I don't have a problem with shows like MacGyver delving into supernatural topics, but after half a decade of episodes, there's a certain amount of grounding in science and reason that's required in order for an episode of MacGyver to actually qualify as an episode of MacGyver. This one fails in that respect.
In the season 5 episode "The Madonna," similarly supernatural aspects appear, and the implied explanation defies science and reason, but there's enough ambiguity to leave it open to interpretation. After all, Mac isn't a robot and doesn't explicitly deny supernatural possibilities but simply insists, like most reasonable people, that evidence be provided before such an explanation is accepted. This episode attempts to balance that same line, but fails because of the lack of grounding, and a blatant attempt to push the supernatural explanation.
I realize the alien stuff was very popular back then, but this story just doesn't fit the show. There's no MacGyvering going on here and no science, just some loosely-explained pseudo-bunk about why people are able to generate plasma in the sky to make it look exactly like a UFO... except when Mac demonstrates how it supposedly works, it varies significantly in several specific ways to the phenomenon shown originally. There is also no explanation for why the "UFO" shown at the end of the episode looks exactly like a plasma discharge. None of it makes any sense unless you buy the alien angle at face value.
The worst part of the episode is the poor family who is too stupid and stubborn to believe Mac when he tells them that the obvious con artists are actually con artists. This is an easy, lazy character trope, albeit one that bears some truth in reality, so it wouldn't be so hard to withstand if it weren't for the fact that they go completely out of character just before giving up their money and realize they're being conned for no reason whatsoever other than convenience of the story. In real life, they would have been so stuck in their conviction that they would have happily given up their money and then continued to rationalize why it was the right thing to do long after the grifters had left them high and dry.
In the season 5 episode "The Madonna," similarly supernatural aspects appear, and the implied explanation defies science and reason, but there's enough ambiguity to leave it open to interpretation. After all, Mac isn't a robot and doesn't explicitly deny supernatural possibilities but simply insists, like most reasonable people, that evidence be provided before such an explanation is accepted. This episode attempts to balance that same line, but fails because of the lack of grounding, and a blatant attempt to push the supernatural explanation.
I realize the alien stuff was very popular back then, but this story just doesn't fit the show. There's no MacGyvering going on here and no science, just some loosely-explained pseudo-bunk about why people are able to generate plasma in the sky to make it look exactly like a UFO... except when Mac demonstrates how it supposedly works, it varies significantly in several specific ways to the phenomenon shown originally. There is also no explanation for why the "UFO" shown at the end of the episode looks exactly like a plasma discharge. None of it makes any sense unless you buy the alien angle at face value.
The worst part of the episode is the poor family who is too stupid and stubborn to believe Mac when he tells them that the obvious con artists are actually con artists. This is an easy, lazy character trope, albeit one that bears some truth in reality, so it wouldn't be so hard to withstand if it weren't for the fact that they go completely out of character just before giving up their money and realize they're being conned for no reason whatsoever other than convenience of the story. In real life, they would have been so stuck in their conviction that they would have happily given up their money and then continued to rationalize why it was the right thing to do long after the grifters had left them high and dry.
