I think I loved it. I've never seen the original nor the pilot/ TV movie, but it had an air of cheesyness and action/adventure fun not seen since Alias.

I approve.

Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. This was just bad! The car turns into a truck while moving? A truck??!!
How many times was the girlfriend practically naked in the first 30 minutes?
I can't even remember if the backstory they concocted for the series lines up with the movie. Oh well, I am one and done. The mustang was pretty though (Go Ford).

How does KITT transform from a car into a truck? Well I guess I'd rather not know because the explanation would probably be a little too much. The acting was definitely quite cheesy but then again, Knight Rider did first come on in the 80's.

I knew from the second they were looking at his files on the computer that Mike Traceur was not going to exist. It wouldn't be Knight Rider if that didn't happen. Welcome back Michael Knight (sort of).

When we began at the foreign consulate I knew the cheesiness was back. They only thing cheesier would have been the Moldavian Consulate.

The orginal KR was never high drama, so I didn't have high expectations for them to live up to. But I totally HATE the transformers knock off. KITT was never exactly based in real science butthis has gone into total fantasy.

It was cheesy like a bad James Bond film. However, I liked it. LOL

The graphics were cool along with the car transformations.

It's the Attack Beast!

I kind of missed parts of it running around after my nephew, it was cheesey as heck, but yeah, if it wasn't it wouldn't be Knight Rider.

Cheesy, cheesy, cheesy... And when "the package" was to be picked up by Mike, when evil girl had her gun pulled on Mike, toupee guy should have gotten into KITT instead.

*rolls eyes*

I think Mike and Sara have taken acting lessons since the TVM but it still was lame.

Taking off their clothes and showing skin to get ratings lessons, at the very least.


Even worse (and possibly grosser) how does he change BACK into a car and manage to dump people intact into the front seats without turning them into hamburger first.


In an odd way I sort of do too. In a "its SO bad its fun to watch and point and laugh" way. I may tune in again to see more of that girl getting nearly naked, neat special effects, and Val Kilmer officially ending his career.

I thought the 2 hour pilot had some potential but this was just... Okay. The effects were cool. The acting was better. But it was just missing something. Maybe too much techno mumble jumpo. But I didn't feel like there was any suspense or investment in the characters. They're just walking around saying their lines with no clothes on. Not good enough really. I'm guessing this is the best the show can do given that it already had a 2 hour pilot. I think I'll watch next week just to see how things improve (if they even do). It was just OKAY. Nothing to get excited about.

You know, when Your Hero makes me miss the Hoff as an actor, you're in trouble. I only assumed he was the hero because the camera was following him around in the opening scene - he's too generic looking to be memorable.

I actually liked it. The opening acton scenes were fun and it looks like Mike is getting some interesting backstory. What happened in Beirut?

My biggest annoyance was that KIT talked too much. The car just wouldn't shut up.

I liked KITT. He was so nosey.

I loved the show. It is just mindless entertainment to me. I loved the guy who kept getting the technology wrong and the girl who keeps messing with him.

I will stick around.

One advantage this show has over Bionic Woman is it knows what it's trying to do. Hot people in various states of undress, cool cars and shit blowing up. It's not trying to make any broad statements other than 'Buy Ford.'

Amen! I don't remember the original KITT having so much to say.

I tuned in to this just because I heard Paul Campbell was on the show and I've missed him since his BSG days. Not sure I'm going to be able to sit through another episode though. Maybe one more...

I'd thought the pilot was pretty decent, not great, but decent. However, this? Was just bad! I felt my IQ lower watching it. I love KITT, the car is the best part (just as it was in the 80's series), however, I do NOT like the new feature of being able to transform into a truck. I know I'm supposed to seriously suspend my disbelief with this show, but that is just too far fetched. Being able to change colour was a little more believable! Justin Breuning is pretty hot, but that ain't going to be enough to keep me interested.

