7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
He's everyone's favorite action hero . . . but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks up along the way, he improvises his way out of every peril the bad guys throw at him. Making a bomb out of chewing gum? Fixing a speeding car's brakes . . . while he's riding in it? Using soda pop to cook up tear gas? That's all in a day's adventures for MacGyver. He's part Boy Scout, part genius. And all hero.
Adventure | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: Dolby Digital Mono (192 kbps)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
DD mono is only for season 1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Thrity three-disc set (33 BDs)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Paramount has released the complete seven season (plus two TV movies) collection of MacGyver to Blu-ray. The release follows a 2018
season one five-disc release; no other standalone seasons were made
available, and that season is,
of course, also included in this mammoth 33-disc set. The season one inclusion is identical to the standalone release (the discs still retain the 2018
copyright notice) and feature the same lossy audio option; additional seasons feature lossless two-channel mono. Please click here for some thoughts on the show
broadly and season one in particular and see below for a little more on the show and on this featureless collection's video and audio presentations
moving forward from season one.
Chances are many who regularly frequent Blu-ray.com have fond memories of watching MacGyver before Monday Night Football back in the
mid to late 1980s, as this writer does. For eight or nine year old eyes, the combination was magic: settling in for a long evening with dad, watching
in
wonder how MacGyver would do this or that, escape from one jam or another, and foil whatever bad guy of the week and master plan was placed in
his path with the proverbial chewing gum wrapper, a strip of wire, and whatever he could find lying around the conveniently populated place he
found
himself working, or held captive, in. Follow that with some hard-hitting NFL action and Monday nights were the night for family friendly
action delights.
MacGyver aired on ABC, debuting on September 29, 1985 and running through May 21, 1992. It was a quintessential 80s Action show, a
standard bearer along with the likes of Magnum, P.I. and The A-Team that rose Richard Dean
Anderson to stardom (it's debatable whether he's best known as the popular culture icon MacGyver or for his role as Jack O'Neill in the fan favorite
Sci-Fi franchise Stargate SG-1). Anderson's MacGyver, or perhaps the character's
actions, have
become ingrained in popular culture; to this day to "MacGyver" something is to find a creative or resourceful means of solving a problem with
whatever item may be at hand.
Paramount brings MacGyver to Blu-ray with a full series set that is very comparable to the season one release. The season one presentation is
identical (again please click here for a full review) and its essential
qualities and characteristics carry over through the rest of the seasons. All seven seasons (plus the two TV movies; see the "Special Features and
Extras" section of the review below for more) retain the original 4x3 aspect ratio, placing vertical "black bars" on either side of the modern 1.78:1 high
definition screen. The picture generally looks great. It holds to a true natural filmic grain structure which spikes in intensity from time to time but never
to a distracting extent. Generally speaking, the grain field holds true and pure and very satisfying, capturing the essential film-like quality of the original
source material quite nicely. With no serious noise reduction in play, then, textures hold up very well. The image is often tack-sharp where the camera
is in focus, revealing precision and oftentimes razor-sharp clarity to the standards like faces and clothes and also, often critically, the junk piles and
odds
and ends and various environments that play to MacGyver's advantage. The clarity and attention to detail are terrific. Granted, a few messier shots, and
several inserts that are clearly still in standard definition, creep in from time to time, but given all of the consideration it's difficult to find any real fault.
Likewise, the color spectrum is solid, bordering on spectacular for this vintage television show. While there's some mild fading in play in a few places, as
well as some scattered spots where the contrast looks too bright, colors are generally very rich and full and natural. Skin tones are beautiful, natural
greens delight, and various manmade environments, especially in urban areas, hold to a very positive depth and neutral temperature. Whites are
pleasantly crisp and black levels usually hold fairly steady, if not looking a little too pale at times.
There are a few stray vertical lines and minor signs of print wear here and there, but this is generally a very methodically clean and fluid image. On the
whole the print is very clean and organic. There are no distracting encode issues, either. Paramount has done a wonderful job with this one.
While season one retains the same lossy Dolby Digital soundtrack from the standalone release (once again please click here for a full review), season two through seven (plus the TV movies; see the "Special Features and Extras" section of the review below for more) offer lossless two channel DTS-HD Master Audio presentations. The differences between lossy and lossless are not drastic. Fullness and clarity are boosted to a degree but mostly the front-side experience simply holds to good basic definition within the original sound design parameters. Music, especially the high energy opening title score, is impressively wide and detailed with good instrumental clarity if not wanting a hint of depth to round it out. Various in-show effects are nicely detailed, as is general score throughout the series. The sides stretch fairly wide but don't expect a completely seamless front end stretch. Dialogue images perfectly to the middle. Clarity and prioritization are just fine.
Unfortunately, there is no supplemental content across any of the 33 discs. The seasons come packaged in individual Amaray cases packed into a fairly flimsy but passably workable slip box. A few points of interest that differentiate the season one release from this set: the discs from season one are blue while all the discs from seasons two through seven are gray. The season one standalone release included an inner print episode guide; that is not here for season one or for any of the other six. Season one artwork is different in the boxed set, redesigned to match the layout found on the other six packages. Also of note is that the season seven case holds two TV films, both found on the last disc in the set. They are Lost Treasure of Atlantis (480i, 4x3, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 1:32:45) and Trail to Doomsday (480i, 4x3, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 1:32:39). As is to be expected, the video quality is a far cry from the show proper; the SD resolution struggles to maintain stability and clarity, accurate coloring, and push aside the various artifacts associated with SD content. The audio fares well enough, certainly lacking immersion and depth and detail but satisfying core requirements.
What else can be said of MacGyver? It's one of the quintessential 90s TV shows and it's earned a stellar Blu-ray full series collection. Granted, it's a shame that there's not even a smattering of extras (a commentary here, a retrospective there, a vintage piece on this disc, a few deleted scenes on that disc all would have been nice) but with the quality of the show and its Blu-ray release, it's hard to complain. Hopefully this signals the start of a steady wave of full series TV release from Paramount (next up: The Andy Griffith Show). Highly recommended!
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