I believe I've mentioned that I'm a Science Fiction fan. Tonight I watched the 2 hour premiere of Knight Rider.
...
nuff said.
I've enjoyed more action and plot out of B-rate Godzilla movies (the 60's-70's versions from Japan with English subtitles). The voice of the new Kitt is just disappointing. HAL had more personality. I cannot and will not believe that I was listening to and cringing at Val Kilmer's voice. That's what everyone's telling me, but he's so much better than that!
The actor/driver is a VERY attractive, sweet guy that just can't carry the show all by himself. The actress/scientist is supermodel gorgeous (not related to Rene Russo) and thankfully CAN act, but has such atrocious dialogue she can't do anything with it. Now let's get to Ms. Poitier... acting as their FBI connection.
This poor lady, sprung from such loins as Oscar-winning Sidney Poitier, gets to announce (quite blatantly) in the first two minutes of her appearance that she is a lesbian. Since when does being a lesbian add personality? Is that something that could have been revealed over time or with some amount of subtlety - maybe when she's shown in a relationship rather than a one night stand as her bed-guest implies? The rest of her character is expressed by having her trail after the elusive heroes and their talking car and die in the last half hour of the show. Well, at least her horror stops there and she doesn't have to be further associated with this tripe. What? You mean I was wrong? It was somebody else who got shot and died? Oh, sorry. Oops, I guess I'd given up paying a great deal of attention to the show by that point (when your enthusiastic watchers have tuned out at the shooting parts, it's got to be pretty bad).
So the token black (lesbian, let's not forget) female FBI agent is still with the show and slated for more episodes beyond the pilot? Awww... that's too bad. She REALLY needs to work hard to live up to her father's name - or maybe she should have dropped it from the credits so that she could fail on the show's merits (er... lack thereof) and not carry around the embarrassing stigma of ... hm... well, getting caught up with a really bad show, and we'll just leave it at that. Hopefully she can prove to us all (much, much later and with better options) that she has the acting gene. I note that she's got lots of minor acting credits to her name already but she's got nothing to work with here, that's certain.
Again, the jokes from Miss Congeniality aside, why do women who perform masculine duties (like being cops or agents of the government with sidearms) have to be assumed lesbian - it's ingrained? If it looks like a bull dyke and talks like a bull dyke and acts like a bull dyke... why then it must be a woman performing a duty that is usually assumed to be that of a man. Am I the only person who thinks that an individual's sexual identity and preference have nothing to do with their choice of career? Interesting.
No, to wash the nasty taste out of my mouth, I offer a list of television shows (individually conceived or based off a movie or other series) that have a distinct supernatural or science fiction quality that made them memorable or worthy.
Good shows: Quantum Leap, Babylon Five, Star Trek (and ALL it's incarnations and spin-offs are included here - we can discuss the individual series' at a later time), Time Trax, Sliders, Alien Nation, Buffy, Angel, SG1 (that's Star Gate One for those that don't know - pronounced ess gee 1), Earth 2 (from 1994, lasted one season), Firefly (one of the best), Third Rock from the Sun (but I watched that one for the funny - nothing but the funny), Roswell, John Doe (with Prison Break's Dominic Purcell), Smallville, Voyagers!, and Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles (good gosh, they could have come up with a better, shorter name than that, surely!).
Mediocre shows or those that I watched in my childhood and remember fondly: the Bionic Man/Woman/Dog/Girl (a TV movie starring the regulars plus a very young Sandra Bullock - so CUTE!), the Misfits of Science (OMG very early Courtney Cox), Andromeda, Farscape, Max Headroom, Lois and Clark (not nearly enough science), Birds of Prey (with the fantastic Dina Meyer), I even remember Space 1999 and the Tomorrow People (slightly). All of these shows were better than the pilot of this new (and improved because it's a Ford Mustang mind you) Knight Rider.
Classic Sci Fi shows that are in a class all by themselves: the Outer Limits, Amazing Stories, Night Gallery, the Twilight Zone, and X-Files (yes, I include X-Files as a necessary primer to Sci Fi for the junior fan of today).
Now for the more interesting question: What shows did I NOT list here and was it on purpose? Take the poll at the bottom of the screen... we'll see.
*sigh* So I guess I'm done. Surely there are other shows that you'll want to discuss or some from above that you'll want to debate. Let me know.
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The FBI agent was worse than that, she was a non-entity that could have been done without. You forgot to mention that her lesbian lover was a casual one night stand that she just walked out on with minimal explanation. Or that all the FBI agent did was go to the Crime Scene and spill the beans to the corrupt Sheriff. Then, after Michael's mother got shot, she stayed behind with the body while Michael and the hot chick chased the baddies in KITT. (But somehow the instant the high-speed chase ended Ms. FBI came driving up in a Suburban FROM SOMEWHERE AHEAD OF THEM.) She didn't even have the grace to be some sort of narrative character who explains key facts to the audience. she was completely pointless and completely token.
I did not mind KITT's voice nearly so much though.
I think you were a bit light on Michael though. He's supposed to be an ex-Army Ranger who just happens to drive Race Cars, just happens to have been someone with the hot science chick, who has his moment of character introduction by being in bed with two women, and is somehow in debt to a loan shark. does this seem both contrived and unrealistic to anyone else?
And what's up with his sidekick? This sort of nerdy roommate with fuzz on his face who somehow warrants being included in the end scene aboard the Foundation's super secret lab jet so he can say that KITT (a morphing Ford Mustang) has a big engine. WTF?
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