This new version of the David Hasselhoff 1980s kitsch classic only managed one season of 17 episodes, following a TV movie pilot, and was beset by problems in conception and execution. That said, despite the various obvious flaws with this version of Knight Rider there's still much to be enjoyed and, besides, the whole season only cost me seven quid from Tescos. Knight Rider's biggest problem is never quite knowing if it's a retread or a reboot and the tension between trying to emulate the original version while also trying to appeal to a new generation of viewers is visible in the product. The show almost turns itself schizophrenic, one week giving us an episode that you could imagine the Hoff starring in (some are virtual remakes) while others ramp up the sci-fi and introduce an arc plot like modern shows such as LOST. Things aren't helped by constant changes behind the scenes and interference from the network which further messes with any chance of the show finding its feet.
At its heart Knight Rider has the same premise and the pilot is remarkably similar in many ways to the original. We have the clever scientist (in this case Bruce Davison's Charles Graiman), the maverick driver (Michael Traceur - later Knight) and a wonder car that talks (voiced by Val Kilmer after Jason Bateman - who would have been a voice very similar to the original - had to bail as he endorses car rival GM). Also thrown into the mix is some romance, in this case Graiman's daughter Sarah who also happens to have once had a thing with Michael. The show had been resurrected owing to the success of Transformers, but this news didn't seem to have filtered down to the makers of the pilot - the car, KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) is much the same as before; sure, it's now a Ford Shelby Mustang instead of a Pontiac Firebird but it does much the same stuff, the only new innovation being able to change colour - hardly groundbreaking. That said, the pilot is satisfying in an old fashioned way and it's great to see David Hasselhoff cameo at the end, revealing himself to be Michael's father. As the credits roll we have a definite foundation (literally with the revival of FLAG) but also with the cast, also including Carrie Rivai, FBI agent.
However, with the series commisioned the memo about Transformers musr have been read as the first episode looks and feels like a totally different show. The cast has exploded to include a new boss, Alex Torres, with a dubious agenda and a couple of young technicians, Billy and Zoe (Paul Campbell and Smith Cho) who are both initally very, very annoying. FLAG now also has a high tech base staffed by a handful of busy looking extras. The tone of the show is more comic book and more salacious, with a ridiculous plot in the first episode designed purely to get Michael and Sarah in their underwear. KITT is now also more sci-fi with the ability to - wait for it - transform into other Ford vehicles, including a truck. The demographic appears to be teenage boys. This impression is heightened by subsequent episodes, the worst being a surfing one (Knight of the Iguana) where Michael and Zoe pose as lovers and she tries to mount him continuously. It's a total T&A fest that even Baywatch might baulk at. Another problem also rears its head here - Knight Rider is obviously being made on the cheap with much of the action (when not just a car driving fast) realised by very unconvincing CGI - the nadir being an underwater sequence (KITT goes Spy Who Loved Me) and the numerous fake looking explosions and car jumps. It makes you miss the old days when they really blew things up and drove a car up a ramp.
Despite all this, the show remains enjoyable in an undemanding way, but feels like something for kids rather than for a sophisticated 21st century audience used to Fast Forward, LOST and CSI. Seemingly aware of this, the makers toss in some half hearted ongoing mystery about Michael's past and the few years in Iraq that he can't remember. As the episodes progress more clues are seeded - how much does Torres know about Michael's past and what exactly is KARR? This plot is introduced in episode 6, Knight of the Living Dead, also notable for Billy dressing up as Torchwood's Captain Jack for a Halloween party! Fans of the old show know full well that KARR was the prototype before KITT but programmed for self preservation not protecting people. In the 1980s it was just another car (except with a yellow light not a red one!) but early hints suggest KARR is more advanced than that. Meanwhile we have missions to watch and the tension between recreating the Knight Rider of old (the episode with Michael infiltrating a group of mercenaries, Knight of the Hunter, is totally 1984) or giving us some Mission:Impossible influenced tosh such as the episode Knight Fever, which features a virus passed by electricity.
As Michael Knight Justin Bruening is fine but a little too fond of giving his puppy dog eyes. He looks like a lead in a teen soap not the Knight Rider and this isn't helped by some very inconstant charactisation that has him act like a slacker jerk half the time and a hardened Army ranger the next. This goes for most of the cast with Sarah being an independent scientist one week, a secret agent the next and a lovesick wreck the week after. It is all too obvious that the show is floundering to find its direction, at the constant behest and interference of a number of masters and possible directions. The show is also cast heavy with an emsemble of seven meaning many get little to do. Agent Rivai (Sidney Tamiia Poitier) comes off worse, literally having nothing to do for weeks at a time (a shame as in the pilot she was very good). It's no surprise that the producers decide to have a cull but what is surprising is that they decide to wrap up the entire arc plot they have drip feeding, effectively ending the season early.
The two episodes Day Turns into Knight and Knight to King's Pawn reposition the show again. In very quick fashion Rivai is so badly wounded that she has to retire and Bruce Davison's scientist dies in a plane crash. Torres is then revealed to be a baddie, working for the shadier parts of the US Goverment to implant KITT in KARR, which it turns out Michael piloted in Iraq. KARR went wrong leading to several deaths and was mothballed while Michael was mindwiped, explaining his amnesia. Michael goes all Delta Force, frees KITT and then the pair are chased by KARR - a car that turns into a robot - who has turned Torres into its unwilling new pilot. The money seems to have been splashed out a little more here as the realisation of the transformer isn't bad at all. There's a face off between the pair that recalls the great KITT/Goliath battles of the 1980s before we get the old turbo boost, straight through KARR, destroying it. Torres does as a result and suddenly the cast has been whittled down to 4!
The remaining few episodes go back to the 1980s formula of man and car (you can almost hear the old slogan - "one man can make a difference") with Michael a more serious and adult character. Sarah, Billy and Zoe are kept on but they mostly just sit in chairs in the abandoned FLAG set and offer the odd bit of support. All this is fine but what must a regular viewer, who has got to like and understand the show's DNA, make of this total repositioning of the show? Wew've gone from Transformers Light to the Lone Ranger. No wonder it was soon cancelled. The final few episodes do have their pleasures (the bank robbery episode, Exit Light, Enter Knight, is actually very good) and the new formula soon settles down, but by then the show has been canned, just five episodes into its new format with the final episode being I Love the Knight Life.
The 2008 Knight Rider remains a tantalising might have been. The show has many positives, such as Breuning and Val Kilmer does a good job as the voice of KITT. Some of the best bits of the original, such as KITT's attempts to become more human, are carried on here and the central dynamic between man and car is much the same. At its heart, Knight Rider was always a buddy crime drama, but with one of the duo being a talking car and the revival respects this. However, the constant pulling between Knight's Rider's past and its potential future meant the show was doomed to failure and was incredibly inconsistent for a prime time show. You can have the cast, the car, the sets and the money but without a clear direction, you're stuffed.
GK Rating: *** The Blog of Delights
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