Knight Rider!!

Cafe Society
1

Knight Rider is back! Did anybody else see the premiere tonight?
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(And yes, there will be spolers below)

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was hoping for exactly what the original offered: Good campy fun, a cool car, and some excellent car chases. And the new Knight Rider far exceeded my expectations! It wasn’t high art, but who wants high art all the time? I’ll take the talking car, please.

Some thoughts:

–Good casting for Michael, part deux. The actor definitely looked like he could have been closely related to the Hoff who shall not be Hasseled.

–I liked the new car a lot. The whole presentation of the show was a gigantic Ford ad, though. It didn’t bother me for the big premiere, but I hope they don’t push it so hard in the upcoming episodes. That could get annoying.

–I’m not sure about Val Kilmer as KITT. I guess William Daniels is a pretty hard act to live up to in that regard. I wonder if they tried to get him to do the voice again. That would have been cool.

–I liked how they showed KITT using technology that had been developed between then and now. Again, it was pretty overdone, but premieres always have too much explaining in them. I wasn’t sure if KITT was making a little joke or not when he went through that whole explanation of using facial identification software on ATM security footage to find Mike, and then said that he also had a listed address. 'Cause if it was intentional, it was pretty funny. As in “I did all this fancy stuff blah blah blah…nah, I just looked him up in the phone book!” :stuck_out_tongue:

–But speaking of technology, KITT’s use of sattelite imagery to plan his moves in the car chase was cool. That, to me, is a really logical and direct example of the way KITT should use (but not overuse) available technology.

–Sydney Poitier has the best hair I ever saw. And she looks just like her daddy! But was there a point to the whole lesbian thing?

–How funny was it that KITT runs on gas? I really liked that he was basically an extremely sophisticated hybrid. Again, a nice use of integrating new technology in a logical way.

Anyway, I’ll surely keep watching.

What did the rest of you think?

2

I haven’t seen it, but I just looked up the new KITT on Google Images and all I can say is “Blergh.” KITT should not look like a Mustang. Corvette, okay. Mustang, nooooo.

3

About as much a point as showing Michael in bed with two women, I guess.

4

How old do you think the new Mike is? Old Michael Knight wasn’t even Michael Knight until 25 years ago, which means that he had to conceive young Mike during the first season or something…

5

Let’s see if I got this right. This is a show about a guy who has a car that’s smarter than he is?

6

To be fair, the show is written so the car is “smarter” than most people. A better joke is “This is a show about a guy who is dumber than an ordinary car?”

7

HORR-UH-BLE.

Man, what a disappointment that was. Didn’t give a shit about who lived or dies. Bad acting from the female lead. Corny dialogue. Unfunny attempts at humor. Flat and boring plot. And an annoying rock songs cut in between every scene change. The car was decent, and I thought Val as KITT worked, but they turned the whole show into a Ford commercial, interrupted by more Ford commercials. Some of which were embarrassing. It had the exact same feel as The Bionic Woman, probably worse. Too bad, because I thought the guy casted for Mike was a good choice.

No adrenaline, tension, or cleverness. Just trite, mundane BS, IMHO.

Let’s hope if it gets picked up, they’ll fix all the problems. But in todays television standards, it was pretty poor. And there’d be a lot to fix.

Axe this. Bring Jouneyman back. Pfff.

8

I thought it was OK. Not great, but OK.
Did you see the first Mustang ad (they guy’s dream)? I thought it was great. If the show had been as good as that commercial, it would have been wonderful.

9

Some (incredibly) minor trivia about the actor Justin Bruening: I thought it was kinda neat that he’s supposed to be the son of Michael Knight–JB was on the soap opera All My Children, and the man who plays his TV dad is actually named Michael E. Knight.

10

If it gets picked up as a series, I wonder if there will be another cross-over with Las Vegas? Danny McCoy would absolutely drool over a car like K.I.T.T.

11

I only kind of flipped through it. How did it compare to
Knight Rider 2000
Knight Rider 2010
or
Team Knight Rider
?

12

I had no idea it was on. I might have taped it had I known. After all, I tried the new bionic woman for a few weeks.

13

Better than Bionic Woman. Remarkably similar to the old Knight Rider, down to the traditional appearance of a classic car for no real reason. (Cobra!)

