2 minute read

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve just watched the first episode of the new series of Knight Rider (2008).  Well, that’s not strictly true … it was a few hours ago, and I only watched half of it.  And … oh brother!

I’m sure if I went back and watched the original series it would now seem dire, but in my memory it was excellent.  A staple Saturday tea-time viewing spectacle.  A bit like the A-Team, MacGyver, Robocop, Airwolf, etc.  I harbour many fond memories of watching all of these series while eating frozen cheese and tomato pizzas, which were a treat for kids back in those days.  Admittedly, any YouTube clips that I look at from these original series now seem pretty naff, but that’s besides the point.

The new Knight Rider is just … wrong.  For one, it’s missing David Hasselhoff.  How can you have Knight Rider without David Hasselhoff?  KITT is still there, and it suitably modernised to such an extent that it could happily drive around any present day city without most people taking any notice.  However, and this is a large however, KITT can morph into just about any vehicle type.

Now while the original series was not completely grounded in fact, at least (for the most part) it was believable.  You could look at the majority of the technology (as far as I can remember) and think that it was feasible, but cars that can morph from a sports car to a pickup …. yeah.  If KITT could hover I’d have given it the benefit of the doubt (who knows … it doesn’t seem entirely outwith the realms of possibility in the next 20 odd years) but morphing … I’m just not buying that.

KITT also not has a sense of humour which has been “updated” …. but that’s so bad it’s not even worth mentioning.

Within 10 minutes of the first episode in the new series starting, the two main characters are kissing and within 20 mins they are practically naked in KITT.  Now there is a reason for this, but plainly the storyline is a requirement of this scene, rather than this scene being a requirement of the story.  Come on people, this is not the Knight Rider I remember.

Maybe I’m just getting old .. but “it’s just not as good as it used to be”.  Maybe if you didn’t grow up watching the original series then this new series may be enjoyable, but for anyone who did then I don’t think it’s going to be something to watch regularly.