Childhood Revisited: Knight Rider

Knight Rider was a TV series I liked to watch when I was a young kid. I always had a thing for cars and robots when I was young, and KITT was such a dream car for me back then.

I have been rewatching it lately, after 20 something years, with my husband - and here are my thoughts about it, both back then as a kid and now as an adult.

As a Kid

As a kid, I absolutely enjoyed the series. I don't remember much of the storyline or characters, but I know by heart *everything* KITT can do. I even remember his voice clearly. I loved the action, the Turbo Boost, the Pursuit mode, the Seat Ejector. It's a kid-friendly show which children could enjoy without having to actually understand the storyline and dialogues that much. Oh and the characters Devon and Bonnie really made an impression for me. I still remember them fondly even now.

As an Adult

As an adult, I find that my favourite character of the series is still KITT. He actually has his own personality. Even though voice command and artificial intelligence have been around us these past few years, KITT was more than just an AI that responds to voice command. He has his own opinions, asks questions, displays feelings and emotions. He's also funny and sassy at times.

Devon and Bonnie also remind my favourites. They are very likeable and believable characters. Devon is a classy gentleman, who has his own funny moments - sometimes without even saying anything. His facial expressions and reactions alone is often funnier than other characters' dialogues. Bonnie is a smart girl, and she is pretty without being oversexualised. She is pretty much the only female character in the whole series that your daughters could look up to.

Which brings me to a more concerning aspect of the show - the female characters. There's always one in every episode, and most of them are either stereotypical or downright dumb. Yes they do have different jobs and personalities, and some of them make better villains than the male 'bad guys', but they are mostly put there to serve as Michael Knight's object of flirtation. He gets very touchy-feely with them from the get go, forms an inexplicably close connection with them in such a short time, flirts with them and NEVER FAILS to lure them in within the short duration of one episode. Then on the next episode, they are never to be talked about anymore, and a new damsel in distress will be put in the same cycle again. They are all there only to serve the point that Michael Knight is irresistible to women of all shapes and sizes. Or maybe I should say women of all ages and hair colours, because there's only 1 shape and size of women in the Knight Rider universe: slim. In one episode, he even had 15 year old girl kiss him on the lips and he didn't seem bothered by it at all - more smug, if anything.

In season 2 they replaced Bonnie with April, a character that's supposed to be also a car technician like Bonnie but dressed as if she was going to a calendar photo shoot with intricately blow dried Farrah Fawcett hair. They did tone down her look as the season went on: from hot pants and brightly coloured makeup to more decent clothing and more natural makeup, but I have to say it's such a relief to have Bonnie back for season 3.

Season 3 is the best season by far. Bonnie's back, so it's a piece of a saving grace for female audiences everywhere. The other female characters are better looking too, with better clothes and makeup, although they still don't serve much purpose apart from flirting with Michael. Storylines are improving, there are more varieties of setting and plot, we see more backgrounds and nuances to the villains. KITT is much sleeker and improved, he looks more like a real car now.

In season 1 you always get a feeling that KITT is just a cheaply-made prop (which I didn't notice as a child, of course). In fact, everything in season 1 looks cheap - it's almost like watching a project made by a film student. The stunts look ridiculous, dialogues are shallow, the villains are just being bad guys without much reason or purpose, the girls look horrible and don't do much else but being decorations. The characters are 2-dimensional and childlike.

Things improve in season 2. KITT looks better and has more personality, whereas in season 1 he is more like an emotionless AI that responds only when necessary.

So things do improve with each season - with the exception of Michael's personality. Michael was a fairly decent man in season 1, but as time went on, he became more and more snobbish. He began acting recklessly, to the point that KITT actually argued with him when he instructed him to do something unreasonable. Yes, KITT has more common sense than Michael. He treated women even worse with each season, flirting and dumping them while looking proud of himself. He threatens suspects without much evidence, beats people up, breaks in, destroys people's properties, lies and grafts left and right - all without any sense of remorse. In the end he became my least favourite character. Even his overused phrases like calling KITT 'Buddy' and saying 'Will ya?' at the end of every instruction he threw at KITT annoyed me to no end. He became more and more overconfident and obnoxious as the series went on.

Everything, somehow, went downhill in season 4. They 'improved' KITT once again, turning him into a convertible and adding a 'super pursuit mode' where various wings and flaps can be extended to make him go to inhumane speeds of over 300 mph. It doesn't add anything to KITT, it just makes him look less believable and... cartoonish. With Michael's character already turning into a caricature of his earlier episodes self, the ridiculousness of token female flirt-interest in every episode, and dwindling storylines, season 4 is possibly even worse than season 1 even though it's obvious that it's much higher budget. You can still enjoy the futuristic car action, but after a well-rounded season 3, it is disappointing to see it turn into such a 2-dimensional cartoon that probably would only entice to young kids who love cars.

It is still a TV show that I hold dearly in my heart, which reminds me of a happy childhood full of fascination with hi-tech cars - but I am glad to have rewatched it as an adult and see it in a different light.