Live Discussion Thread: A Hard Day's Knight

[msKEN]

This was indeed a good show tonight, much better then that horrid episode from last week. GST if you are listening keep heading in this direction.

[Tony P Knight Driver]

KNIGHT RIDER IS BACK!
I have been a bit of a skeptic about Knight Rider "08" and have been waiting for the series to show me that it shares the heart & sole of Knight Rider TOS.

I have been some what disapointed in the series to date because, I think as everyone else I am comparing the two shows. Which in itself is really unfair to the new show. I think Knight Rider "08" needs to be judged on its own merit.

The casting of Justin Bruening was excellent. He is doing a great job interacting with KI3T. I like Deanna Russo..And the character Billy. I dont care for Agent Rivi, Zoe or Alex but they if you loved every character it wouldn't realistic.

I like some of the transformations of KI3T, dont care for the pick-up or the submarine. butthe cop car was good.

I hoped the series would improve with time, and I am glad to say tonights episode did just that.

Tonights hybrid episode had the look and feel of Knight Rider TOS combioned with the new advancments and humor of the Knight Rider "08"

Congratualtions to NBC for getting it right.

[Michael Pajaro]

My ranking:

Plot:
1. A Hard Day's Knight (poison)
2. A Knight in Shining Armor (fireball)
3. Journey to the End of the Knight (street racing)
4. Knight of the Iguana (surfing)

Action:
1. A Knight in Shining Armor
2. A Hard Day's Knight
3. Journey to the End of the Knight
4. Knight of the Iguana

Even though Journey had car racing and a turbo boost, it just didn't feel as exciting to me. Hard Day had more of that sense of urgency and danger to it, which is why I'm giving it the edge in terms of action.

But they absolutely positively still need to raise the stunt bar.

[Sky_Blue_Civic]

It was a great episode!And the spinning KI3T of doom made me LOL!

[Sue]

LOVED IT!!!
It reminded me of the old school Mission Impossible with all the masks and contact lenses.
I'm thinking that that car that flipped in the air was real and not a vfx, it sure looked real, either way it was cool.
I loved the story. I'm a bit partial to poisoning and defibrillators since that's what i used in my fan fic.
I loved the cop car. It was sort of reminiscent of the BD Pilot with the VM. All the voice overs were really a throw back to TOS and all the bad guys who were such eager victims of laser reconstructive surgery, or even KOTP and the VO of Michael Long. You don't see too much of that in shows these days.
I was a little lost at the end and thought it might be a dream sequence.. Perhaps they were going to stick something else in there.
So Mike and Sarah seem like they are on the road back to being a couple again... they are probably just teasing us...I don't imagine they will get together for quite sometime.

[PHOENIXZERO]

It was real because they obviously removed the "snow globe" from the dash (or it fell out), plus there didn't seem to be anyone in the car while it was spinning.

[KR4Life]

All I have to say about this episode is, "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!!!"
I loved every minute of it! Keep up the fantastic work, guys!

Agreed and well said. The episode was quite enjoyable, in my opinion. The initial scene where the Homeland Security agents (??) got jipped while Michael made off with the prize was great. And then seeing his "Oh, can I push the button" moment in the SSC was pretty amusing, as well as seeing Michael all "homina, homina" when Sarah walks in. We got several references to "Mission: IMPOSSIBLE" with the masks, contacts and the voice patch (LOVED it!!!) and the 'race against time' plot is used for what must be the one millionth time, but used to the proper effect. The part where Michael calls Sarah to tell her he loves her? Cliched but a DAMN GOOD one!! And I loved where KITT mentions he has received major damage while taking hits from the machine gun. WHY?! Because how can you root for the hero when he can't get hurt at all ? Besides, with all the bleeding-edge tech they got loaded into his chassis, how can ANYONE argue that KITT wouldn't be more susceptible to damages?? All in all, a great episode, especially with the final scene with Michael and Sarah having a moment before they get called back to work. With KITT acting as a secretary, no less.

