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New Knight Rider Episode: Right Here, Right Now
SANTA MONICA, California — As promised, NBC has premiered the first episode of the new Knight Rider TV series online one week before it airs on the broadcast network. So here it is, in all its, ahem, glory.
NBC posted the episode on two sites, NBC.com and its net-casting co-venture with Fox, Hulu.com. Entitled "A Knight in Shining Honor," the episode follows non-automotive hero Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening) as he tries desperately to look good in an ill-fitting tuxedo, rescue bountifully blessed former flame Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo) from some garden-variety thugs and then escape with the help of the Knight Industries Three Thousand (a Ford Shelby Mustang GT500KR that talks like Val Kilmer after he just swallowed a bottle of NyQuil).
Here, watch it yourself.
If you want to savor every moment of the 42-minute, 39-second episode with its "limited commercial interruptions" without us spoiling any of the inane plot twists, stop reading now. There will be spoilers from here on.
Turbo Boost makes its return early in the episode, but does so in such a funkified CGI-heavy manner as to be unrecognizable as the faux tech that launched old KITT with such ludicrous reliability in the original '80s series. And the CGI featured here is so cheesy that it's surprising that Sargento doesn't get a production credit.
In fact the effects are so flat-out awful that they practically sink the show by themselves. You never once believe that KITT is in any way a real physical object, and that destroys any sense of danger or thrills. And frankly, about the last thing anyone wants to see KITT transform into is an F-150.
Of course the plot is pure goofball hokum — this is Knight Rider and not Shakespeare. And all the acting is of the Hasselhoff-ian level one expects as well. But the supporting characters in the KITT lab are obnoxious, unnecessary and uninteresting.
Still, after all that, the most inexcusable element of the whole thing is how the production manages to make the GT500KR seem so boring — even when there's an actual car being used in filming. There's a chase between KITT and a Spyker that's astonishing mostly for being conducted at speeds that must have approached 30 mph. As we watched that chase, the adrenaline actually leached out of our bodies and left ugly stains on our chairs.
Hey, maybe the second episode will be the best thing to show up on television since The Honeymooners. But if it sucks as thoroughly as this first one, the series won't last into November.
What this means to you: Watch Knight Rider online now, and free up next Wednesday night for bingo. — John Pearley Huffman, Correspondent
NBC posted the episode on two sites, NBC.com and its net-casting co-venture with Fox, Hulu.com. Entitled "A Knight in Shining Honor," the episode follows non-automotive hero Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening) as he tries desperately to look good in an ill-fitting tuxedo, rescue bountifully blessed former flame Sarah Graiman (Deanna Russo) from some garden-variety thugs and then escape with the help of the Knight Industries Three Thousand (a Ford Shelby Mustang GT500KR that talks like Val Kilmer after he just swallowed a bottle of NyQuil).
Here, watch it yourself.
If you want to savor every moment of the 42-minute, 39-second episode with its "limited commercial interruptions" without us spoiling any of the inane plot twists, stop reading now. There will be spoilers from here on.
Turbo Boost makes its return early in the episode, but does so in such a funkified CGI-heavy manner as to be unrecognizable as the faux tech that launched old KITT with such ludicrous reliability in the original '80s series. And the CGI featured here is so cheesy that it's surprising that Sargento doesn't get a production credit.
In fact the effects are so flat-out awful that they practically sink the show by themselves. You never once believe that KITT is in any way a real physical object, and that destroys any sense of danger or thrills. And frankly, about the last thing anyone wants to see KITT transform into is an F-150.
Of course the plot is pure goofball hokum — this is Knight Rider and not Shakespeare. And all the acting is of the Hasselhoff-ian level one expects as well. But the supporting characters in the KITT lab are obnoxious, unnecessary and uninteresting.
Still, after all that, the most inexcusable element of the whole thing is how the production manages to make the GT500KR seem so boring — even when there's an actual car being used in filming. There's a chase between KITT and a Spyker that's astonishing mostly for being conducted at speeds that must have approached 30 mph. As we watched that chase, the adrenaline actually leached out of our bodies and left ugly stains on our chairs.
Hey, maybe the second episode will be the best thing to show up on television since The Honeymooners. But if it sucks as thoroughly as this first one, the series won't last into November.
What this means to you: Watch Knight Rider online now, and free up next Wednesday night for bingo. — John Pearley Huffman, Correspondent
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