MacGyver (TV Series) Gold Rush (1989) User Reviews

Exciting, well done MacGyver; and yeah, it's liberal

[shakspryn · 8/10 · 17 May 2017]

Contains Spoilers: I think there's a lot of truth in what the earlier reviewer says about the Soviet Union of 1989, but I also think he misses the good entertainment value here. Yes, the circa-1989 Russians are portrayed in a very positive way. This was hardly the only show to ever take that tack, especially after the Cold-War era days, and in films and TV there was a broad reaction against Russians as villains from the 1970's on. But, to the episode...

There are good scenes here of a long-downed WWII era plane and its interior, and a sort of ice cave filled with both treasure and booby-traps. The gold-crazed bad guy might have stepped out of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre"! The ice cave is a really good setting. There's a bit of romance and backstory for Mac with the attractive Russian woman, and his ingeniousness is well displayed. This qualifies as a good MacGyver episode: adventure in an interesting setting. They spent some dough on this episode, and it's on the screen. Recommended.

Wow...

[ileas · 10/10 · 20 January 2021]

The first reviewer really hates Russians. Lighten up, dude, it's an 80's feel good episode of MacGyver, as in make believe, as in they can have good guy Russians in it if they want to. Lose the chip on your shoulder, and just enjoy the show.

Ridiculous Marxist propaganda

[slawek_nie · 5/10 · 23 December 2011]

Macgyver is on assignment to retrieve Russian gold lost during world war II. Soviets need this gold to feed victims of Armenia earthquake. He leads joint Yankee-soviet expedition to the Arctic and one of the "scientists" is his old love Natalia, who duped him in Helsinki five years earlier (we can assume then she is affiliated with KGB) but now wants "to atone for her mistake". MacGyver's partner is retired colonel Turk West who distrusts the soviets and their motives.

This incredibly naive (and yet very tricky if you know American public) story calculated to increase trust to the Soviet Union and Russians in general. The underlining theme about just how Soviets desperately need gold to feed "poor children of Armenia" is completely ridiculous to anyone familiar with realities of 1980s Soviet Union. It was so utterly corrupted and inefficient organism plagued with criminal bureaucracy that even main activity of the Soviets i.e. armaments was seriously hampered. Supposedly MacGyver found the gold after the episode, you can be sure it never reached "victims of Armenian earthquake" or even war ministry - it landed in the pockets of Moscow bureaucrats. Yet main characters keep talking about saving Armenian children and Dr. Commie (we know she has ties with KGB) is particularly concerned - up to sacrificing her own life.

This brings another propaganda ploy, that is misrepresentation of the Soviets. Soviet representatives Dr. Commie and war veteran Barenov are jovial, warm and altruist characters who love to help other people. Anyone versed in soviet history knows that only people Soviet Russia allowed outside her borders were more or less affiliated with KGB and GRU and certainly were not warm or altruist - they were ruthless intelligence operatives bent on undermining its western adversaries. If you had contact with soviet officials during cold war you could bet they were spying on you and reporting about you to Moscow. There were no ordinary Russians traveling to West during soviet times - and especially no during such important mission as retrieving gold. The main premise of Dr. Commie atoning for her earlier spying on MacGyver is a nonsense - in real world she would be a professional KGB-trained whore without any compassion.

Only other American is shown to discredit traditional America - he distrusts the Soviets and their motives, is a war veteran and accidentally main villain who's greed turns him to murder. Yeah Soviets are warm and nice people but American colonel is a murderous villain - and all this in American TV? Who's behind such obvious psy-op? This is not the only episode of MacGyver which falsifies the image of Soviets but it goes to show you how deeply America was penetrated by Marxist sympathizers, covert communism and Russian spies who undermined every effort of combating Soviets for real and brainwashed American public on every occasion. Interesting piece for analyzing late-cold war Marxist subversion inside USA.

A True Time Capsule

[aramis-112-804880 · 5/10 · 12 October 2022]

It's amazing how writers of TV shows back in the late 1980s bent over backward to accommodate the Soviet Union, that machine of mass slaughter. And nowadays everyone knows glastnost and perestroika were frauds. Gorbachev was the last in a long line of dictators, but it was a period when Soviet leaders learned to smile like American politicians rather than shouting, "We will bury you." But the same people itching to go to war with Hitler (AFTER the collapse of the Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact) were happy to live with another murderous dictatorship holding its people in thrall at the muzzle of a gun.

Gorbachev loosened screws, but as one Soviet dissident said, he loosened only every other screw. But even that was enough to allow the people to revolt and overthrow the government. We all knew that the Cold War would last so long as the US and the USSR both existed. Thank God no US servicemen were killed but the Russian people pulled down their own dictators.

This episode is typical of that period since so many TV writers were Commies (disclaimer: I am a writer under another name but though my work has been adapted for radio, not yet for TV).

That said, the writers of MacGyver penned this episode ostensibly to show a work of Soviet/US cooperation.

Spoiler: But though MacGyver early in his career rescued Soviet dissidents from concentration camps, the writers made an American military man the bad guy. Well, why not? The American left always hated the American military more than murdering dictators.

The plot: the US and USSR have a mutual mission ro dig out a bunch of gold list in World War II. Some good scenes. A Societ woman who once betrayed MacGyver asked how they get down to the plane. Which is under heavy snow, and he hands her a shovel. But even though I dislike the premise, the episode isn't very good.

Still, only for people who think Gorbachev is a god and the Soviet military is good and the American military is bad.