‘MacGyver’ episode 3 preview: The next underdog story

While we found episode 2 of “MacGyver” to be a substantial improvement from the pilot, at the same time exact time we understand what some of the negative feedback could be for the series; specifically, we understand how there could be some concerns over whether or not the series is putting its title character in enough underdog situations where he really has to rely on his skills in order to get the job done.

Luckily, early inclinations suggest that we could be seeing more of this on the third episode of the season entitled “Awl.” The synopsis below makes it clear just how tricky a situation we’re going to find the character in, and what he’s going to have to rely on to keep an important person alive:

“MacGyver and the team are in Malaysia to extract a terrorist groups’ money man, Ralph (Oliver Cooper), who holds key intel to an impending attack. But the mission goes south when the man is shot, and now, with only a driver’s license and hand sanitizer available, MacGyver must keep Ralph alive in order to learn the terrorists’ plans.”

For whatever reason this synopsis reminds us slightly of “The Chronicles of Riddick,” in particular Vin Diesel’s line that he is going to kill someone with a teacup. We are admittedly coming into this series from a different vantage point than most. We didn’t grow up on the original, so we compare this more to other fun action series as of late, whether it be a “Scorpion,” a “White Collar,” or a show in “Burn Notice” that definitely had at times a similar concept. It’s gotta match some of them, and we feel like we’re moving in the right direction.