"MacGyver" has always been derivative. So derivative episodes took footage from "The Italian Job" with Michael Caine and "The Naked Jungle" with Charlton Heston (even reusing its plot to the last detail).
Now, on the wake of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" he's even on the quest for the so-called "Holy Grail."
A few factoids, first. The Holy Grail is a fictional device invented (yes, invented) by monk and 12th century novelist Cretien de Troyes. The word Grail even derives from a local 12th century Troyes term. The story of the Grail was made up in the early 1190s at the behest of Philip of Flanders, whose biography we needn't trace here, nor his relationship with Henry, Count of Champagne and the so-called "courts of love" there.
Suffice it to say, no mention of a Grail could have existed before the 1190s. Zip, zero, nada. Got it? Good. Believe me, I know this stuff.
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is full of nonsense, but it's enjoyable. Catacombs in Venice, a city built on a marsh? Why not? But its history, particularly its Grail history, is rubbish.
This two-part "MacGyver" episode is not only rubbish; it's eggregious rubbish, invented by the writers out of sheer ignorance to cash in on something popular about which they knew nothing.
The word Grail did not exist before the 1190s so ipso facto it could not have been mentioned before then. Never. In any context. So what did Cretien de Troyes think it was? We'll never know. His manuscript is unfinished, either because he thought the subject too godawful silly (which it is) or because he died. We don't know that, either.
So if a genuine professor, bragging about her promotion, is allegedly an expert in 12th century history and myth (which I am, btw), you may assume she's lying or totally deluded and, btw, don't send your kids to that college because the history profs are whack jobs.
But once she stops spewing her eggregious baloney the actual adventure, silly though it is, is kind of infectious. Let's face it, the woman who starts MacGyver on this quest strikes one who really knows this stuff as about as dishonest as Jack Dalton. Getting MacGuyver stirred up by a pack of lies and threats so they may loot cultural artifacts.
Again, btw, the 12th century was not the big one for alchemists and their track record was not good. Her "Ambrose" (the name borrowed from the much earlier mentor of St. Augustin of Hippo) seems to be based more on the overrated Roger Bacon (of a later century). Nothing the professor says touches base with the truth at any point. She's a left-wing nut job and a raging bigot. She's the sort who, given her way, would hammer up concentration camps for the elimination of those who disagree with her. But she looks a lot like a woman I dated in the early 1990s so I like her. Too, like the Grail she's fictional.
I binge on MacGyver every so often. It's a good show, though MacGyver is a bit of a hypocrite. He won't carry a gun to shoot back at villains, endangering the lives of hostages, but he'll beat the bad guys (and even the innocent, if rhey stand in his way, unmercifully with his sledge-hammer fists or hell jerry-rig some Rube Goldberg device to fall on their heads and cause brain damage. Frankly, I'd rather be shot. And killed. The two do not necessarily go together.
So don't expect a history lesson or anything worthwhile from this episode. The Professor is after a McGuffin and by lies and tricks forces MacGyver to aid her silly quest that's more Monty Python than Indiana Jones. It's just disappointing that the writers, who never seem to stint on physics or chemistry (so far as I know) are so vapid on history or Grail literature they foist this stupidity on us. What a bunch of (as Bugs Bunny puts it) "maroons." Shame. The fools could have written better.
Now, on the wake of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" he's even on the quest for the so-called "Holy Grail."
A few factoids, first. The Holy Grail is a fictional device invented (yes, invented) by monk and 12th century novelist Cretien de Troyes. The word Grail even derives from a local 12th century Troyes term. The story of the Grail was made up in the early 1190s at the behest of Philip of Flanders, whose biography we needn't trace here, nor his relationship with Henry, Count of Champagne and the so-called "courts of love" there.
Suffice it to say, no mention of a Grail could have existed before the 1190s. Zip, zero, nada. Got it? Good. Believe me, I know this stuff.
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is full of nonsense, but it's enjoyable. Catacombs in Venice, a city built on a marsh? Why not? But its history, particularly its Grail history, is rubbish.
This two-part "MacGyver" episode is not only rubbish; it's eggregious rubbish, invented by the writers out of sheer ignorance to cash in on something popular about which they knew nothing.
The word Grail did not exist before the 1190s so ipso facto it could not have been mentioned before then. Never. In any context. So what did Cretien de Troyes think it was? We'll never know. His manuscript is unfinished, either because he thought the subject too godawful silly (which it is) or because he died. We don't know that, either.
So if a genuine professor, bragging about her promotion, is allegedly an expert in 12th century history and myth (which I am, btw), you may assume she's lying or totally deluded and, btw, don't send your kids to that college because the history profs are whack jobs.
But once she stops spewing her eggregious baloney the actual adventure, silly though it is, is kind of infectious. Let's face it, the woman who starts MacGyver on this quest strikes one who really knows this stuff as about as dishonest as Jack Dalton. Getting MacGuyver stirred up by a pack of lies and threats so they may loot cultural artifacts.
Again, btw, the 12th century was not the big one for alchemists and their track record was not good. Her "Ambrose" (the name borrowed from the much earlier mentor of St. Augustin of Hippo) seems to be based more on the overrated Roger Bacon (of a later century). Nothing the professor says touches base with the truth at any point. She's a left-wing nut job and a raging bigot. She's the sort who, given her way, would hammer up concentration camps for the elimination of those who disagree with her. But she looks a lot like a woman I dated in the early 1990s so I like her. Too, like the Grail she's fictional.
I binge on MacGyver every so often. It's a good show, though MacGyver is a bit of a hypocrite. He won't carry a gun to shoot back at villains, endangering the lives of hostages, but he'll beat the bad guys (and even the innocent, if rhey stand in his way, unmercifully with his sledge-hammer fists or hell jerry-rig some Rube Goldberg device to fall on their heads and cause brain damage. Frankly, I'd rather be shot. And killed. The two do not necessarily go together.
So don't expect a history lesson or anything worthwhile from this episode. The Professor is after a McGuffin and by lies and tricks forces MacGyver to aid her silly quest that's more Monty Python than Indiana Jones. It's just disappointing that the writers, who never seem to stint on physics or chemistry (so far as I know) are so vapid on history or Grail literature they foist this stupidity on us. What a bunch of (as Bugs Bunny puts it) "maroons." Shame. The fools could have written better.
