Knight Rider - Season 1 (Wednesdays this Fall) (1 Viewer)

[Spero D]

As am I Adam. That episode was painful to watch. Thinking back to Devon & Bonnie makes me want to take a blow torch to this version.

 

[Bryan Toth]

Although I'm sure it'll be cancelled by Christmas, I have to say I do really kind of enjoy this show. It's just pure escapism (while they're obviously trying to build some sort of "mythology" - the whole issue of Mike's memory being altered/wiped/etc...) that doesn't take it self too seriously. The tech-guy (Billy?) even said something like "I'd rather be in the KITT-cave than out in the field". They're not trying to be "The Sopranos" or even "CSI" here .... just trying to be some mindless entertainment for an hour at a time.....

I'll be the first to admit that the actors shouldn't be holding their breaths until Emmy nominations come out (how many times can Sarah talk about how "she can do [fill in the blank] because of her training" ????) But there's lots of girls in bikinis and some pretty decent special effects for KITT, so it appeals to the 13-year old boy in me - at least enough to keep me watching for now.

 

[Tony J Case]

So I take it you've never seen the original, then. That's a laundry list of problems the first one had too.

 

[Tony Whalen]

Sure have Tony. Perhaps you missed my earlier message when I said I very nearly built my own 80s KITT.

As I said earlier, sure the original show was goofy and cheesy, but THIS cheese just is rancid and smelly. Plus, I'd have to say that if the original had the same cliches, perhaps they weren't as old and tired at that time.

Besides, the overabundance of boobs, the ridiculous LED-covered attack mode, and the whole team-in-the-KITT-cave thing really blows. Sorry, but at least the old show was mostly about Michael and KITT.

Meantime, I watched the surf episode, and promptly deleted the next episode AND the timer from my PVR.

I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to most things Knight Rider... but they really blew it.

 

[Nelson Au]

I just read a report on Trekmovie.com in the news section regarding Hasselhoff. If anyone's interested.....

He had gone to NBC to pitch Knight Rider where he'd have a guest role coming back to play the father or some such thing. But he and NBC had a difference for the direction of the show to take, so he decided to part ways. He does wish them well and likes the cast. He does agree that the show is not the same as the old show. It's a different take on the idea. Here's a link to the original source article from BuddyTV.com story:
David Hasselhoff Won't Be on 'Knight Rider'

The trekmovie article says the show is doing average ratings, not great. After the TV movie/pilot, I was expecting or at least had the impression that Hasselhoff would come back for guest shots.

 

[Tony J Case]

I guess my expectations are lower than yours then - the original wasn't any great work of art. Dont get me wrong, it was fun and I love it to pieces, but it's as big, loud, dumb and goofy as the new one is.

Of course I havent seen last weeks yet, I've been playing catch up over my lunches and didnt know the show was on the air until a couple of days ago. I'll get back to you when I get through the surfing episode. (And if the surfing episode doesnt involve KITT driving on Water, I'm going to be seriously annoyed!)

 

[Ockeghem]

Nelson,

I would have loved to have seen Hasselhoff make a few appearances. Even more than this, I would have liked to have had him been a regular in the show. Too bad his idea for the show wasn't implemented.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm just glad Hasselhoff's reputation won't be sullied by this.

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, that's show business!

 

[Tony Whalen]

Like I said, the old one is just as cheesy. I just think THIS cheese is stinky. (Plus I'd argue that this show is just a wee bit...well... dumber.)

 

[Tony J Case]

Ok, that one was pretty good - sure the plot was Stock Story #23, but it moved along nicely.

So what - am I the only one left watching it?

 

[Nelson Au]

Was it on last night? I thought it might have been preempted by the debate. And I forgot.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I'm still watching, Tony.

Entertaining episode, a bit of a riff on DOA but still fun.

I'll never tire of Sarah and those outfits of hers.

 

[Ockeghem]

Tony,

I am still watching it, and will continue to do so. I'm just a couple of episodes behind because of the Official 9th Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge. Since I've already watched my Halloween film for the day, I'm actually going to watch last week's episode tonight, and maybe last night's episode as well.

Addendum: Okay, I watched the two episodes tonight. The 'surfing' episode was okay by me. I thought one of the brightest parts of the episode was Zoey's lines. She's becoming a favorite of mine. (N.B.: I really liked K.I.T.T. mimicking her 'I got it' lines. ) I also liked the undercover names (Devon and Bonnie); things like that are a nice touch in my book. The K-17 technology was a fun storyline as well. It was neat seeing the shock on the faces of those at the control center when they realized that their technology had somehow been stolen. And in that light, I liked having K.I.T.T. be a bit vulnerable for some of the episode (e.g., the four weapons fired at his screens may have rendered the vehicle inoperable).

The second episode was a bit better, IMO. I thought the angle of Michael dying was great. But I thought the 'baddies' took a huge risk in making him hallucinate (and not function very well at all); after all, they wanted him to complete their mission, and fooling with his faculties was IMO a strange way to ensure he would complete their mission. And in the spirit of La Femme Nikita (the episode Third Party Rip-Off comes to mind), I really like it when an additional party comes in (or is hinted at arriving) and mucks up the mix a bit. I think it adds a lot of neat (or at the least, 'what could be') variables. BTW, I also liked the staged murder of the man. When Zoey whispered what she did in his ear, I realized it was a set-up.

 

[mattCR]

Just if people wondered... Knight Rider picked up for a full season run.

Breaking News - NBC TO PICK UP NINE ADDITIONAL EPISODES OF "KNIGHT RIDER" TO COMPLETE FULL-SEASON ORDER FOR 2008-09 | TheFutonCritic.com

This line kills me:


It's sad that a show like "Jericho" got almost double the ratings of this and couldn't find a home. Then again, it makes you wonder how bad the back bench is at NBC that a 7 share gets you a full season pickup.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I quit trying to figure out the rationale behind these kinds of decisions long ago.

This is awesome news.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Having just posted in the "Sarah Connor" thread, I have to smile at how 1-to-1 the difference of opinion is; posters who enjoy the new "Knight Rider" seem to despise "Sarah Connor" and posters who despise the new "Knight Rider" seem to enjoy "Sarah Connor." I kept to my word and stopped watching this one, so don't worry - no bitching from me! I just thought it was funny.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I noticed that, too lol.

 

[Tony J Case]

Yeah, it's intresting how the lines split like that. I think the reason why I'm enjoying this and really hating Terminator is that Knight Rider is living up to it's expectations. The original was a light, fluffy, braindead artifact of the eighties with straight foward plots, bad guys wearing black hats, hawt girls and really cool cars that drive really fast. The new one is no better or no worse than that, but with just slicker graphics and a new coat of paint.

Meanwhile Terminator - ok, the films werent exactly high art, but they were really good* and had some meat to them. The TV show pisses away all that potental with stupid plots, inconsistant continuity, moron logic and bad acting.

*Third one not withstanding

On a completely unrelated note: The hoff fears no pain!

 

[Tony J Case]

And thus we see the inherant superiority of Knight Rider over Terminator. Terminator isnt nearly cool enough to have a pretty big Torchwood running gag in one of their episodes. A little Time Traveling bisexual goes a long way. . . .