Like most disgruntled viewers of television today, I wonder why the f*** studios find it necessary to churn out countless amounts of updates and remakes instead of delivering fresh, interesting show concepts. I’m well aware of the motives behind the retreads – playing it safe while pleasing the easily pleased – but fact is fact: lame attempts at reviving old shows hurts everybody in the long run.
Following the unholy tradition is Knight Rider, a TV movie/Pilot hoping to recapture the hokey magic of the original series – and it’s pretty terrible on all accounts.
Is it so hard for studios to realize that viewers want their blockheaded action to be fun without insulting our intelligence? It must be difficult, according to Knight Rider’s creative team, who don’t know when to stop shoving ridiculous scenarios and storylines down our throats.
Knight Rider begins better than expected, with Charles Graiman, inventor extraordinaire, getting interrogated at his humble abode by goons looking for decryption codes, satellite coordinates, data and schematics. It’s so future lowbrow that it went completely over my head. Luckily things get a bit more blunt from here on out, as Graiman gets offed…I think?
Once free to search Graiman’s house the thugs stumble upon K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand), a super souped-up car familiar to anybody with fond memories of the OG Knight Rider. As expected, K.I.T.T. turns on by itself and drives away from the goons, who open fire on the vehicle; it gets away with nary a scratch. And we’re off!
After those brainless yet entertaining moments before the first break, Knight Rider quickly collapses under its own weight. Mike Tracer (Justin Bruening), ex-Army Ranger, current car racer and our hero, is found waking up next to two women (of course) and seemingly stressed, most likely from owing a loan shark a cool $90k (not cool, Tracer – so not cool).
What’s Tracer gonna do? How does he raise the money? Does he hold a benefit? Does he perform at the local Battle of the Bands (grand prize: $90,000…CASH)?
Well let’s put that all on hold for now, since Tracer has other problems to deal with.
K.I.T.T. (voiced by Val Kilmer and not Will Arnett as earlier reported; his ties with GM didn’t allow him to speak as a Ford model) finds Sarah Grainer, daughter of Charles, and explains the Terrible Happenings to Have Happened in the Last Few Hours to her. Once Sarah is scooped up they head to Tracer’s house, ’cause her father knows (knew?) and trusts (trusted?) Tracer and she’s romantically linked to him, or at least was at one time.
From here, it’s all car chases, impossible action scenes and all cylinders spinning while the story spins way out of control. The end product is as incomprehensible as any action drama on TV, without the supreme cheese that makes the better examples more palatable (think 24, Lost, or Heroes).
Despite my reservations, Knight Rider is sure to do just fine in the rating’s department, as it has enough T&A&A (T*ts and A** and Action) to fill NBC’s weekly quota. It’s not a great show by any means, but when did being a great show have anything to do with ratings?
The show does has one redeeming factor: The Hoff has a cameo. Doesn’t that make it all worthwhile?
![South Park’s (Too Many Minorities) Not My Water Park [Video & Lyrics]](http://coedmagazine.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/waterpark-thumb.jpg)
![The 50 Sexiest Calendars of 2010 [Photos]](http://coedmagazine.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/calendar-thumb.jpg)
![Booty-Ful Boy Short Babes [44 Photos]](http://coedmagazine.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/boy-short-thumb.jpg)
Best Pop Songs of the Decade
Merry Bong-Mas!
A Bikini Gathering…
That's An Epic A-s
25 Bizarre Human Oddities
The #1 Reason To Visit London
Like Your Boobs With Unfunny Parody?
Greatest Football Playoff Moments
J. Lo Butt Padding
Photos of Pure Awesome
Naked Celebrities Thanksgiving
To Get The Swine Flu Vaccine Or Not?
She Seems Friendly
Top 100 Footballers’ Wives And Girlfriends
#1 Reason I Love Australia
Hand Bra
Cheryl Tweedy WAG Cleavage
Dozens of Sexy Hometown Hotties
Bubble Butts!
Clingy Shirt + Water = You Know What
Pool Action
She Is Gonna Win!
Hot Rap Video
My Fav Pic of the Day? Yes!
Split!
