MacGruber!
Yes, I watched it; I think I even liked it. I may not be able to eat celery again, but there you go. Given that I established low expectations going into it, and further that my primary task at hand and therefore the focus of most of my attention was the installation of a snazzy deadbolt and entry handle on our solid hardwood door, I suppose I stacked the deck a little bit. Maybe it was the oddly karmic symmetry of Val Kilmer doing a film not unlike his first movie Top Secret!, that gave it the extra little oomph.
True, just like SNL, the film had moments where they didn't know when to stop a tired joke. Who knows, but I laughed, cringed and had a good time and it made me forget the tedium of chiseling out recesses in door frames. But they needed to have more fun with MacGyver's gadgets, chemistry, engineering and swiss army knife prowess. A few token laughs went this way, but they missed out on this completely.
Did you go into science (or know some one who went into science) because of MacGyver? Yes? Then you are REALLY, RIDICULOUSLY old because that went off the air eons ago. Sure, I suspect many were inspired by the mulletted one to try science; and intriguingly the chemistry was often done very well, suggesting an above-average consultant behind the scenes. I'd be really curious about that.
But to turn this narcissistically around, this was not the case for me; no knock on MacGyver which I just had to watch every week, but the credit to a large degree was my incredible high school chemistry teacher. He is this large, intimidating man who spoke softly and carefully and with a heavy measure of stoicism. The direct, straight-talk approach was just what I craved at that age, which I think is not all that unusual when you think back about what it's like to be a teenager. You just want people to level with you and not sugar coat anything. It worked.
Well, about to miss out on the time stamp for this post, so that's all...