Using the success of this summer’s Transformers as a springboard, NBC is planning to resurrect the 80’s crimefighting drama Knight Rider.

In the new version, you can expect cars that will shift shapes, as well as evil cars to act as foils to K.I.T.T.  NBC plans to produce a telepic which will serve as a backdoor pilot for the series. 

No word as to whether the Hoff will return.

(Source: Variety)

Last night’s Heroes premiere connects with last season’s finale…it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t mind-blowing.  It was just…great.  I guess that’s what we’ve come to expect from Heroes, though.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with “Four Months Later”…in fact, there was a lot that was right.  Every character is in a completely different place on their arc from where they were last season.  Jack Coleman turned in his best performance as Noah Bennet by taking out his smug SOB of a boss with one finger.  Mohinder is no longer a wimpy little dude, but is finally willing to stand up for himself.  Nathan, who we last saw as a smooth, confident, if not a little crooked, politician, is now a shell of a man, haunted by a scarred reflection of himself.  Parkman has managed to handle his powers.  Claire, once the popular cheerleader, is now an outcast.  The status quo has shifted.

Heroes are being hunted, especially the founding members.  I was dismayed to see Kaito Nakamura fall to his (apparent) death at the hand of the mysterious hooded man.  Angela Petrelli is, for the first time, visibly shaken when she receives her little death postcard.  And little Molly Walker has a “Pippin in Lord of the Rings“moment with the boogey-man (even down to the creepy deep voice saying “I see you…).

The Hiro/Kensei scenes were fantastic, infused with just the right amount of humor and naivete that we’ve come to expect from Masi Oka.  Newcomers Maya and Alejandro…eh…the jury’s still out on them.  She apparently has the power to unleash some kind of disease, and he apparently has the power to hold it off, and that’s interesting and everything, but…I had to keep myself from fast forwarding through their scenes after about the second time they appeared.

I’m really looking forward to finding out what happened between the Petrelli brothers…what caused Nathan to fall into this drunken funk that he is in?  Why does Peter apparently have amnesia?  Why is he wearing a necklace much like the Haitian’s?  Could that be related?

All of this culminated in a fantastic episode, but it was just missing that big something that leaves me trembling with anticipation for the upcoming season.  Next week, we’ll get some more familiar faces, with at least Niki, Micah and (my favorite) Sylar returning.  I feel like, rather than hitting the ground running, Heroes is ramping up to high speed. 

Which is just fine with me.

This weekend ABC started the promos for the next season of lost. The ad appears to be unspectacular, just text over an ocean background, memorializing the Oceanic flight…but in the last frame of the commercial, the number 6 becomes very clear for a second. Is this a clue about a premiere day? Or is it the first in a series of promos that might give us a new set of numbers to speculate about?

What else could this six mean?

Check out the video below:

Last night, I sat down to enjoy the greatness that is the Fox Sunday Night line-up. I love The Simpsons, and I like Family Guy - but no other show really makes my day like King of the Hill. I can’t even tell you why. Maybe it’s because I’m a little like Hank myself. Maybe not. I have no idea. I have friends that, while they don’t remind me of Dale, Boomhauer, or Bill…still kinda remind me of Dale, Boomhauer, and Bill.

Last season, I was sure the show was over…and I’m sure the creators of the show knew it was over too - mainly because the last episode of last season was a perfect series finale. It seemed like the end…but it was not to be. A smart move on Fox’s part (FINALLY) to sandwich the show between The Simpsons and Family Guy must have sparked new interest - because King of the Hill is back, and this episode is another fine installment.

The episode focuses on Bobby’s growing interest in Football, and the lengths Hank and his friends are willing to go to to make sure that interest doesn’t disappear. I won’t spoil the show, but I did really enjoy it.

There were certain elements of it, however, that didn’t make sense. Mainly, the Luanne factor. In the season finale last year, she was married, pregnant, and off on her honeymoon.

In this episode, however, she isn’t pregnant, and there is no husband or baby in sight. None is even mentioned….so I’m a little confused by that, but all in all - this was the start, of what I expect to be, another great season.