The baddies and goodies drive Fords. (So, no good guys in Fords, bad guys in Chevys)

Really not a fan of the cylon bar, it looks like Kit had something up his nose.

Not really a fan of the double spoiler in Super Pursuit mode, either.

But… really, quite acceptable. Val wasn’t bad, KITT was snarky, the commercial breaks hit when people were threatened with guns, and so on.

14

KITT is a Trans AM! KITT is not a Mustang!

OK, so different era different car - I can deal with that. But I only made it through the first 45 mins of Ford jacking itself off before I couldn’t take it anymore. Do they really need to zoom in on the Ford logo during high speed pursuits? Do they really need to have Mike (not Micheal - it’s more edgy!) and KITT hocking ford during the commercials?

Other than the hot women and brief bikini shots - this show had nothing redeemable.

15

I never saw the original and, really, the last thing I would want to watch is a show about a car. But I found it mildly entertaining in a “B” kind of way.

All the characters seemed well-cast, especially the new Mike, though his intro with the two girls was tres cheesy. The characterizations were so pat that they might as well have had subtitles underneath everyone’s first scene: “Mike is immature with commitment issues and will be challenged to grow up and think of others by the end of this program.” “Sarah is an inexplicably hot science nerd (note the glasses!) who doesn’t get along with her dad. Soon she will learn to appreciate her father and the importance of his work.”

As for the FBI agent, acting legacy or not, she was the worst in the show. Every time she showed up on camera her wooden-ness threatened to eat up the scene like a black hole of terrible. Her look of “betrayal” at the “sheriff” Chris Mulkey (yay, Chris! I’ve gotten drunk with him!) was so utterly wrong I had to laugh. She reacted like she was in a beauty pageant and someone called her fat. As for the lesbian thing, it was another shorthand. “This is a modern television program acknowledging different types of relationships. Also, she is cold and detatched, and, fellas, keep watching because there is the slight possibility of a hot lesbo love scene in future episodes.”

The plot, though predictable, was entertaining enough and aside from the FBI agent all the actors were decent and/or attractive enough to be worth watching. I thought the car was pretty cool, despite the fact that I have no “that-car-is-hot” chromosome. But I was really disappointed to learn that Will Arnett wasn’t doing the voice. One of the earlier teaser previews had his voice and that was pretty much the only aspect of the show I was really looking forward to. And I hate, hate the reason he couldn’t do it - corporate bullshit trumps artistic choice again (for those who don’t know, Will Arnett was supposed to be the voice of KITT but since he does the voice of GMC he wasn’t allowed to be the voice of what is essentially a half-hour Ford commercial). As Gob might say, come ON!

16

If William Daniels isn’t the voice of KITT, I’m not sure I want to watch.

But I would have if I had known it was going to be on.

17

I watched part of it. I sort of watch All My Children. Mr. Bruenig’s acting chops have not really improved much. On AMC they took to showing him working out in a lot of his scenes so he could have his shirt off and would hopefully distract from his acting skills.

18

Well, 2000 is a direct continuation of KR, although KITT becomes a red Pontiac and is voiced by Carmen Argenziano (Samantha Carter’s dad from Stargate, or old-guy-not-a-doctor from House). KITT is the Knight Industries Four-Thousand (KIFT?). I suppose it could fit, but I don’t think it does.

2010 is crap that has nothing to do with anything.

TKR is fun crap, and it was a direct sequel (one of the main characters is Michael Knight’s secret daughter - the dude gets around, they’re funded by FLAG), and I guess it could fit, but I don’t think it does either.

19

I thought it was meh. Unfortunately, it tried to pick up all the worst cliches from the original, including the cliffhanger at every single commercial break. Note to studios - when you’re watching a show from a DVR, that trick gets even more annoying.

Val Kilmer was OK, but Will Arnett would have been much better. Especially the “Are you a homosexual?” line.

The whole plot line where Mike owes the gangsters $90k, and Sarah wires the money to them, was utterly stupid, especially for the mechanic. If someone threatens to kill me if he doesn’t get paid, then GOES AWAY, and the only plan my friend has to get the money is to GAMBLE AT A CASINO, I’m catching the first plane to the East Coast.

20

It was the best 2 hour long Ford commercial I’ve ever seen.

As a tv show though, it was average at best. I may give it a few episodes (if they’ve made them), just cause the new Mike is adorable. And I have a thing for Mustangs.