[KR4Life]

It was a great episode!And the spinning KI3T of doom made me LOL!

Me too! As well as Billy's complaining about cleaning up afterwards!

[HyperCaz]

Yes! Some marked improvements this week! I think the thing that made me the happiest was KI3T quoting Yoda. LOL. Love it. I also liked how Kitt sort of muttered "what a relief" when the perp was pulled out of the car. And I know a few of us have discussed how Kitt keeps being told what to do, so I was quite relieved when at one point Mike only had to say his name and Kitt got the message to be there.

The beach scene sort of turned me into a Mike/Sarah shipper >_< but cute. Reminded me of "The Scent of Roses", actually, with Kitt broadcasting romantic music to a beach backdrop...I hope that's not foreshadowing for Sarah's death or anything lol...

Again, the character crowding forces yet another actor off the screen for an episode. If they're going to keep doing that, they may as well just fire one actor and then they won't have to rotate the characters for screentime. And the green screens looked a bit jarring around the edges, yuck.

So far, the best '08 episode...but there's a lot of room for improvement still.

Also... "Don't talk to me, criminal." It made me smile. Don't know why.

[Radicalas]

Well, i don't really liked this episode, for me the best was "Journey to the End of Knight" and "Knight of the Iguana", then "A Hard Day's Knight" and then "Knight in a Shining Armor". I didn't understood that place, when KITT transformed from Police car to Attack mode, it showed KITT transdorming from Hero Mode to Attack Mode, but not from Police car to Attack Mode. One thing that i liked in this episode was Grappling Hook For me this episode looked rushed. And didn't liked KITT being as van. I don't really like Andron's work

[kittxthexcat]

I don't know why, but it made me laugh when Kitt said "Yyyeeaaahhh..." at the end at the beach XD If they have more episodes like this, I really do hope the show survives.

[goldbug]

I find it amusing that only a day after I posted my "Constructive Criticism" post an episode airs that addresses almost every point I made. This ep was the best one yet, and here's why I think that:

Every character served a purpose tonight. No one overwhelmed Mike's presence as the lead. The techs did their thing back at base, Torres did his "I'm the boss" routine and Sarah served as both a romantic lead and the woman trying to save the man she loves using her scientific skills. Mike and KITT were undeniably the focus of the show, and I believe this was due in part to so much of the storyline revolving around Mike potentially dying. The "truth serum" bit was a smart way to draw out some great character moments, sad, romantic and funny.

Kudos for the spy gear being brought in. In an operation as "high tech" as the SCC, it makes total sense for them to have all sorts of spy gadgets. This was one of my favorite parts of the premiere episode, and it's great to see them use stuff that pays homage to "Mission Impossible" from the masks to the "voice faking" tape/circuit. There was plenty of misdirection used in this episode (loved the part where the assassin gets captured) which made it much more exciting than a straight out action piece.

The action was fantastic. I credit a lot of this to a lot more practical driving this week than we've seen previously. The chase through the parking lot was exciting because we knew Mike was on a time limit but also because it was real. The return of the grappling hook made the fanboy in me happy and we finally get acknowledgement that KITT is indeed still nanoskin enhanced. I'm glad Andron wrote the story as I'm sure he was making sure to emphasize little touches such as that, providing a more cohesive connection with the pilot movie.

Finally, I have to give major kudos to the VFX crew. Everything was taken up a notch in this episode. We finally get to see consistant impacts from the big gun hitting KITT, and I was thrilled. The extra blue "flame" effect really showed KITT was taking some hard impacts and the windshield cracking is both a great visual cue and a tension builder. The green screen driving was 10x better in this episode than all the previous episodes. The lighting of the green screened exteriors matched the interior of the car and they used lighting effects to match sunlight passing over the actor's faces to great effect. Awesomeness.

I was really thrilled with this episode and hope it continues going in this direction.

