Out in the Cold

This was a decent episode, although the part where they were trying to dig MacGyver out of the snow after he was buried in an avalanche really dragged on and on.

Also, the storyline was a bit silly. It was one of those episodes where MacGyver is not on a mission through the Phoenix Foundation, but where he just "happens" to become embroiled in some kind of gangster activity while on vacation, and a guy "happens" to slip him an incriminating microfilm while bumping into him on the ski slopes. Of all the luck.

Still, there were some fun moments, particularly where he gets away from the bad guys by squirting soy sauce of all things into their eyes. And it was fun seeing him have to take care of a rather demanding Pete, who has a broken leg. It was okay, but definitely not one of the better episodes.

I like "MacGyver" episodes intrinsic to the organization he works for. He has too many episodes that just pop up put of nowhere. Silly stuff.

Has this ever happened to you: you stop for gas and your tire blows out and the moment you fix it a pregnant woman runs up crying out that some men are trying to kill her? Happens to me all the time. Not.

Then she starts to have the baby after he clobbers a couple of bad guys and neither of them knows what to do except MacGyver says "I've go to get you to a hospital!" Find a pay phone and call an ambulance, you idiot! They were quite prevalent, then. Pay phones, that is; but ambulances, too.

The ringleader bad guy has a phone in his car. That's to show how rich he is. Ordinary people did not have mobile phones then, so the phone company planted pay phones wherever they could to cash in on that need. Believe me, he'd have found one.

And the woman is a smart mouth. MacGyver's the star of the show. He should be the one to make the jokes in tense situations. But her character is nowhere so the writers had to do something, I suppose.

So if you want to see MacGyver in a totally contrived situation, stuck in an abandoned factory with a pregnant woman all the time, this is the show for you!

Frankly, I'd rather see him working for the Phoenix Foundation trying to rescue Soviet dissidents from Gulags. Or running from trouble after being tricked into something by his friend Jack. Or his pal, Penny.

This isn't the worst episode of the series. That's when he's off on one of his environmental tears (spiking trees, probably) and something breaks loose in the woods. Pitiful.

He works for a company that needs a worldwide troubleshooter. Plots should be ready-made. Junk like this is unnecessary.