Speaking of which, wasn't he also named Billy on BSG? I thought that was him and thought that was a strange coincidence. (Maybe it wasn't a coincidence?)

At any rate, it was okay. I mean, it wasn't horrible, it's something to watch when there's nothing else on. But, I was really just killing time until Pushing Daisies returns next week. I might DVR Knight Rider or watch it Saturday nights if I'm home alone or something.

As someone else says, mindless entertainment, and sometimes that is just fine.

I absolutely HATED the 2 hour movie. And I think I even commented on everything I wanted but didn't see in the movie...all of those were addressed in this one episode.

KITT calls him Michael NOT Mike. A show called Knight Rider actually has someone with the last name Knight in it again. More snark from KITT. AND Mothereffing Turbo Boost!!! I even like how the new people involved are paying attention to how the original series framed certain shots...like Michael talking to KITT while driving and how there was a visual cue (the orb) center dashboard of KITT communicating.

The show is supposed to be silly and campy so I dig. What I did hate though....and wow...

The editting. By far the worst editting I have seen on anything, probably since my Intro to Video Editting class in art school. The pacing was so bad, especially in the beginning. The choices made by the editors throughout the show was WOW...I don't know what to say. Ridiculously bad editting.

It was even worse than Bionic Woman. I didn't think that was possible.

I gave up after about 5 minutes. And I'm not one to quit thi

I hated the orb. a) did KITT's voice indicator really have to be CGI? I really it's overused these day when traditional effects work and don't look so cartoony and b) it reminded me of Ziggy on Quantum Leap, another AI personification I wasn't thrilled with.

It's one thing to bring back the 80s cheese - it's another to bring back the 80s schmaltz. There is no excuse for the following dumb-itudes:

- sucking the oxygen out of the tunnel stops combustion all right, as in internal combustion engines, peut-etre? KITT doesn't seem to mind

- those are some lovely mountains surrounding the airfield in Washington, DC

- funny how the Washington Metro, one of the most architecturally distinctive subways anywhere, can be accessed via a single track freight train track in the suburbs, looks a lot like stock footage of the Chicago El above ground, and a lot like an LA subway station underground.

I soooo wanted this series to be fun, enjoyable and full of itself, but not like this. This is all cringe, all the time.

I live just outside DC, so that part really, REALLY bugged me. What made it damn surreal, though, was that the intercom voice mentioned a train going to Shady Grove ... which is one end of the Red Line. If they could bother with they little detail, why couldn't they get a genuine DC Metro station and a genuine Metro train?

Another bit that bugged me. If the leads had to take off their clothes to avoid burning, why did Our Heroine still have on her necklace? And why didn't it leave at least some angry red skin behind?

Aside from that, it was outlandish, badly acted, poorly written ... and I approve. Without bad writing, bad acting, and poor pseudoscience, would it really be Knight Rider?

That's where I'm at. Heh.

And for those that didn't like the lead, lemme tell ya he was way worse when he was on "All My Children." Sucked the life right out of every scene he was in, just about. I think he's just the right type of actor for this -- a not great but enthusiastic soap actor, much like Hasslehoff himself was at the time -- but he needs to punch up his charisma to 11, stat.

I have a nitpick about the whole "Car on fire" thing - did it not occur to any of the super geniuses running FLAG to have the car run into a river? What self respecting supercar can't operate underwater these days? And even if for some reason it doesn't put the fire out (it's superfire! - go with me here) at least it would act as a heat sink and stop your heroes from boiling alive. OK, you're still being harried by a helicopter, but you're in the USA, so call the cops, who probably take a dim view of helicopters flambeing cars (if FLAG is some sort of quasi governmental organisation, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep control of the operation). I'm sure you can think of some other reason that your leading man & woman need to strip to their underwear.

[I should point out that I haven't actually seen the episode, just read the recap - that point just leapt out at me. I will watch when & if it comes to the UK.]