Grade: B+

This review will have a few spoilers about the pilot…nothing that will completely ruin the ”experience”, though.  You’ve been warned.

Journeyman is the story of Dan Vasser, a San Fransisco reporter who mysteriously finds himself travelling through time to right wrongs. 

It should say something that I just finished watching the pilot and am struggling to find something to write.  The plot has been done before.  There is a bit of a departure from the norm that I like…as of the pilot, Vasser can’t control his time-travelling escapades…at one point, he disappears while driving, resulting in a wreck.  It adds a bit of unpredictability to the show, rather than a “this is your mission, should you choose to accept it” formula.

Unfortunately, the show is…bland.  (Here’s where we get to the spoilers.)  In the pilot, Vasser is trying to save some random guy who is torn up about his wife leaving him.  In literally every shot, this guy’s moping around…no wonder the loser’s wife is leaving him.  There is a quick scene after the “mission” is over that says that this dude’s son becomes a great doctor or something, so there’s a possibility of his “power” having some kind of higher purpose.  But, at face value, it’s tedious and boring.

Now, there was an interesting little twist about two-thirds through regarding Vasser’s late girlfriend that made me curious about upcoming episodes.  But, honestly, it wasn’t enough.  CSI: Miami is in the same timeslot over on CBS, so, sadly, Journeyman is doomed.

Grade: C

Journeyman premieres Monday, September 24 at 10/9c on NBC.

If you follow the site at all, you know that I’m a bit of a Heroes fan. So when I stumbled across the preview for the second season, it sent my heart all a-fluttery, and I couldn’t resist posting it. Just a few short hours away!

There is now photographic proof that the wheels are turning on the fourth season of Lost.

On the ground is Ken Leung, who, as we reported last month, is playing “a brilliant mathematician who is capable of great insights and has a tremendous knowledge across various scientific fields”.  Apparently he’s one of those gun-toting, parachuting mathematicians.  My bet is that he is one of the boat people alluded to in the finale last season.

Oh, and I see London, I see France…I see Jack’s underpants.

As if I needed more to get me excited.  Comic Book Resources has posted eight clips from Monday’s premiere of Heroes, called “Four Months Later”. 

Clips include Mohinder giving a lecture about evolution, getting a job offer, Claire’s first day of school and meeting West, new characters Maya and Alejandro on the run from the police, Hiro meeting Takezo Kensei and telling him he is from the future.

You’ll probably remember a few weeks ago when Apple and NBC had a big showdown, resulting in the pulling of NBC content from iTunes for the upcoming season.  Today, NBC answered with their own download service.

The upside?  It’s free.  The downside?  It’s severely crippled.

Starting in October, Heroes, The Office, Life, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will all be available for download from ”NBC Direct”.  From the time a program comes available, the viewer has one week to watch before the show disappears.  In the coming months, NBC will add other features, such as the ability to use on portable devices, HD content, and “expanded platform functionality”…non-Windows computers, to be sure.

From the press release:

“With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment[…]Not only does this feature give them more control, but it also gives them a higher quality video experience.”

I’m not sure how I have “more control” when I’m crippled by a limited viewing time window, and where I can watch.  While this is a suitable replacement for streaming the video from the website, I don’t see it as an iTunes replacement yet.

24’s seventh season will officially premiere on Sunday, January 13.  Following the model for the past few seasons, it will debut the first two-hour episode at 8/7c on Sunday night, followed by a Monday night episode at 9/8c, where it will reside for the rest of the season.

But that’s not the big news.  Carlos Bernard will be returning to the show in the role of Tony “Soul-Patch” Almeida, who was left for dead in Season 5.  It was reported here that he was originally slated to appear in the sixth season finale as a cliffhanger, but that was nixed.

It seems like the producers are making a genuine effort to either take the show back to its roots, or reboot it completely.  Either way, the show needs a renovation.  Hopefully, we’ll see some improvement on January 13.

(Source: Zap2It)