Review: 'Knight Rider' - Pilot

I remember the very first episode of the first "Knight Rider" some 25 years ago. I was no more than a first grader, and I remember my dad turning on NBC because this new series that was supposed to be a futuristic version of "The Dukes of Hazzard" was supposed to premiere.

One of the first scenes is a violent one. A police office named Michael Long is confronting a suspect when he is shot in the face onto the hood of his Trans-Am.

There was one thing we learned about those first few minutes of "Knight Rider" -- it certainly was no "Dukes of Hazzard." And as I tuned in to watch the new "Knight Rider" telemovie for the first time tonight, this is no 1980s "Knight Rider."

We've been through a number of attempts to revive this series (need we talk about "Knight Rider 2000," or at worse, "Team Knight Rider"?), none of them even coming close to providing a true modern equivalent of the show that captivated audiences when Generation Xers like myself still had young, impressionable minds connected to our eyeballs watching a talking "black T-top" and its womanizing driver, the reconstructed face of David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight.

But enough of all that. Thanks to David Andron, a virtual unknown in the world of Hollywood, NBC has finally successfully brought back a show, proving that "Bionic Woman" was more of the exception rather than the rule when it came to remakes, and creating what might be the network's first-chance for a strong genre series since "Heroes" premiered.

Picking up from the end of the series (and obviously ignoring "Knight Rider 2000" and "Team Knight Rider"), the home of Charles Graiman (Bruce Davison) -- the creator of the original KITT -- is invaded, and a man believed to be Graiman dies. A Ford Mustang Shelby with a new artificial personality similar to the Trans Am we all knew and loved, takes off on its own pre-programmed mission to not only pick up Graiman's daughter, but a new driver as well -- the son of Michael Knight, an ex-Army Ranger known as Mike Traceur (Justin Breuning).

In the past attempts of resurrecting "Knight Rider," one of the key elements was missed -- real bad guys, real action, and cinematography and story that had you yelling at the TV set whenever the network decided to go to commercial. Those attempts may not have had all that, but this "Knight Rider" does. More than once, even I was like, "What? Why a commercial here?!?" And that's something you almost never get me saying, maybe because I've become a little desensitized to the tricks of action television. But director Steve Shill ("Dexter," "Carnivale") knew how to revive even that in a way that would resonate far better with 21st century audiences. Even the cameo at the end with Hasselhoff was well done, and the links between the two series were practically seamless.

I can see NBC picking this up for a series easily for next fall, and I think that fans will be there to watch it. I know I do. It made you buckle up in the beginning and then hold on white-knuckled to the very end.

Talk about this story