Well... wow. This show was just... the word being tossed around here is cheesy, so yeah, I'll go with that. At first, I thought it was a joke or something, like they were making fun of those action shows and then it would go 'cut!', and we'd get the real show. I'm not being flip-- I really was expecting that. But as it went on... yeah that really is the tone.

It's actually a decent, escapist piece of cotton-candy. There's absolutely no substance there. Sadly, while it reminds me of Fastlane in some respects, it doesn't have the flash or the sharp writing that made that show so entertaining. Still, if there's space, I'll leave it on my tivo.

My one huge nitpick was that Mike allowed that woman to drive up and take 'the package' guy away from him. He was like 'Whew! It's just a girl! I can just put my gun down. Because a girl could never do anything!' What a dumbass.


Yeah, his name was Billy on BSG too. In fact, that was really distracting to me- I wish they'd changed it. I kept on waiting (wishing?) for Mary McDonnell to show up.


Maybe it was too hot for that? Like water wasn't going to get the job done? Or they were too far from water? I'm kinda just fanwanking it here.

It was TERRIBLE! It was like a bunch of writers or you know, 15 year old boys, sat around and came up with some ideas and then they just translated that directly into the show. "OK, so the car catches on fire, and it sticks to KITT, so he can't put it out. And Michael and Sarah get hot and have to take off their clothes..." "And then the package is a person, not the suitcase, and his dna is a cipher, and then the subway..."

The pacing was just so bizarre, and all of these official agency types kept making demands on Michael, seemingly at random. And I felt like when KITT was coming in hot into the facility (?) they needed all of these overides - the gov't agent gave one immediately (talked out of her hesitation in 2 seconds), but for some reason the other one required all of this technical / computer-fu.

Anyway, it was terrible, but I can't look away. Not yet at least.

eta I thought of the water option too. Surely being immersed in water would at least deprive the fire of oxygen (although I believe it doesn't extinguish napalm)

Try it with alcohol. It makes everything better.

I'm convinced this is a ploy by NBC to make us appreciate Bionic Woman.

What. The hell. Was that? I couldn't get past the fire exstinguishing. I understand that there needs to be a suspension of disbelief, blah, blah, blah, but Christ, there wasn't a bead of sweat on those two while they were in a 136 degree car. They sat there, talking comfortably, and didn't even need to do more than unbutton the top of his tux until it was close to 140. I just can't hang with that. I also appreciate the inclusion of every possible piece of foreign costume so I could be totally certain that it was indeed the Foreign Consoulate.

I think I'm done.

KITT has an internal combustion engine? I assumed it ran on magic elves or something. Magic elves that don't need to breathe. I guess.



It seems like they were zooming around at 100 mph for quite awhile. I think they could probably have found water somewhere in that time.

Actually, I would think KITT's magic transformation ability would have come in handy. Maybe it could have turned into a pickup truck and let Michael and Sarah out the back of the bed or something.

KITT stated in the pilot that he has solar panels to recharge, so I assume his engine is actually electric. Of course, if that were true, he wouldn't be making such loud vrooming noises everywhere he goes, but I think I can roll with that. The show is pretty stupid and has a lot of bad science, but the oxygen sucking wasn't necessarily one of them.

As for the original show.....I was in love with Kitt and this new show I am still in love with him. He's my favorite character. I will keep watching. And yes I would love to see Karr come back and Kitt dispose of him. Heheh.

No drive thru car washes between the consulate and the airport hanger I guess. The old Kitt would have just drove over a fire hydrant.

Definitely. The acting showed huge improvement — not that there was really anywhere to go but up.

I taped the premiere and watched it more out of morbid curiosity than anything. I liked the original show — not that it was great itself, but it was formulaic fun. But the two hour movie update they put out was so incredibly horrible, let's just say my expectations were incredibly low. And I was surprised that on a fun, cheesy level, I thought this kinda worked. Though I hope they don't go too far with the "Michael can't remember his shady, tortured past" thing, because while Bruning was better here, he still can't pull off shady and tortured with any kind of believability.

