{"id":2162,"date":"2012-11-02T22:33:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-03T06:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/?p=2162"},"modified":"2012-11-03T09:00:19","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T17:00:19","slug":"knight-of-the-phoenix-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.screencuisine.net\/screencuisine\/television\/knight-of-the-phoenix-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Knight of the Phoenix, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently noticed that the 1980’s television show Knight Rider<\/em> is on Netflix Instant. I was about 10 when this show came out, and I loved it, because what wasn’t to love? David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight was cool, wore a leather jacket, had huge hair, solved crimes for pretty ladies and then kissed them, and drove a talking black Pontiac Trans Am named KITT that was made out of SCIENCE. For a little boy, the only thing that could have made\u00c2\u00a0Knight Rider\u00c2\u00a0any better would have been if Michael Knight had also had a pet dinosaur.<\/p>\n

I watched it religiously back then, but I’m sad to say I don’t remember a heck of a lot of specific details about it now. It’s all sort of a vague, shadowy blur of turbo boosts, that vooh-vooh<\/em> noise KITT makes when it thinks, and the recollection that Michael Knight and KITT both<\/em> had evil twins at some point. So, I thought I might watch a few episodes to see if it’s actually a decent show, or if I was just a stupid kid.<\/p>\n

Season 1, Episode 1: Knight of the Phoenix, Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve watched the opening few minutes of this show twice, and I still can’t tell what’s really going on. There’s Detective Michael Long, his partner (who is disguised as an electrician), a woman stealing secret plans from a casino hotel room, Michael’s boss who is working with Michael and also working with the thief-woman, an old gambler who Michael is protecting from something, and the old gambler’s wife who is working with Michael’s boss and the thief-woman. Everyone follows each other around and talks into wristwatch communicators, then Michael’s partner gets shot in the parking lot by Michael’s boss’s henchman, then Michael gets shot in the face by the old gambler’s wife in the desert. This all happens in about four minutes.<\/p>\n

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KNIGHT RIDER!<\/p><\/div>\n

Michael is taken by helicopter to a sprawling mansion, where an old man named Wilton Knight gives Michael a new, surgically altered face, changes his last name to Knight, and has Michael Long declared dead, all without asking Michael’s permission. The plan: to turn Michael Knight into a crime fighter, a man capable of taking down the criminals the law can’t touch, by giving him a Trans Am filled with computers. Michael demonstrates to his new employer, Devon Miles, what a great choice he is for the task by immediately driving the car through a fucking wall.<\/p>\n