Customer Reviews

Knight Rider - Season One

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's hard to match the original classic series, but the new Knight Rider manages to be fun and cool. It's a little lightweight, to begin with. This is pure saturday afternoon popcorn TV. So don't expect Lost or the new Battlestar. I like Val Kilmer as the voice of Kitt, and I also warmed to the Mustang after a while. The new lead actor is good in a different way to Hasselhoff was, he seems a little more vulnerable.

If you like shows with cars, good looking women and fun action storylines. You'll like this.

Awesome reboot of the 1980's TV Classic. They listened to viewers and retooled it further when they eliminated the governmental over site (and 3 performers who were unneeded). Full of action and clean fun. As much as I enjoy the Knight Rider of the 80's, the acting is actually better with the current series. Looking forward to viewing this series again, and again!

Awesome remake of a classic. Not a Ford guy, more a GM, but that Mustang is a beauty! Maybe they can up the ante (if the show returns) with a fine Camaro SS!
Great show, not your typical dark series, just fun and exciting!
Buy it! It will be worth it.
Oh yeah....beautiful women!

I was a bit reluctant to the idea that they have changed the car type, however the new mustang still captured the old spirit of the old KITT.
I loved the transformation part however i thought if it can transform to more than just a car like KAR did it would be even more interesting.
Over All Superb Work.

I purchased this DVD set a few months ago, and I am glad that I did. I loved the KNIGHT RIDER 2008 series, and I hated it when NBC cancelled the show earlier this year in March. While he newer KNIGHT RIDER show never reached the popularity of the original one, I think that it had promise and it wasn't given a proper fighting chance to last more than just one season.

To me, some of the best aspects of the new KNIGHT RIDER show is that KITT was more technologically advanced in 2008 than he was in the 1980's during the original show, and it was great to see Michael Knight's son (Mike Traceur) following in his father's footsteps by also working for F.L.A.G. Also, JUSTIN BRUENING as Mike Traceur is a complete hottie, which is more of a reason to watch the show.

Anywaay, for any of you out there who are interested in watching the 2008 KNIGHT RIDER series, then buy this DVD set. The movie and all 17 episodes are great, and enjoyable to watch.

After growing up with the original Kitt and Michael, it was with great happiness that I learned NBC was bringing a new version back to the television audience. I was hooked the minute it started, love the car (Val Kilmer is a great voice for KITT) and Jason Bruening is hot. I was devastated when I learned NBC was killing the show after just one season, just as the characters were getting the show back to how the original Knight Rider used to be. What is up with you NBC??
Those who complained the show was awful, probably didn't like the original either, and should not be the voice of those who love it. Please bring Knight Rider 2008 back!!! I miss my show on Wednesday and I am tired of all the stupid reality shows (except Ghost Hunters, love that show too!).

This review is on the updated version of the `80's television show Knight Rider. The show stars Justin Bruening in the role of Mike Traceur (later called Michael Knight in the show). Mike is the son of Michael Knight Sr., the hero in the original show who was played by David Hasslehoff.

Admittedly, I was not a huge devotee' of the original show although I did watch it from time to time, enough to be cognizant of the evil vehicles such as KARR and Goliath, but I'm not familiar enough with it to the extent that a lot of the more die-hard fans of the original '80's show are.

From what I had read about the show prior to purchasing it, it was meant to be a continuation of the original 80's series and not a remake. I did not watch the newer series during its brief run on NBC although I did watch part of the 2008 pilot when it aired and thought it was ok. I was curious as to what the storylines were about and seeing that it was available for purchase under $20, I decided to take a chance on it, figuring that if I didn't like the show then it wouldn't kill my wallet too much.

One of the biggest criticisms I had heard about the new series was the use of the Ford Shelby Mustang as the hero car KITT and that it was an ongoing commercial for Ford vehicles. Personally, I had no objections to the hero car being a Mustang plus I seem to recall seeing plenty of different Pontiac vehicles in the original 1982 pilot. So, I feel that the argument for disliking the new series solely because the hero car is a Shelby Mustang is meaningless.

After finishing viewing the series, I felt as though the storylines were wildly uneven and unoriginal. It just seemed like they couldn't come up with any good ideas. When the subject of the evil vehicle KARR came up yet again in this new series, it had become obvious to me that at this point the show's writers were running on empty. The plug was, in my opinion, pulled at the right time shortly after that episode.

