MacGyver: The Complete Second Season

Starring Richard Dean Anderson, this unusual adventure series really hit its stride with the 22 episodes of the 1986-87 sophomore season: for one thing, the writers fleshed out the MacGyver character by giving the resourceful hero--with an ingenious knack for using commonplace products and tools to fashion devices that extricated him from assorted problems--a bit of a “back story,” sprinkling clues to his past throughout several episodes. Also, Anderson received more extensive backup from supporting players, including Dana Elcar (playing Pete Thornton, field-operations director of the Phoenix organization), Teri Hatcher as trouble-prone Penny Parker, and newcomer Bruce McGill as MacGyver's old buddy Jack Dalton, a shady but likable pilot. The suspenseful “Final Approach” finds MacGyver stranded with four teenage gang members when their aircraft crashes in a remote wilderness; “Jack of Lies” introduces McGill's character, who needs his pal's help after being sucked into a heroin-smuggling operation; and the intensely gripping episode “Phoenix Under Siege” finds MacGyver racing against time to find and disarm a bomb planted somewhere in the Phoenix headquarters. The season's high point may well be “D.O.A.: MacGyver,” a spellbinder that has the hero being pursued by assassins while suffering from amnesia. A regularly satisfying, often edge-of-your-seat series, this second helping (once again in an extra-less set) is recommended. (E. Hulse)