Stream It Or Skip It: ‘MacGruber’ On Peacock, Where Will Forte’s ‘MacGyver’ Spoof Gets New Life As A Series (Really!)

We had no idea that it’s been 11 years since the MacGruber movie came out. Then again, we don’t remember a whole lot about that move it begin with. So the first task of the new MacGruber series is to catch everyone up. And we do mean everyone. Can the show be as silly as the movie?

MACGRUBER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Casey (Maya Rudolph), the first wife of MacGruber (Will Forte) — who got blown up on their wedding day — stands among candles in her wedding dress and sings about “The greatest person to ever walk the earth… MacGruber.” She then basically summarizes the 2010 film MacGruber.

The Gist: MacGruber is rotting in federal prison on a murder charge for killing Cunth during his wedding to Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) eleven years ago. When the daughter of President John Spires (Tedd Taskey) is kidnapped, General Barrett Fasoose (Laurence Fishburne) goes to the prison to make a deal with the government’s former top secret weapon.

But first, he witnesses a fight between MacGruber and a bigger inmate as he defends another inmate being threatened. First he puts a ball up his butt. Then, he subdues the bigger man, cocks his throat-tearing hand and says, “IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?” before tearing away.

Fasoose tells McGruber that he’ll be released with his pension restored, but it’s a suicide mission; the terrorist group who has the president’s daughter wants MacGruber in exchange. MacGruber at first dramatically refuses, but then says yes after thinking about how his mother was killed. But instead of going straight to the base for a debrief, he escapes and goes to visit a couple of old friends.

First is Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe), who is the most intense traffic school teacher ever. Dixon has never forgiven MacGruber for selling him out for throwing him the gun that killed Cunth. MacGruber, thinking that this is the last time they’ll see each other, thinks it’s time for Dixon to forgive him, but Dixon just says, “Fuck you, MacGruber.”

He then goes to see Vicki, who is a lounge singer who is crooning a song full on words that rhyme but make no sense together. He’s about to approach, when he sees she’s dating… Gen. Fasoose! So he sneaks in to observe the two of them having sex. He tells both of them, separately, “I don’t mind that he puts his penis in your vagina, but I hope he puts his penis in your heart.”

After a nonsensical speech to the operations team, it’s time for the exchange. The terrorists insist on having MacGruber strip down naked and put his hands on his head, so he can’t cover everything. When the military leaves — and before they blow everything up on Fasoose’s orders, MacGruber sees who he’s been handed over to.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The movie MacGruber, of course, as well as the MacGruber sketches on SNL. Oh, and MacGyver.

Our Take: We don’t think anyone has gotten more out of an SNL sketch than Forte has gotten out of MacGruber. It’s especially interesting that we’re now at the third iteration of MacGruber’s story, given that the initial sketches were all a minute long and followed basically the same format.

Watching Forte in the first episode of this new series, though, we got why the character has lasted so long; he is such an over-the-top parody of MacGyver and other can-do action characters, he’s more or less a blank canvas. Forte, along with co-creators John Solomon and Jorma Taccone (who directed the first episode), can pretty much have him do anything and say anything, as long as he’s doing it with a straight face and that deepish, roughish voice.

We know Forte can do drama, Sweet Tooth and Nebraska are just two examples of that. That ability helps him as MacGruber, because this is the type of show where the more seriously the actors take things, the funnier it is. And Forte, Fishburne and Phillippe play it as straight as an arrow. Wiig plays Vicki a bit on the goofy side, but only in places, just like she did in the movie. All of them, though, are buying into the drama.

Seeing MacGruber be as serious as a heart attack when he tells the other inmate he’ll put a ball up his butt is funny, even if it’s silly. The whole show is silly, and pretty darn raunchy. But it wears its silliness like a badge of honor, and you can see it in everyone’s performances.

Sex and Skin: Vicki and Fasoose have sex while MacGruber secretly watches. Vicki has her clothes on, though.

Parting Shot: MacGruber sees who is behind the exchange: His arch-enemy, Brigadeer Commander Enos Queeth (Billy Zane).

Sleeper Star: MacGruber leaves a sappy note for his father Perry (Sam Elliott), whom we see briefly in the first episode. Since we always want to see as much of Sam Elliott as possible, we’ll give him the sleeper star award.

Most Pilot-y Line: How can you cite a clunky, silly line on a show that’s so over-the-top silly to begin with?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Because Will Forte and the rest of the cast commit to making MacGruber as serious as possible, it makes a silly show actually pretty funny.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream MacGruber On Peacock