Visually, there was plenty of eye candy with great looking women (as was the case with the original show) and some good special effects with the stunts, although seeing KR on the car's chassis during a jump and on the computers in the headquarters was a bit much. If you are able to watch the show on an HDTV monitor with surround sound, it looks and sounds quite good.

In conclusion, I feel that this show was merely ok. It makes for some mindless fun at some points but that's about all it offers. It could have had some potential, especially considering the modern computerized technological age we live in, but that potential was completely and totally squandered by the poor and otherwise recycled plotlines used during the show's brief lifespan.

My family and I were extremely disappointed at hearing the news that the Knight Rider TV show is being cancelled by NBC for the Fall 2009 season.

This is an excellent show and only one of the few TV shows that we watched regularly during Fall 2008 and Spring 2009. Love the characters, high tech sci-fi themes, great action plus light humor and romance, as in James Bond meets Nash Bridges, and not to mention one of the coolest American cars ever built, the 2008 Mustang GT 500 KR with AI and Attitude (thanks to the Ice Man...Val Kilmer)--it's a WINNER in my book.

We absolutely Love this multi-generational show. It's quality TV entertainment....right up there with 30 Rock, NCIS, and even Dancing With The Stars, although they're all quite different types of shows.

I can't help but think back to the 1960s during my teen years and remember NBC cancelling another Great TV show after four seasons--Star Trek. NBC, are you sure you know what your viewing public really wants? Please reconsider your decision and bring back our Knight Rider!

For the time being, until the TV execs. can figure it out--this DVD set offers fans a Great collection of the Knight Rider 2008 movie pilot and 16 episodes!

this is great show peopele keep saying they hate this version it sucks those poeple may have not see n the original show, or knight rider 2000 where micheal knight drives red car its great show i would like to see season 2 there are 4 disks in this set disk 1
knight rider movie

knight in shinning aromor

journey to the end of knight

bonus features
the icon reborn featurette, kittfrom 2000 to 3000 featutte, knight rider leagcy, gag reel, for people who like this stuff ( i do not ) -knight rider 2008 audio commentary with cast & crew

disk 2
knight of the iguana

a hard days knight

knight of the hunter

knight of the living dead

i wanna rock & roll all knight

disk 3

knight of thzodiac

knihgt fever

dont stop the knight

day turns into knight

knihgt to kings pawn --- kitt vs karr final showdown guest starring peter cullen who has done voices of karr form original series of knight rider, & optimus prime

disk 4

exit light enter knight

fight knihgt

fly by knight

knight & the city

i love the knight life

[...]

anyone who likes the orginal show will like this knihgt riders 2008 moive has guest star david hasselholf in it as well

- British Agent Cassandra Banks: "KITT?" (turns to Mike Traceur) "You're talking to your truck?"
- KITT: "It is a pleasure to meet you, Cassandra."
- Cassandra: "And he's talking to me?"
- Mike: "Let's see Bond's car do that."

I think the show missed out on an opportunity here. How awesome would it have been if a Ford Pinto played host to KITT's A.I.? It's epic work trying to make a Pinto seem sexy. Anyway, this new KNIGHT RIDER series lasted all of one season, during which its viewing audience mostly went "Meh" and after which the network executives went "Meh." That's about the surest way to get the plug pulled on a show. For enthusiasts of the original 1982 series, this remake will be worth looking up, mostly because it's not a remake as much as a continuation. David Hasselhoff's cameo in the pilot movie sanctions it as such. But this show's flaws ultimately sink it.

The new KNIGHT RIDER gets hooked up with today's technical advances, and I guess I'm talking as much about the advances as they relate to film-making. This show is bigger, glitzier, infinitely more hi-tech. It's still very much a guilty pleasure. KITT's A.I. - now updated to the Three Thousand model - is housed in a black 550 HP Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang with crazy specs, the sexiest of which is the chameleon function. KITT can now shapeshift into other Ford models (which officially makes this show champion of blatant product placements). KITT can hack into any computer device, play havoc with any security system. It also comes equipped with a bulletproof nanoskin, a 3-D object duplicator, and a submarine function. This car ain't no hooptie.