Yes, I'd like to see KARR back too. And you know he's still around, 'cause trust doesn't rust.

Speaking of who's still around, we know from the movie Michael is. What about KITT? I'm assuming/hoping the hot mess of crapitude that was Knight Rider 2000 isn't in this show's continuity so presumably he's not roaming around in some concept car from the GM auto show. I wouldn't mind seeing Bonnie and Garth again, either. Hell, bring back Golaith too.

Even if it didn't, one thing it WOULD do is lower the temperature. Also, even if this was some kind of "super napalm" which couldn't be washed off where it was in contact with the car's body, SOME of it would still bond to water molecules and disperse into the river.


I guess super napalm kept KITT from transforming. Maybe the super napalm can't penetrate the super-high-tech nano-metal the car is made of, but it CAN get into any space opened up by the car shifting shape. Or some nonsense like that.

I'd have driven the car into the river, then shapechanged the people out of the top of the car with some super-quick ejector seat action.

They showed the original KITT disassembled in the lab in one of the opening scenes of the movie.

This episode had it all, didn't it?

The bad guy menacing her with the goo for like five minutes, just waiting for someone to rescue her.

The "let's make jokes while we have only seconds to live" thing.

The guy who just got his thumb cut off, but isn't the least bit freaked out.

The "we need to take off all our clothes and she's wearing nothing but black lacey underwear" thing

Here's the thing about The Hoff. He was hammy and cheesy. This guy is wooden. Maybe it's because he was a soap actor and they're trained how to deliver a line, then stand there and look deep until they fade to black. I'm convinced the actress is a mannequin come to life.

Still, it seems like they aren't even trying to make any of this believable and going for the cheese and that's why they only hired pretty people who can't act their way out of a paper bag, except for Bruce Davison. Wait. Wasn't he totally calm and non-chalant while his daughter was dying? I guess they've ordered him not to show up the rest of the cast.

So, I will probably stick around for the cheese. Why not? If nothing else, the recaps are hilarious.

Everything that was left over from Bionic Woman was put into a grinder and then stuffed into casings:

The fonts!
The inner-ear cam!
The lead female in tanktops!
The secret agency base full of concrete hallways and a big round control center!
The cheesy CGI!
The blatant disregard for centrifugal force!

OMFG this was incredible.

"You have to get his thumb back at all costs!"
"FBI! Freeze!" (and everyone keeps walking to their trains...even after NotSidney!Poitier starts shooting.

I thought Sarah was the technical whiz for KITT's development. Why does she spend all of her time in the "Sleeping Pod" -- standing up, even, rather than sleeping?

Scanning lasers? Generally aren't visible to the naked eye. (Been to a grocery checkout?) Toss that in with the DC Mountains, the Not!Metro, and a host of other anachronisms.

I want KITT to have a secret suburban mode, where he changes into a Ford Fiesta.

I assume this is on the old D&D scale? Where 11 is about average? Cause right now I'd put him at about a 5 or possibly 6.



Heck, forget the water and head for a gas station- the halon system there'll suck the O2 out of a fire in a minute. Messes up the inside of a convertable right quick too. Or so I hear...



If memory of the movie serves, KITT has a hybrid engine- he needs gas, but can run for far longer than a normal car on a single tank. And thank you for the elves...it reminds me of the old saw- "A wizard did it". Works for everything from warp drive to mysteriously undone deaths to...well, everything!



Heck, Peter Cullen's still around so it could work. Drop a retcon in where KARR was downloaded to ARPAnet or something and hacked by some group or another. He tricks them into installing him into a car and making a batch of the supercar formula then kills 'em all and goes on a rampage to get KITT. Not this KITT, the old KITT. And is driven even further insane by the fact that KITT is dissambled. The new KITT is unable to defeat him, and the old KITT is brought out of retirement to help beat KARR...big battle in the season finale? It could work...

