Maybe the worst written and directed episode (at least to this point). The show has never been particularly smart, but its was better than this. Normally it would be an improvement to see the show go back to it's adventure roots rather than having yet another episode where the Phoenix Foundation tells kids to stay in school, stay off drugs, and save the Earth in the early 1990's fashion, but not here.
The plot has MacGyver agreeing to do reckless things leading to a silly plot which is like some kind of terrible rip off of "The In-Laws". The things that happen to get from A to B don't back sense. The acting is terrible despite the good cast. The stereotypes are unpleasant. Not because they're "problematic", but because they're annoying. MacGyver doesn't do anything MacGyver-like.
Other big dumb episodes like S5E1+2 that didn't make sense were not nearly as grating.
It was also jarring for them to be shooting in California again after all this time, although at least that makes more sense for the show.
The plot has MacGyver agreeing to do reckless things leading to a silly plot which is like some kind of terrible rip off of "The In-Laws". The things that happen to get from A to B don't back sense. The acting is terrible despite the good cast. The stereotypes are unpleasant. Not because they're "problematic", but because they're annoying. MacGyver doesn't do anything MacGyver-like.
Other big dumb episodes like S5E1+2 that didn't make sense were not nearly as grating.
It was also jarring for them to be shooting in California again after all this time, although at least that makes more sense for the show.