The original MacGyver show from the 1980s was cheesy, and had a loose and tangential connection to scientific reality most of the time. But it had a certain charm despite its many and deep flaws. The new show does not have that charm. It basically just ticks all the trope boxes as fast as it can as it creates a paper-thin plot populated by paper-thin characters.
The show begins in media res. Mac is infiltrating the usual party of organized crime bigwigs. His team is quickly introduced: ex-military muscle dude stereotype & love interest computer babe for magic technology stuff. They're after a macguffin. It goes south. Mac and girlfriend get shot. The macguffin gets stolen.
3 months later... (Like we've never seen that before.)
After leave to grieve, Mac's supervisor drops in. The macguffin was used to kill some people. Mac needs a new computer babe. Muscle guy knows someone. problem solved. Previous love interest computer girl's laptop gets hacked. Clue found. SURPRISE! Love interest computer babe isn't dead, and was working for the bad guy. The macguffin was sold though, and it has to be stopped.
It was stopped. Surprise.
Everyone gets together afterward and chats. The government agency they worked for until now is renamed the "Phoenix foundation" because of a plot convenience.
Closing scene: love interest computer babe escapes custody.
Pilot episodes tend to be pretty formulaic though. I'll watch a couple more episodes to see if it improves at all. But this isn't a promising start. The writing needs to improve a lot though. Stock characters and stock subplots could be forgiven 30 years ago. Not now.
