mostly this... and also that it wasn't initially designed as a MacGyver reboot - it was some randomass show and Lenkov went 'ooooh - if we slap some MacGyver on it, ppl will flock to it!'. with the first incarnation of his bullshit, there was some super huge backlash. so Lenkov tried to 'fix' it (insert laughter snort here) - and turned it into the bullshit that aired. none of which is remotely 'MacGyver'. and their Murdoc story made me cry =(

there WAS a follow-on several years ago called 'Young MacGyver' w/ Jared Padelecki as the new MacGyver. it.... was not good. JP was fine - the writing was traaaaaaaash. but it was at least trying to keep the 'faith' of the show.