7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The adventures of a secret agent armed with almost infinite scientific resourcefulness.
Starring: Richard Dean Anderson, Dana ElcarAdventure | 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)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
German: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, German
Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Think MacGyver and automatically think of the man who exploded onto the scene in the 1980s, who can apparently put together a bomb from chewed bubble gum and a rubber band or break out of a prison cell with a shoelace and saliva. The character's ability to take a few ordinary items and construct something useful or life-saving has become legendary and synonymous with the name. Certainly the show has a little more to offer beyond any given episode's doodad and its utility to escaping any given predicament, but MacGyver is definitely more a product of its cleverness than its characters. A mainstay of the ABC primetime lineup and notably as the lead-in to Monday Night Football, MacGyver debuted on September 29, 1985, ran for seven full seasons, and concluded with a pair of television specials in 1994, the first airing two years after season seven wrapped.
Introducing: MacGyver.
MacGyver looks terrific on Blu-ray. The presentation is, largely, near best-case scenario for a vintage TV show, shot on film, making the
transition to Blu-ray and high definition more than three decades after its ABC debut. The show is presented in its original 4x3 aspect ratio, preserving
the original broadcast parameters, which places vertical "black bars" on either side of the 1.78:1 HD display. The show
was shot on film, of course, and the Blu-ray presentation suffers from no evidence of deteriorating noise reduction. Grain is present but very light and
filmic.
Textural accuracy and clarity are stellar. MacGyver's trademark leather jacket reveals its textural finesse, signs of wear and aging remarkably well;
viewers can practically feel the material. Character faces are organically complex, revealing pores, lines, wrinkles, and hair with striking ease and
complexity. Overall image clarity is wonderful. Exteriors shine with textural stability and fine-point detailing evident from buildings to landscaping and
everything else in-frame. A few obviously upscaled standard definition/video shots are interspersed throughout the season but, while distracting, don't
usually detract from the image's otherwise impressive, yea pristine, credentials. Colors are bold and attractive. MacGyver's earthy leather jacket enjoys
tonal balance
while any number of additional shades in any episode, which include variations of natural greens, brightly colored period clothes, flags, cars, building
façades, anything and everything one can see, reveal precise colors and no shortage of boldness and punch without appearing gaudy or the contrast
tuned to an extreme. Black levels are deep, perhaps though bordering on crush in some nighttime shots. Flesh tones appear accurate.
The presentation does
run into some problems in a couple of episodes, namely a pair form disc one, "Thief of Budapest" and "The Gauntlet." "Budapest" features random
speckling visible across blue skies, around character hairlines, and the like. They're intermittent but obvious. "The Gauntlet" sees the problem taken to
another level. I feared that there was a problem with my television, like the video processor was beginning to go bad, and checked the episode on
another TV/player combo and the
same artifacts produced there as well. The entire episodes are not affected, but various shots are, which make them borderline unwatchable at any
given moment. See the screenshot above for an example. The season
otherwise looks great; there are some isolated issues, like shimmering on a metal building seen in the episode "Last Stand" and a sudden appearance
of blue/purple squiggly lines all over the frame in the season's last episode around the 35-minute mark which last for about two
minutes (see screenshot below, particularly the bottom half of MacGyver's jacket). Overall, though, the show looks
amazing, practically brand new, and obviously vastly superior to whatever the audience might remember from the original 1980s airing.
The included two-channel Dolby Digital soundtrack produces acceptable results, though the program is of course lacking not only the additional channels necessary to more fully immerse the listener in the show but also the sound design and elements that could really take advantage of them. The opening title music doesn't stretch the stage to its limits, instead seeming to emanate from somewhere between the front left and right channels and the center area. Clarity is lacking the precision that a lossless track would afford, but core instrumental clarity is fine. The absence of a low end support channel might be the most problematic omission; music and effects both lack weight, including various explosions and gunfire. Ambient effects of course cannot fully immerse the listener. However, basic elemental clarity and decent front-side spacing allow for a fair sense of place. Dialogue clarity and prioritization are fine, but the front left and right channels do not always image words exactly to the center; they sometimes seem to come from that same in-between middle ground as the music.
MacGyver: The Complete First Season contains no supplemental content on any of the five Blu-ray discs. No DVD or digital copies are included, either.
CBS/Paramount has a history of beginning, but not completing, vintage television shows on Blu-ray like I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show and even newer shows like Hawaii Five-0, CSI, and NCIS. Of course, there are many that the studio has seen on through to completion: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Enterprise, Penny Dreadful, and Dexter. MacGyver (and Charmed, which released alongside MacGyver), at seven seasons long (eight for Charmed), has a long way to go to see the entire collection make it to Blu-ray. Hopefully the studio can see it through because MacGyver was one of the best shows of the 80s (which of course folded into the early 90s) and there's definitely a demand for the entire thing in high definition on physical media. The season is a bit pricey, but the quality is, generally, very good. The release raises an interesting question, though: would fans trade quality for an assurance of a complete series release? Would fans take a high quality season one release without knowing the show's Blu-ray future or a lesser quality Mill Creek-style one shot full series dump? If prices remain and the entire series releases to Blu-ray one season at a time, one is looking northward of $300 for the whole thing. Regardless of the answer, season one's Blu-ray, which is without supplemental content, does feature very good video (with a few caveats) and adequate two-channel lossy audio. Recommended, and keep those fingers crossed. There's no crafting seasons two through seven Blu-rays with newspaper, spark plugs, and duct tape.
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