Why ‘MacGruber’ Deserves To Find An Audience On TV

The general consensus when MacGruber hit cinemas in 2010 was that Will Forte had stretched a relatively amusing concept (MacGyver but dumb) that filled five minutes on Saturday Night Live to paper-thin proportions (“Why does this even exist?” asked The New York Times). So, inevitably, the most logical next step was to steamroll it even further into an eight-part TV series for Peacock (Dec 16).  

It sounds like the kind of harebrained scheme devised by the titular narcissist himself. After all, it wasn’t just the critics that gave the action comedy the cold shoulder. MacGruber grossed just $9.3 million at the box office. That’s less than other notable SNL flops A Night at the Roxbury, The Ladies Man and even the legacy-desecrating Blues Brothers 2000. There hasn’t been a big-screen spinoff from the comic institution since. 

However, over the following decade, its highly rewatchable blend of Airplane-esque zingers, farcical set pieces, and literal throat-ripping action has deservedly developed a cult following (Christopher Nolan is such a fan he sent a message to the first episode’s table read). And with the source material – well, the more youthful reboot – wrapping up after five seasons earlier this year, you could argue that MacGruber’s return has been perfectly timed. 

Luckily for the many who didn’t witness all the previous carnage, there’s a handy musical recap provided by Maya Rudolph, briefly reprising her role as the ghost of MacGruber’s late wife. But once the James Bond-esque credits roll, we pick up in the present day where our witless hero is serving a life sentence for pushing Val Kilmer’s Dieter Von Cunth off a cliff. And then blasting him with a grenade. And then urinating on his charred corpse.

On this occasion, it’s Billy Zane, almost out-hamming his performance in Titanic, playing the villain hellbent on causing mass destruction, and whose kidnapping of the president’s daughter gives MacGruber the chance to restore his patriotic reputation and play the sacrificial lamb (“My country has invited me to die for it and I RSVP’d ‘Yass Queen’”). 

Of course, this being the nation’s most unorthodox special agent and all – who can forget how he uses celery as a distraction technique? – MacGruber isn’t going to meekly surrender once the exchange has taken place. After learning that Zane’s Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth is planning to kill billions with the deadly chemical known as brimstone, he manages to escape his underground lair and plot another deranged world-saving mission.

Fans of the original will be pleased to know this also involves recruiting the old special agent dream team; Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) who now supports his young family teaching driver’s ed and Vicky Gloria St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig) who spends her evenings performing absurd lazily-rhymed ditties (“And I went to the mall/with Lauren Bacall/and a Cabbage Patch doll”) in disinterested nightclubs. He just has to compensate for the small matter of ratting them out and calling for the latter to receive the death penalty. 

Phillippe doesn’t get much to do other than scowl and tut at every boneheaded thing that comes out of MacGruber’s mouth, although his unflattering disguises do provide two of the biggest climactic laughs. The brilliantly deadpan Wiig, however, often steals the show from her former SNL castmate, whether she’s posing – hilariously unconvincingly – as an award-winning Russian scientist or channelling the vixens of a Jackie Collins novel with her breathless innuendos. 

Laurence Fishburne also proves a good sport as Vicki’s rebound husband and MacGruber’s chief-in-command General Barrett Fasoose (this show rivals Toast of London for spectacularly silly character names), while the other major new recruit Sam Elliott gets to twirl that famous mustache as MacGruber’s mysterious father. 

Nevertheless, your enjoyment of MacGruber will still pretty much depend on your tolerance of its lead character. Forte appeared to realize in The Last Man on Earth that the overgrown manchild schtick might wear a little thin over the course of an entire series. Yet if anything, he doubles down here on all the infantility, and the butt jokes, in particular. One major cliffhanger happens while MacGruber is on the toilet and the big lightbulb moment even rests on that old playground adage “whoever smelt it dealt it.”

If unapologetically crude humor is your thing, though, then this tenuously holiday-themed comedy is an early Christmas present. Indeed, Forte and returning writers John Solomon and Jorma Taccone, the latter also pulling double duty as director, sure know how to get inventive with profanities. A hilarious showdown in episode six appears to contain more curse words than a The Wire boxset. 

The move to NBC’s streaming service hasn’t diluted the nudity and violence, either. This might even be a bloodier watch, with numerous decapitations shown in comically graphic detail: squeamish viewers would be advised to look away during the woodlands fight scene in which a minion’s head is squashed like a watermelon. No doubt much to the disdain of Forte’s mother, there’s also a callback to the outrageous sex scene that nearly surpassed Team America: World Police‘s. In fact, MacGruber spends just as much time in his birthday suit as his familiar plaid shirt, body warmer and Wrangler jeans.  

Yet take away all the shock value and you’re still left with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. A failed motorcycle jacking proves that Forte’s knack for physical comedy remains intact, and lines such as “I hate for you to go Russian off but So-vi-et” show that few are as committed to the labored pun. The story itself, meanwhile, takes enough ridiculous twists and turns to justify the leap in running time.  

MacGruber isn’t going to convert anyone who didn’t get, or appreciate, the joke first time round. But  those who are once again “ready to be a part of throat-ripping history” are unlikely to be left questioning its existence. 

Jon O’Brien (@jonobrien81) is a freelance entertainment and sports writer from the North West of England. His work has appeared in the likes of Vulture, Esquire, Billboard, Paste, i-D and The Guardian. 

 

Watch MacGruber on Peacock