[Duster]

i like the way KITT could turn into a Van and the police car and the mission impossible referces. But where was the stuff of Michael's past? Guess we were misinformed about that

NBC brass bailed on the flashback scenes (you can pretty much see where they were supposed to go) that dealt with Mike's past as "too dark." Pity.

Is this just a guess or a fact?

I really liked this episode. Saying that, I liked all previous episodes too, one more, one less, but this one was the best in my opinion.

Regarding the missing pieces of Mike's past I am a little bit worried. If it really was NBC's decision to cut them out, it's a bad sign. The writers probably had something in mind when they wrote these scenes. Cutting them only because the studio said so can't be good for the series/mythology.
Therefore I hope it was a decision made by the writers/producers, for they hopefully had their good reasons.

[youbelong]

I have no again seen this episode but one question please? is that sara is very present again in this episode with mike???????????? because i hate this girl

[Shapeshifter]

i like the way KITT could turn into a Van and the police car and the mission impossible referces. But where was the stuff of Michael's past? Guess we were misinformed about that

NBC brass bailed on the flashback scenes (you can pretty much see where they were supposed to go) that dealt with Mike's past as "too dark." Pity.

Is this just a guess or a fact?

I really liked this episode. Saying that, I liked all previous episodes too, one more, one less, but this one was the best in my opinion.

Regarding the missing pieces of Mike's past I am a little bit worried. If it really was NBC's decision to cut them out, it's a bad sign. The writers probably had something in mind when they wrote these scenes. Cutting them only because the studio said so can't be good for the series/mythology.
Therefore I hope it was a decision made by the writers/producers, for they hopefully had their good reasons.

This is, in essence, true.

NBC has consistantly tried to keep the show lighter in tone than the producers have wanted. In this episode there were flashbacks that dealt with Mike's past that NBC decided to trim at the last minute. The ending had to be re-shot; the whole beach sequence was a last minute re-write and re-shoot.

[pheonix_knight]

This is, in essence, true.

NBC has consistantly tried to keep the show lighter in tone than the producers have wanted. In this episode there were flashbacks that dealt with Mike's past that NBC decided to trim at the last minute. The ending had to be re-shot; the whole beach sequence was a last minute re-write and re-shoot.

But are the missing pieces going to turn up on Knightindustries website???

And do you think NBC may ever go down the 'interactive' route with fans actually contributing to investigations, in terms of larger storyline arcs...? Then they could have the fan mentioned in a later episode as a 'an operative who is now in witness protection' or something but with the fan actually called by name...

[staci030]

Can anyone tell me the name of the 2 songs played in A Hard Day's Knight...One when Sara was buttoning Mike's shirt and he fell to the floor. The other at the end of the show when they were dancing ?

Thnaks !!!

[Duster]

NBC brass bailed on the flashback scenes (you can pretty much see where they were supposed to go) that dealt with Mike's past as "too dark." Pity.

Is this just a guess or a fact?

I really liked this episode. Saying that, I liked all previous episodes too, one more, one less, but this one was the best in my opinion.

Regarding the missing pieces of Mike's past I am a little bit worried. If it really was NBC's decision to cut them out, it's a bad sign. The writers probably had something in mind when they wrote these scenes. Cutting them only because the studio said so can't be good for the series/mythology.
Therefore I hope it was a decision made by the writers/producers, for they hopefully had their good reasons.

This is, in essence, true.

NBC has consistantly tried to keep the show lighter in tone than the producers have wanted. In this episode there were flashbacks that dealt with Mike's past that NBC decided to trim at the last minute. The ending had to be re-shot; the whole beach sequence was a last minute re-write and re-shoot.

Shapeshifter, thank you! I am sad to hear that though. Do you know if or to what extent the interventions of the studio affect the mythology or single episodes in general and if (and what) the producers are going to do about it?

[Shapeshifter]

[Shapeshifter, thank you! I am sad to hear that though. Do you know if or to what extent the interventions of the studio affect the mythology or single episodes in general and if (and what) the producers are going to do about it?

