With the new season just a few days away, I wanted to take a moment to look back at season 3, and though it felt very different from the previous seasons, I'd say that it kept on improving, just the way season 2 did. The show seems to finally be in a place where both actors and writers are confident enough to take risks and assume the lighter and more upbeat tone of this remake.
Starting a few months after Mac left the Phoenix, the events of the previous season don't have nearly as much of an impact as I thought they would and things go right back to normal just a few minutes into the first episode. It is only after a few weeks go by that some changes and shift in dynamic start to appear.
Not only does Mac start a new relationship with his father, he also starts working with him in the field, making us realize that two people can be complete opposites and yet still think alike. This new-found balance quickly hit a few sizable bumps in the road, the biggest one being James' cancer diagnosis (the possible reason why he decided to reveal himself as Oversight in the first place), before coming to a crashing stop in the finale when we caught a glimpse of James' real methods, those of a shadowy puppet master, manipulating others without caring about the consequences to achieve his own agenda.But these two weren't the only characters getting attention this year. Macgyver is now a well-established show that - unlike during it's first year - knows where it's going, and has now plenty of space for character development. To my surprise, Riley had a very important role this season, being often paired up with Mac on missions - possibly as an answer to George Eads' (aka Jack Dalton) departure, but we'll come back to that in a minute - and getting a few storylines of her own. We got to see her relationship with Billy Colton and her father evolve, giving Tristin Mays the occasion to show off some pretty amazing acting.
Now, the end of the season was a little messy as the writers had to, well, improvise something to accommodate George Eads' exit. The solution that they found to this problem was as good as they could have made it in that short amount of time. Having Jack leave on an open-ended mission gave a good reason for his absence, unlike some of the crazy excuses we heard in the first few episodes, and yet still allowed him to return if he ever wanted to, something that wouldn't have been possible had the character retired or just been killed off. The only thing that worries me with this decision, is that Jack Dalton might join the long list of plots that this show has sent in limbo over the years, from Thornton's treason, to Cage, to Jonah Walsh, and the list goes on. Of course, a replacement had to be found for Jack, and it came in the form of new recruit Desi Nguyen, portrayed by Levi Tran. At first quite off-putting, by both her school teacher/drill sergeant attitude as well as her nasty habit of shutting people down when they start expressing emotions, she started to grow on me when her softer side began to show through the tough exterior. Ultimately, the most worrisome thing to me was that she might start a romantic relationship with Mac, and though will they/won't they dynamics can be interesting, I feel like we barely got the chance to know her before some pretty heavy hints started dropping.
But at the end of the day, this season was a great one that managed to overcome the sudden departure of a main cast member without lowering the quality, and still kept the story going, giving a proper end to several of its ongoing storylines. We saw the Ghost for the first - and last - time, both Murdoc and Helman are locked away, and they made a pretty throughout job at making us understand that Charlie Robinson (Mac's old army buddy) would NOT be joining the team as many of us had hoped.
What were your thoughts on season 3? What would you like to see in season 4? Let us know in the comments bellow and I'll see you next week for the first review of the season!
