11:58 by FoxTwo Those of us who were around and coherent back in the 1980's will remember the show, Knight Rider. The story is about a lone wolf, driving a tricked out computer-controlled car, running around the USA keeping law and order. Think of it as "The modern Lone Ranger", minus Tonto.
In 2008, NBC resurrected the show, and now, we can expect a whole new TV series sporting the same name! Yay!
Before we go on, here's a trailer I found on Youtube:
I managed to watch the 1 hour 20 min (give or take) pilot episode, which premiered in the USA on Feb 17, and I couldn't help but feel something is missing.
First of all, KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) the car, is now a Mustang, instead of a cool looking Trans Am. In the show, KITT is now the Knight Industries THREE Thousand, ie a new incarnation of the old KITT. It still sports the "cylon eye" thing though, and I thought Val Kilmer who was cast as the voice of KITT, seemed.... out of place.
The series isn't really a remake, per se. It's actually a continuation of the old series. There are numerous references to the people and events made in the pilot episode, about the old series. However, if you're too young to have watched the old series, fear not. You don't need to have watched the old series to enjoy the new one. What you're going to lose out on is just watching a cool Trans Am as KITT instead of the new (bulky) Mustang.
With modern computer CGI, the special effects are Matrix-like. Like when bullets hit the car, we no longer just see "sparks" but actual animations of the bullets being flattened, for example. That's cool. Actually even now, if you go and watch the old series, it doesn't look that dated. The buttons and computers shown back then seem pretty much modern. With that said, the hi-tech stuff shown right now isn't too "high tech", ie very believeable. You can actually believe that computers CAN (and they actually can) do most of the stuff shown in the pilot. Well, except the thinking for itself part. Even speech synthesis has made advances in the 20 odd years since the old series, and now we have almost-natural sounding speech synthesis available to us on our home PCs.
Two cool things about the new KITT: first, it has adaptive camouflage! You know, you've first seen it (somewhat) in James Bond movies, where the car changes its own colours and shape. Yep, with modern computer effects, KITT has camouflage now. Secondly, the new KITT is so fast, when it goes at full speed, you can actually see contrails flowing out of the spoilers at the back of the car!
Yes David Hasselhoff made an appearance in the pilot, but just to give a pep talk, nothing much. It's nice to see him again, but the new series will have a new lead actor. I guess having him appear is to "hand the reins over" to the new guy for the new series.
All in all, while the pilot might not be great, I think I will be trying to follow this series as well. At the very least, for nostalgic reasons.
For more pictures and writeup, check out IMDB here.
Labels: TV shows
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@ Sunday, February 24, 2008 2:23:00 PM ya...the new KITT doesnt look as cool as the old KITT...
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Min-tea @ Sunday, February 24, 2008 7:42:00 PM Yeah, you're right. The new KITT isn't as cool as the old one. THough it would have been cooler if they got another sleek car like the Camaro or something.
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FoxTwo @ Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:50:00 PM
mintea and bypassing - yeah man what an anti-climax when I saw the car. Didn't even do any jumps like back in the old show....
And, it's so bulky looking... sigh -
@ Monday, February 25, 2008 10:24:00 AM
Not to worried about the jumps they will incorporate them later.
I think it is greatly disappointing that they chose a mustang and if I'm not mistaken the first kitt was a firebird but they had to take the emblem off because they couldn't keep up with the demand once the first episodes aired. So that makes me think the reason they are using the mustang is because they are the only company that could keep up with the demand if it were to recure.
Or Mustang is starting to flop and they need the press.
Sorry but I have never been a fan of the mustang and I would think that true Knight Rider fans aren't either.
Hopefully they will reconsider the mustang in the future.
Other than that there were too many commercials.
I got mad everytime they came on. So I'll have to record the episodes to fast forward through the commercials.
Love the new characters hotties all the way.
Does any one know when the first episode will air now that the pilot has come out?
Thanks
Ms. Fan -
FoxTwo @ Monday, February 25, 2008 11:05:00 AM
Ms Fan - Eh no idea abt the series. They did say this is a "backdoor" pilot, meaning there is a chance there won't be a series. However, usually there should be a series, even if it runs only for 1 season like Bionic Woman (8 episodes, sighz).
