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If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time then you know how big of a fan of ‘Knight Rider’ I am - and how eagerly I have been anticipating this two-hour movie pilot. Having said that, I approached the pilot with a reserved eye - mainly because I don’t care of the look of the Ford Mustang (just a personal preference) and I was unsure of Kilmer in the role of K.I.T.T. - plus, most of these remakes (”sequel” or not) recently have been pretty poor. After seeing how bad ‘Bionic Woman’ turned out, I couldn’t help but be cautious.

The plot is simple enough - An evil group of guns for hire called “Black Water” have discovered that Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison) has built a second super-car, the “Knight Industries Three Thousand”, or K.I.T.T. for short (voiced by Val Kilmer) who, if properly hacked into, could be used to start wars, drops bombs, and basically bring forth Armageddon. When Graiman is seemingly kidnapped, K.I.T.T. is sent to find Charles’ daughter Sarah, then Mike Tracuer, a former Army Ranger and family friend who has biological ties to the ‘Knight Legacy’.

The creative team behind this continuation of the ‘Knight Rider’ franchise made some very good choices with this pilot, and started doing things right from the very start. The show opening is nothing but shots of the car with a great updated ‘Knight Rider’ theme - and it just gets better from there. We see K.I.T.T. in action mere minutes into the show, he isn’t held back or treated as a mystery like some pilots try to do with things like this. We see fragments of the previous K.I.T.T. in Graiman’s work shop, which I think was meant to be a nod to fans, but is much more likely to just upset them since there favorite car is lying in pieces on the floor. Had the car been voiced by the original actor, William Daniels (who is now 85 years old) it would have been received differently, but I can’t imagine the rabid ‘Knight Rider’ fan base digging that.

Moving on though, we are quickly introduced to our cast, and the plot moves at brisk pace. We get to see all the cool new things that K.I.T.T. can do, and Val Kilmer proves his worth as the new voice of K.I.T.T. He has a great mix of snobbishness in his performance that would make William Daniels proud. Justin Bruening does a great job as Michael Tracuer as well. He is an excellent choice for the next generation of the Knight family, and has a modern version of the pretty boy looks that made David Hasselhoff so famous in the ‘Knight’ role originally. Much like Hasselhoff, Bruening will probably not get enough credit for his comedic timing, or ability to act. With the exception of his wooden expression after seeing the death of a loved one, I have no complaints about his performance, and I’m glad he was chosen for the role.

One of the things that I absolutely loved about the pilot were the cliffhanger commercial breaks. The original series used to leave you hanging with an old serial-styled cliffhanger to keep you from changing the channel during commercials, and this pilot did it with virtually every commercial break. I thought it was a fantastic choice on their part, and I literally could not fast forward through the commercials fast enough - BUT - they also managed to throw in several commercials for Ford staring Mike and K.I.T.T. - and I must admit, the bit worked on me, and I ended up watching most of the commercials - which made it all the more excruciating.

I have very little to complain about with this show. It was a great throw back to the 80s action shows and followed the formula to a “T”, while still feeling fresh and exciting. It’s not overly “deep” and your life is probably not going to change for the better from watching it - but it is fantastic escapist action tv at its best.

This was a perfect re-imagining of the franchise, or as close to one as we’re ever likely to get. I must say, however, that I wasn’t terribly impressed with dead-beat-dad ‘Michael Knight’. The Hoff did a fine job with his cameo, and I hope that he returns in a reoccurring role in the series, but I would have liked a little better reasoning for abandoning his son than “he had more important responsibilities”. That seems kind of cheap.

Regardless - I loved this pilot, and I will be extremely disappointed if we don’t see a new ‘Knight Rider’ series this fall.

Grade: A+