MacGyver (2016)

MacGyver isn't going to set prime time on fire. But it's watchable enough, and it seems like a good Friday night fit with CBS' "Hawaii Five-0" and "Blue Bloods."

The new MacGyver lacks [USA's "Burn Notice's"] creativity and wit. It’s clumsy and forgettable, and it’ll probably end up lasting seven seasons without anybody really noticing.

What you're getting here is a factory-made retread that is less MacGyver than MacGyver: Impossible, with the title character now just one member of an impossible mission team. ... The show does, however, have two saving graces beyond the easygoing charm of its stars. For one, the original was hardly holy writ, and tampering with it doesn't count as a sin. And for another, weightless may be just what you want on a Friday night.

Lucas Till, as the 2016 version of the title character, doesn’t make much of an impression in the premiere, which involves a bioweapon that has fallen into bad hands. It’s nice to see George Eads of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” back on TV as Jack Dalton, one of MacGyver’s partners in disaster prevention, but the show is bogged down by its premise.

CBS must have reasoned that the new version would have to be bigger and flashier. This reboot accomplishes that, but in doing so, loses the whole point of MacGyver in the first place.

The slick action is soulless, the voice-over is awkward, and Till isn’t faceted enough to add a human dimension.

It’s fun but tedious.

Everything about MacGyver feels rote--from the constant bombardment of brotastic banter between Angus MacGyver (a bland Lucas Till, “X-Men: Apocalypse”) and ex-military sidekick Jack Dalton (George Eads, “CSI”) to the entirely predictable plot of the pilot that lays track for a seasonlong arc--and imbued with a CBS house style.

There’s something soothingly predictable about all this: We’ve seen it all before. Only here, there’s a strain of camp.