I REALLY doubt we are ever going to see the old KITT come back on this show (assuming that it lasts long enough to have a season finale). Since the design and production deal went to Ford for the new KITT (did you notice, he's a Mustang?!?!), you are probably only ever going to see Ford products featured prominently on this show. The old KITT, being a Pontiac Trans Am, will probably not be allowed to make an appearance in lieu of the contract deal made with Ford.

True enough- but they have an out there- all they have to do is say that the CPU was removed years ago and re-install it in a Ford product. Same goes for KARR. Lots of ways to get KARR into the act and bring KITT with him.

Heh. Maybe even kill off the Hoff at the same time. There's a season finale for you!

I'd like to think that William Daniels would be smart enough to let any entreaties for his return go unanswered. This show deserves no redemption, just a fast bullet to the back of the head.

NuKITT is a pansy. One rough landing after a turbo boost and he’s out cold? Original KITT went head-to-head with Goliath and could still manage to eek out a few words. Also a pansy: NuMike. Original Mike would never have allowed himself to get buried neck high in the desert.

Sarah is not very bright. You have a guy suspected of being involved with tech smugglers and you not only trust him but reveal super secret AI tech to him. Also not too bright: Sarah Daddy. You build a highly complex electronic machine and don’t shield it from EMP?

There are too many characters in this show. Sarah Daddy, Sarah and two techs plus two shadowy government types who pretend to be Mike’s friend. I’m not expecting Shakespeare but can we pare down the cast a little and maybe give them a bit of character development?

I don't get that either. Why do they need TWO government types? OR two tech nerds (especially since Sarah and her Daddy are theoretically supposed to be that too).

I haven't killed any brain cells watching this episode yet. If they post it on Hulu.com I MIGHT. Or I have a friend who actually is enough of a nut to set a Tivo season pass. But... I'm dubious.

I presume you mean his character, although the alternative would be great for ratings. :-)

I think last night's episode really brought out and developed several leitmotifs that will be fun to watch for as the storyline in the new KR universe expands:

1) Boobies and butts are cool.

2) Sarah is actualizing every fantasy young guys watching the original show ever had about hooking up with Bonnie/April.

3) KITT's turbo boost looks more fake today than it did 24 years ago.

4) Mike is an idiot. ("I want to know my secrets!" "Oh, ok, I'll get right on that BRB.")

5) Make sure the episode title has a play on the word "Knight", even if it has no relation to the story whatsoever. To be safe, make sure there's no story.

6) If by some miracle the plot becomes to dense, default to #1.

I will say that the long shot of Sarah and Mike's buddy in KITT, speeding towards the camera in the desert with the nuTheme playing over it, gave me a nice warm hug of nostalgia for the original opening credits. I can't decide if it's awesome or desperate that they're already dropping in shameless callbacks.

At least we got to see the classic "car goes over a cliff and bursts into flames."
I feel better now.

I agree about the cast comments. What ever happened to the roommate from the tv movie/pilot? Wasn't he a mechanic? I'd take him over Billy and Zoe any day - and I love me some BSG Billy! (RIP Billy - President Roslin's been a bitch since you died...) And not only do we have two Government types AND Daddy Gramian - but we didn't even get to see Carrie in this episode. They should have kept it low key - sure a plane instead of a semi-truck, but really, have Carrie, the mechanic, Sarah, Mike, and maybe one other person and you're set! It's makes more since for a "top secret" agency coming in to fix the problems that secretly threat our national security. I admit I was excited about the series after the tv movie/pilot, but now, I'm disheartened.

Dr. Gramian is way to overprotective to be effective.
The FBI is too secretive for their own good. OBVIOUSLY they are hiding something about Mike. Try and hide it. Please. Just try.
How many of Mike's former friends are going to "just happen to be there" without him knowing.
Did this friend get the memo that Mike Tracer died?
What's with KITT breaking down repeatedly in one episode? He's supposed to be able to withstand torpedos and such, but he can't change midair? It's like he can't walk and chew gum at the same time.