Anyway, the new version is...interesting. Probably a bit better handled than the other recent remakes of 80's TV. Don't get me wrong; I really like the new Battlestar: Galactica, but it's a whole different animal than the original. Much more serious; not nearly as much lighthearted humor. Very dark. A kickass show, but very different. And I did watch a few episodes of the ill-fated Bionic Woman. I actually kind of liked it, but again, much darker than the original. Don't know why it didn't make it. Haven't seen the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but I've heard it's pretty good.
So I watched Knight Rider with baited breath. Could I accept that the new KITT was a Ford Mustang and not a Pontiac Trans Am?
HELL YES I could, just as well as I handled Bumblebee as a Chevy Camaro instead of a Volkswagon Bug in Transformers.
Sure, I was a little taken-aback at first; I mean, how could they mess with the original? But then I watched the show. Damn, if that Mustang isn't SWEET. I mean, DAMN. And how cool is the indestructibility of the car? Pretty freakin' awesome--in the original show, it was a special coating on the car; in the new version, it's nanotechnology at its finest.
Oh sure, it's all about product placement. I know Ford paid big bucks to get KITT into the family, just as GM paid handsomely to get all the Autobots to be GM products (and did you notice that Barricade, the evil Decepticon police car, was a Ford Mustang? Ha ha, GM people, funny!).
But the Knight Rider of new is better-connected to the Knight Rider of old. Essentially, after 25 years, the FLAG Foundation arm of Knight Industries is reorganizing to fight crime and injustice, and conveniently the new driver of KITT (Mike Traceur) is the son of Michael Knight, allowing for a nice cameo for The Hoff at the end of the show.
When do episodes begin airing? Not sure. But I will definitely watch, for now, and hope it develops into a solid show. That car is too freakin' cool to pass up. I want one. And I will park it right next to my Bumblebee Camaro.
2 comments:
This is how crazy my life has gotten, that I'm just now getting around to realizing that you lived up to the lifestyle I so deeply encouraged you towards, back in the most glorious 80s. It was good. Not great, but good. Decent job balancing the need to hold onto the essence of the 80s while probably wanting to spin in more of a BSG vibe. Kinda like the Miami Vice remake (which was also in a fit of irony on NBC). I haven't heard whether NBC felt the ratings were adequate to move forward with an episode order, but it seemed to get decent ratings. Being the car nut that you know I am, I was disappointed at the blatant-ness of the Ford product placement. Not just KITT, but the Edge, several Foci and Fusions, a couple of Volvos and Mazdas, and so on. Meh. But KITT was freaking cool. The only downside, no turbo boost button. I know that KITT can go 200-some MPH and still average something like 167 mpg (someone on Autoblog actually worked out the numbers) running on pump gas. Not sure I liked Val Kilmer doing the voice. Nothing against Val, but it might have worked better coming from either his Iceman persona, or his Nick Rivers persona from Top Secret. Personally, I wanted James Earl Jones or maybe Samuel L. Jackson. Someone sounding badass. We shall see...
James Earl Jones would've been a nice vocal touch for sure. It was definitely a big car commercial, but a pretty rockin' one. We'll see if it develops some real plot.
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