Just finished watching the new Knight Rider, and it is even worse than I thought it might be. Horrible horrible pilot! Terrible writing, sub-par acting, boring and drawn out, retarded premise, ridiculous effect ideas … and all this coming from a true fan of the original. Anyone else see this?
Just finished watching also. What the frak!?! Nothing but a giant car ad.
glad i didn’t waste my time.
I tried to watch it but I wasn’t that much of a masochist about 3 minutes in I started to involuntarily yelling out my safety word, until my better half changed the channel
I saw the commercial and just decided to steer away from it (no pun intended)
Lucky you were steering and not KITT. I was steered towards a 2 hour shadowy flight into the world of a show that should not exist.
Okay…time for a counterpoint.
Let me say that I went into this using the Sean/Chuck lowering of suspension of disbelief technique…and I have to honestly say I really, really enjoyed it.
Granted, I was a huge fan of the original show for the first few seasons, so like the re-imagined BSG I was prepared to like it and very scared that they were going to screw it up.
There are a couple of fumbles were the narrative is concerned. It is hard to figure out how to emote when you are talking to a car, so those early interactions I forgave. Also, my level of forgiveness was high considering that this essentially was their pilot…they had never worked together before and probably had minimal rehearsal.
Pros? KITT. Totally works. Kicks ass. Minor reverse spoiler…I know Sean was worried about KITT having guns…none revealed themselves in the show, and that seemed right. They built a very plausible story to connect the old show and this one…this isn’t a re-imagining, it is more “Knight Rider: The Next Generation.” KITT is played spot on, he is a computer. He analyses the situation and makes recommendations without judgement or emotion. It works quite well.
Mike does a good job playing the role. He has the right mix of seriousness, kick-ass quality and humor. I have a couple of small quibbles with some of the other choices for actors, but those are minor.
As for the story as a whole, it had some problems but overall worked. They built the universe, provided the history and set the stage quite effectively.
If some of you want to give it another chance, it is available online here
I challenge you to invoke the your lowering of suspension of disbelief. The movie starts to hit its stride about in the middle during the scene where Mike is sitting in the driver seat for the first time and telling KITT to adjust his seat. Suddenly at that moment everything starts working…it is like the cast in a flash, “Get it.”
I’m sorry but I did not like it. Knight rider was good campy, this remake just sort of…forgetting that it is a remake, it was still pretty weak… That’s not to mention that really annoying soundtrack, with the out of place rock music
Why does every character these days owe money to bad guys? And why does every ultimate villain need a English Accent? Okay, maybe I am just jaded…but…ho-hum. That’s all I’m going to say! Ho-hum!
It was ok I guess. Wasn’t there big controversy about KITT having guns. I didn’t see any guns. I didn’t like the fact that KITT isn’t remotely bullet proof without the computer. The old ‘molecular bonding’ voodoo not good enough for this one. More Hoff would have been nice. I was hoping that he would get a Devon Miles like role.
I watched the new show and I will give them credit on one point, the new show was not all about the car. However the new show was not good either.
The most disappointing thing for is that I have said several times that this show was right to be remade new BSG style. Make the show with good actors, with good DARK writing. Yes have the cool car, but also have a deep dark story line about the man who does not exist.
And what the frack happened to the original KITT? Why was he disassembled and what happened to the A.I.?
You are so right Emily! That music was getting so bad I was feeling embaressed on behalf of the show.
I know, right.
Was that on purpose? Cuz I’m giggling and I’m not sure I should be.
That WAS the best part and that’s saying alot. As for lowering of suspension of disbelief, if you can be scared by some dude in a rubber suit, accept mind powers (ala Scanners), et cetera. Just being sci-fi fans, I think that comes with the territory. For me, though, it just felt like a car commercial. There was about 20 minutes of footage of KITT just driving on the road.
I thought the Night Rider Commercials selling the different FORD lines was more interesting the the show. The whole show felt, to me, like a paint by numbers kit.
Ok…I’ll fight the good fight here. What specifically did you guys not like? The dialogue? The characterizations? The plot?
I hear what many have said about it feeling like “a long car commercial” but c’mon…it is a show about a smart car…they are going to be many money shots of the car. That is how it works.
Any other specific criticisms?
I was having a bad day, until I read this. Awesome.
Alrighty. I’ll point out one scene that bothered me. The three bad guys have found Mike’s mom and the Doc. The three bad guys are about to enter three seperate doors of a motel. The door knob is turning. <<cue tense music>> Zoom on gun and actor’s faces. <<cut to commercial>> And we’re back. Tension builds. Finally the door opens and it’s not the bad guy. It’s Mike. Whoa big surprise there!! Man, they had me. I thought they were gonna get caught. sarcasm on thick
My point here is that for a new show that they seem to put so much stock in, the writing was not clever at all. You all know I ain’t a hater. I just felt my intelligence insulted. What was the demographic they were tryng to hit? If it was 10 year olds, then I could buy it. Maybe I’m just pissed they cancelled ‘Journeyman’. When you put these two shows on the scales of justice? Unbalanced, methinks.
Ok, I’ll try and sort of articulate my complaints. First was the plot/story. It was way too fast in the beginning and then just stopped and for the rest of the show we were just sort of riding down a long road inside of KITT. There was no mystery, no intrigue, no shadowy flight into anything. Secondly, we were handed about the most 2 dimensional characters you can possibly get. Everything was predictable, the dialogue was horribly cheesy, and the behavior was typical at best. Not to mention the really bad acting, but Im willing to let the script take some of the blame for that. The music was just awkward, and made me feel like hiding behind the sofa. The cinematography was really really bad, like scifi channel evil creature movie bad. And then there is the tech. Did they think we were going to be a totally brainless audience? I mean come on, spoilers that grow out of thin air? Seriously, I felt like I was watching that show “Viper” from the 90’s. I had no problem with the fact that it was a Ford commercial. I love Ford and I love the mustang. I love Knight Rider too, but this wasnt in my opinion much of a step up from “Team Knight Rider”.
I just had a chance to watch the pilot today and it was awful, the appearance of David Hasselhoff at the funeral was the best part!
I just feel a physical need to post the following clip to remind everybody how cool the original show was:
I with Solai on this one… I loved the show… I had heard so much negative PR about it that I went in with lowered expectations and I think it really worked well.
I don’t think you can ever really judge a pilot show as harshly as you would a show that has run a few years… if you want a true test, watch the very first episode of the original Knight Rider… It wasn’t all that great either. Good story, but it took awhile for the actors to find their groove.
Having just watched the BSG mini-series again last night … same problem.