I don't know. I know that this sort of thing happens more often then you might think, and on this show in particular, there have been running battles with regard to the tone of the show. The mythology, really, is what's in the final product, which is a series of compromises between the producers, the studio, and the network. That was true of TOS, and it's true today. Each entity has it's own agenda based on it's interests. The producers would take the show much darker and grittier. The network, afraid of another Bionic Woman debacle, want to keep it light and fun. I think each side has a point, but ultimately, he who has the purse (the network) pulls the strings. You would think they'd get this ironed out in the script stage, so there wouldn't be these last minute re-writes and re-shoots. But I guess they don't really know what they've got until they see it put together.

I think it would be great if the producers could get some of this unseen footage out through the website. I don't know if that's doable. If I find out anything, I'll let you know!

[Faithful Car KRO]

I think it would be great if the producers could get some of this unseen footage out through the website. I don't know if that's doable. If I find out anything, I'll let you know!

is it possible all the cut scene will show up on the DVD in the deleted scene features?
Cause if thats the case, once the dvd comes out we can just put those flashbacks back into the episode.
Just wishful thinking...

[zero]

I think the music needs to be brought up again. It constantly bothered me in this episode much like the first episode. You do NOT need to have music playing every second of the episode. There were a lot of scenes I thought would have been more dramatic or worked better with no music in the background, or at least something more suited to the situation.

Anyone else feel the same?

[Judd]

Rant/ One of the reasons why Bionic failed is because NBC kept ordering rewrites/reshoots. Rant Over/

The episode was similiar to Mission Impossible in many ways. I guess we're just going to have to accept this new KR is a team effort more so than the original and plots are going to be mostly epsionage stories unlike the original. It was a good episode. The posion was a bit far fetched and so was Mike's recovery. Not a deal brekaer through. It was logical as it was presented. It was an exciting episode. I'm not sure about KITT turning into a van. I did like the hologram effects on top of the hood. It was more family friendly last night which is a good thing.

The new series has some big differences from the original but I like it and am enjoying the series thus far. I think it's improving.

[cloudkitt]

I was very happy with this episode. I'll have to go with the general consensus here that this was the best episode yet. LARGELY because of the focus on Mike and KITT. It was a gasp of "Finally" when KITT picked Michael up in the park, it was hard to believe that's the first time that's happened.

It's interesting, Andron loves to mock the Turbo Boost and I figuredi t wouldn't be in the episode, but he seems to get everything else about what KITT should be and their relationship. If someone could just win Turbo Boost over on him he could likely be the ultimate writer for the show.

Oh, and bravo on the first REAL stunt with that Eclipse. It was very welcome.

[dcpan]

Hi all,

I think all in all, this was the BEST episode ever in terms of execution.

I did not expect that Van to be KI3T, so that was a nice surprise. Using the police channel was more creative than turboboost, though I rather see turbo boost. The ki3t globe on the police laptop was a nice touch. The Yoda quote was perfect!

The VFX team, awesome job.

The acting, as others have mentioned, much better and natural and believable.

What I didn't like, was the script.

1. Driving that guy into the SSC without blindfold was unbelievable.

2. Using KI3T as a torture device was funny, but equally unbelievable.

3. The levity when Michael was poisoned, unbelievable.

4. If the bullet was just fake blood, the guy's reaction after being "shot" was unbelievable.

5. Even if Ki3t erased the security camera, like the TV crews didn't catch a shot of Michael's face?

Battlestar Galactica is a good example of what happens when networks leave the producers alone. When the producers tries to mess with the BSG plot in one of the seasons, the rating and plot line went straight to hell.

Anyhow, I think the show is looking up...now if they actually have a good script to work with....

[cloudkitt]

It's funny the bipolar-ness of the board. After the pilot everyone groaned, we were pretty excited after the second episode. Knight of the Iguana had us thinking the show was as good as cancelled again. And now we're optimistic again, lol.