An 80-minute-long movie in 2008 launched the new series. This series then lasted for 17 episodes, with a jarring reformatting of the show and a rewriting of group dynamics in the middle of the season. It all starts out from a new perspective as the viewers are introduced to Charles Graiman, the creator of the original KITT. When Graiman is believed to have died suspiciously, the new KITT is galvanized into action. KITT's programming compels it to seek out Graiman's daughter Sarah, a teacher at Stanford. When Sarah decides to poke her nose into things, we meet the third main character of the show, the amnesiac ex-Army Ranger Mike Traceur - who happens to be Sarah's ex - and so cue the annoying ongoing "Will they, won't they?" flirtation. Throw in backup eye candy Sydney Tamiia Poitier as a sexy, switch-hitting FBI agent, and we get a cast that looks hot but isn't given enough good scripts with which to work. And let's just say that it took me a while to get used to Justin Bruening as the lightweight lead actor.

Before you can blink, Mike, Sarah, and KITT are toiling away in a crimefighting task force secretly sanctioned by the FBI (although the FBI, like a good spook agency, reserves the right to deniability). Sarah seems to have gotten over that Stanford teaching gig pretty easily. There is a thread of continuity running thru the episodes, and it concerns Mike's shadowy past, the stuff he can't remember. Unfortunately, the episodes' crime-of-the-week plots tend to suffer from boring, scattershot writing. Still, there's some good stuff here. Before the mid-season overhaul, there are several episodes I really liked: the Halloween-themed "Knight of the Living Dead"; the fun "Knight of the Zodiac" which sets the task force's resident tech nerd, Billy Morgan, loose in Vegas; "Knight Fever," in which KITT contracts a lethal nanovirus; and "Don't Stop the Knight," in which Mike and KITT, to free a foreign ambassador, must accomplish tasks assigned to them by a terrorist.

I didn't dislike any of the cast, but someone(s) apparently felt that either there were too many recurring characters or these characters simply didn't mesh (or both). Sydney Tamiia Poitier is absolutely wasted here. In the movie, Poitier's FBI agent, Carrie Rivai, is introduced as having an alternative sexual orientation, but then this isn't mentioned again for the rest of the series. On top of that, Poitier's role is pretty thankless. She's written essentially as someone who sweeps in for clean-up duty after Mike and KITT have already done the heavy lifting.

We soon get the multi-episode arc which puts the kibosh on the FBI's secret task force, writes off the FBI characters, and re-establishes the Foundation for Law and Government (F.L.A.G.). One really cool element in this arc (in "Knight to King's Pawn") is the fighty fight between KITT and KARR (voiced by Peter Cullen who also voices Optimus Prime). What sucks is that the epic showdown ends way too soon. But what we do get is sheer awesomeness.

I didn't feel that, post-revamp, the episodes improved so drastically, although "Exit Light, Enter Knight," the bank heist episode, is certainly a taut, tightly woven story. It sucks that they didn't come out with enough episodes of this caliber.

It took a while for me to get used to Val Kilmer's voice as KITT, because William Daniels as the original KITT has resonated for so many years. And yet Kilmer's KITT is ingratiating enough that I did get used to it. KITT, in both incarnations, is just really sympathetic. If in the past you've gravitated towards self-aware machines like Data or WALL-E or the T-800 Terminator, then you'll like this new generation KITT, a sentient car that prefers watching John Wayne flicks to learn about humanity. Why couldn't they have made it more about the car? The show's best bits are those which feature KITT's attempts to expand its horizons. Never mind that one bad guy refers to KITT as "Monotone Guy."

The KNIGHT RIDER - SEASON 1 contains the 2008 movie and the 17 episodes on four discs. Bonus features are:

- A fun, laid back Audio Commentary on the 2008 KNIGHT RIDER movie with producer David Bartis and lead actors Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo
- "The Icon Reborn" - the behind-the-scenes look at the new series (00:09:15 minutes long)
- "KITT: From 2000 to 3000" - the evolution of KITT, from the 1983 Pontiac Trans Am to the 2008 Ford Mustang (00:06:21)
- "Knight Rider Legacy" - much discourse regarding the pop culture impact of the original 1982 series (00:05:46)
- A gag reel (00:06:12)