and lock-up the bolt face into the breach so that the next round can be fired. Truth be told not all automatic weapons work this exact way but the general process is the same. The bolt face takes the brunt of the rearward pressure of fired rounds and the receiver helps hold it all together. Point being the receiver is a hollow metal box with at least one opening on the side (for spent shells to exit). It is generally not very thick or heavy. Not made of the "best" materials and it is laughable that an AK-47 or Usi or any other generally available automatic weapon receiver could be used as a hydrant wrench. To even suggest doing such a thing to anyone that is at all familiar with these items would result in ridicule. Typical wrenches are solid metal claws that securely fit the nuts they are sized for. Hydrant nuts are big, solid items that snugly fit on top of hydrants and are used to control valves for releasing high pressure water.

For a moment, let us ignore all of that and assume that these are "special" automatic weapons with especially strong and hard receivers that could, in a pinch be used as a hydrant wrench. To do that to a fully functional weapon as the first option, no hesitation, is simply ludicrous. As a fall-back option, after all of the bullets have been used, maybe. As your initial go to? Insane.

As expected, the misuse of the automatic weapon worked out for MacGyver and the fire hose subdued the remaining thugs. He "saved the day" and lost another viewer permanently due to his blatant political pandering.

I suspect that the reboot will be even more anti-gun with a great big extra helping of global warming clap-trap thrown in for good measure. I make this assessment based on the evolution of Hollywood since the late 80s to today. Thank you but no. I think I will pass...

P.S. As one of the commentators here at this actual (sort of) review of one of the initial episodes, mentions another show called Burn Notice, I really, really liked that show. For an industry that can produce Burn Notice or Elementary or even FireFly, why or why do you end those shows and produce crap like this?