Knight Rider returned to NBC tonight in a 2-hour made for TV movie which may or may not end up being a series. But then if you’re any kind of science fiction geek, or if you grew up in the 80s, you probably already knew that. Actually if you grew up in the 80s, then you’ve probably spent the last two weeks gently caressing your vintage, metal Knight Rider lunchbox in anticipation. I know I have been.
Unfortunately, the whole thing got off on the wrong foot right out of the gate. Within the first five minutes Knight Rider gave us threesomes, lesbian cops having one night stands, and brutal death. Not exactly family television. NBC does know this is a show about a talking car… right?
To me that was the real problem with this new Knight Rider. It never quite knew what to be. It tries to walk a strange middle road between being the fun, cheesy, show we remember from the 80s, and being some sort of strange ripoff of the show Las Vegas. Luckily, it got better as it went on and when KITT finally gets his driver and heads out into the boonies the original show used to spend so much time in, things start to have that old familiar Knight Rider hum… assuming you can ignore all of the script’s ridiculous plot holes.
Here’s a few more quick notes:
KITT was cooler when his technology worked more like technology than magic. Deanna Russo (Sarah) may be the worst actress ever to appear on a major television network Val Kilmer’s voice is alright as KITT, but I miss Daniels and his prissy English accent. Some of the jokes would have worked better if Kilmer’s voice were a little more know-it-all and a little less soothing. In general, I’m disturbed by the lack of good guy English accents. I don’t understand why in the 80s KITT could communicate through a wristwatch but now must use a cumbersome Bluetooth device which obviously tips off anyone who sees Mike using it I really wish KITT were solid black all of the time, instead of just in pursuit mode. Ditch the racing stripe and the Cobra symbol people. Don’t make this into a bad Ford commercial, save those for when KITT is actually in bad Ford commercials (which we saw plenty of tonight). Hasselhoff’s cameo was nice, but a cameo from the old KITT would have been even nicer. Car chases should not be shot like car commercials.
Maybe it’ll get better if it becomes a series. Or maybe this is as good as it gets. For now, Hasselhoff has passed the torch and it’s worth giving this new Hoff approved reincarnation of KITT a few chances to see if it can get up to speed.
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