50 Hottest American Women
The Girls of Summer
Sand Bra
![I Snagged A Cab From Jon Stewart [PHOTO]](http://coedmagazine.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/jon-stewart-thumb.jpg)
![Sexy Chilean Promo Girls [136 Photos]](http://coedmagazine.wordpress.com/files/2009/11/chilean-thumb.jpg)
I turned the show off after 22 minutes. It was terrible!!! I was so disappointed. It sucked!!!
i’ll agree with that. about as bad as TV can get
Check out Breaking Bad on AMC. Sunday nights, great show.
And yet NBC cancelled Journeyman.
could it have been any worse than knight rider 2000?
I remember when I was 6 and could watch Knight Rider without fear of losing my innocence. Threesomes and Lesbianism on grandstand 10 minutes into the show. Disgusting, shame on you, NBC!!!
The only good remake on television is the new Battlestar Galactica, which is sadly in its final season.
If this Knight Rider becomes a series, I may never watch NBC again. It was almost painful to watch.
It’sssssssssss
soooo coooooooooool i was see the old one when i was 6 i like a new one……….
i wait 2 see more
New Knight Rider what a load of S**T. To start with Mustang NOT the right car, Movie was so un real and nothing WOW about it.
To be honest i dont know where to even begin. I swear this show is atrocious, and that’s seriously an understatement. I was expecting it to be horrible but it was about 5x worse than I actually expected, and thats an understatement as well. It reminded me of one of those stupid teen shows and I seriously felt like vomiting within 15 minutes of watching it. It has a horrible plot, horrible story line, and horrible acting. Val Kilmer as the voice of Kitt? I’d seriously like to know what genius casted that doushebag. Val should NOT be playing KITT. Val himself has absolutely no personality and I honestly hate every part he ever played, except maybe for the weed man he played in Entrourage. But my point is..what made the original Knight Rider so successful was that Kitt wasn’t just car of Micheal Knight… he was a great character! Also making KITT a mustang..HUGE MISTAKE! It’s like NBC had to strip the soul of the memories we all have of the original show and make a mockery out of it. To be honest this may be the worst remake, if not the worst show ive ever seen. I seriously hope it does not go far cuz the creator of this show deserves to go bankrupt and hopefully never produces a piece of crap like this ever again.
Well, the major reason why (in my opinion, anyway – let me remind everyone that I’m not privy to any more facts than you all are) “studios find it necessary to churn out countless amounts of updates and remakes instead of delivering fresh, interesting show concepts” is because they themselves have no new ideas. Either that or they are too lazy to think beyond reality television and so they resurrect old crap, a lot like how bellbottoms suddenly became the new thing a few years back (only to die a horrible, horrible death, again).
I agree with you Ecthellon. Its like these writers and creators are getting more lazy and uncreative as the years go on, at least for the most part. I’m honestly not a hater, but i know a piece of crap when i see one. Theres a handful of newer shows that i love, but its the fact that the plot lines and stories are original and creative. For the most part, remakes do not work. They usually turn out to be an absolute mockery. The only remake i can think was absolutely incredible was battlestar galactica. Although it has the same plot line, the story has entirely changed.. This isnt nessesarily a bad thing, as long as they have good writers and actors who know what the hell they are doing. But this knight rider remake crap needs to go. Its by far rediculously terrible and needs to be taken off the air before it upsets more original knight rider fans.
Super abominably atrocious. This show reminded me why I don’t watch too much tv anymore. I did make it through the whole episode, only because of the train-wreck phenomenon. There was nothing redeeming about this fiasco: the acting, script, cgi, plot, etc. were all beyond horrible.
Also, does anyone other than me remember a similarly terrible effort from about 1998 (give or take a few years) that was maybe called “Viper?” In that abomination, the car could also transform into similarly useless alter egos, which served absolutely no purpose but to showcase the cgi talent that the show thought it possessed.
Disappointing. I agree too that Hollywood is awash in un-fresh ideas and sequelitis.
Here is my take on season 1 (with pics) if you are interested:
http://fortresstakes.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/knight-rider-2008-2009-season-1-17-episodes/