A hot Shelby GT-500KR and the willing suspense of disbelief.
09-25-08: In sitting down to write an in-depth review of the opening episode of Knight Rider, one is reminded of an old adage. “Never debate with a fool because people wont be able to tell the difference”. Taking this TV show seriously enough to write a critique of it makes me feel less intelligent in the act.
At one point during the show I was pulling my hair out at when what flimsy existence of a plot stopped and took off on a completely different tangent. Exclaiming this idiocy to my wife, she looked at me like I was a fool and said, “You are watching Knight Rider! Val Kilmer has been cast as a Shelby without his volleyball”. She was dryly referencing Val’s self absorbed character in Top Gun, “Ice Man”. Val Kilmer is of course the voice of KITT.
Bottom line is that this show is a comic book. It is meant to appeal to 12-year old boys who liked Transformers, Batman, and play video games. Nothing wrong with that. It has the demonically shallow plot, incredible stretches of the imagination, and contrived situations to show the car’s magic abilities and the leading man's coolness.
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The beginning sequence of the show had KITT being hit with a high tech missile which did not explode the car, but covered it in a new kind of napalm flame that cant be extinguished. While the car is speeding along for miles on fire, leading man and lady are chatting romantically in the car as if they are on a Virgin 747 to London. Sappy talk and relaxed sexual innuendo. Never mind the 2000 degree fire happening outside the window. “Just don’t bump the door handle, you will be incinerated”, control headquarters tells them.
KITT is less autonomous this time around, taking orders from HQ to know what to do. The car is told to speed up to 377 mph to make the flames go out. It doesn't work. Meanwhile our leisurely riders are shedding their clothes to deal with the heat, making google eyes at each other. Finally, KITT is driven into a tunnel where the air is sucked out to smother the fire. Good thing the tunnel people thought of the need for giant air suckers. In the end, KITT rolls into control HQ looking like it just got detailed for the concours show. That new napalm is self cleaning.
True to form of the original 1982 Knight Rider series debut episode, the leading man Michael Tracuer is established as a mystery of sorts who has a sordid past he cannot face. Like the original Michael Knight, his past collides with his present and his name must be changed to, you guessed it - Michael Knight.
Not to lower myself to analyzing this any further and to look a fool, lets be honest that for Mustang fans this show is about seeing the cool car. The 2008 Shelby GT-500KR is damn hot, even when it is not covered in flaming napalm that cant be put out. The black on black Shelby is completely stock looking with exception of the roving red eye behind the hood scoops.
Then it goes into attack mode. The car for the series is significantly different from the one in the 2-hour movie last spring. Attack mode has shown itself to me more of a dragster looking car than before. It almost looks like a ‘69 Camaro on steroids. Further, it can also change into a 2009 Ford F-150 pickup. How about that. During the show, the wife and I theorized it will probably morph into whatever Ford needs to sell - Fusion, Focus, Super Duty, etcetera.
In the aspect of seeing a good looking car on TV, Knight Rider is a hit. If you like reading Vince Flynn or Tom Clancy suspense thrillers, you must practice a willing suspense of disbelief to survive it. If you have kids who love it, take pleasure in knowing they are being brainwashed into loving Mustangs. After all it could be Barney on TV.
