9 TV Shows That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Failed)

8. MacGyver (2016)

Growing up, the only reference point I had for MacGyver was knowing it as the TV show Patty and Selma loved on The Simpsons, as it was way more popular in the US than it was in the UK, spawning seven seasons and two TV movies.

It succeeded primarily because of the strength of the title character, played with such charm by Richard Dean Anderson. There's a reason Patty and Selma fawned over him: he fought for the voiceless, could outsmart anyone in a tight squeeze and could do pretty much anything with a Swiss Army Knife. He also had a sick mullet.

Over two decades after the final episode aired, CBS ordered a reboot, and despite trying to ape the same characteristics that made the original show so compelling, it felt like a hollowed carcass that'd been reanimated. On paper it hits the same beats as the original MacGyver, but without knowing what made them work the first time around.

A bit like Magnum, this is most obvious when it comes to the new lead. Lucas Till is a good actor, but he's no MacGyver, and the writing's attempts to make him a modern update feel like cosplay at best.

Still, the show is doing decently enough, currently airing its fourth season, and recovering now it's finding its own identity, and not simply imitating what came before.