#kr 08

[helcathelcat]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KNIGHT RIDER 2008!!!!!!!!

[jetravenex]

KR and KR 08 Xmas Xover idea

So since the fandom has been throwing around some amazing ideas so far, I figured I’d throw another out there for our fandom to pick apart and muse over. 

I was watching a christmas comedy and it made me muse over a time travel christmas fic with Knight Rider and KR 08.

I like the idea of there being some unresolved tension with Mike and his father, so I was musing of, what if Mike’s not having a really great Christmas.

It’s FLAG’s first christmas in the aftermath of the whole KARRE mess. With the team now just Billy, Zoe, Sarah, Mike and KI3T. And though the team’s trying their best. It being the first Christmas without Charles Graiman is taking a toll on morale.

Mike’s never been super fond of Christmas, namely because of the troubled childhood he had courtesy of being the son of Michael Knight. 

I always had the headcanon that something bad happened to force Mike and his mom into Witness protection and it prompted Michael to stay away supposedly for Mike’s protection.

So Mike’s grown up without his Dad around, his Mom’s also gone this year too, and seeing Sarah down and the team in low spirits as they approach a drastically different Christmas. Mike feels overwhelmed with trying to make it a good holiday on his own with KI3T’s help.

Through a series of hijinks either magic, sci fi explained, or what not the fandom may speculate at will.

Mike and KI3T wind up back in time to the 80′s and have to help KITT and Michael with a similar case... while trying not to give his younger father and the older KITT clues of his and KI3T’s identity.

I just loved the thought of Mike and KI3T (with KI3T donning the old mustang configuration he used when they were trying to keep under the radar) having to struggle to not only get back but also resolve this case that seems very similar to the one they were dealing with. 

This could also be the year Michael lost Stevie, so we’ve got some of that struggle on OG FLAG’s part. 

Mike does his best to try and not stand out too much as an unexpecting time traveler, does he manage it? Not sure yet. But by the end of it the KITT’s definitely know for sure. 

KITT’s too sharp to miss an AI and KI3T would probably have a LITTLE hero worship, and with the recent loss of his creator, might be looking for some support from the older AI. Even briefly. 

However the hijinks go, upon returning Mike and KI3T have a new view of their predecessors and Mike decides to invite his father and the old KITT along with some of the old FLAG members to join the new FLAG to celebrate Christmas. 

Turning the somber christmas for Mike’s team, into an opportunity to bridge new and old. 

Or something like that XP

Please tell me your guys thoughts!

[jetravenex]

Finally finished watching KR 08

After watching it all together and seeing the final episode, it was all together a good series. I’m glad it existed, and I honestly enjoyed it.

A more detailed look into my thoughts and some spoilers are under the cut. I know the shows now over 10 years old, but if people don’t want to get spoiled I do go into some details about aspects that happen later on in the show.

But if you finish Classic KR, and you’re willing to go in with an open mind and an understanding that it’s not going to exactly pick up where Classic KR left off. I recommend it. You will have to sit through some parts that are kind of lame, and there is a good bit of cheese. But if you’ve got some time to kill and you’re willing to recognize it’s not going to be the beauty that was Classic KR, but a 2000′s take on it, you might be surprised. I’m a little sad that there isn’t anymore of it, it took some time to hit it’s stride, but the last five episodes it got was good and made the whole viewing experience completely worth it.

Watching KR 08 has been a tale of years of picking it up, throwing it aside and then picking it up again. I first picked it up to watch it when I was in High School, when I was into Knight Rider the first time. 

I know I must’ve liked it enough because when we picked an actor for a french project (I was a sophomore in High School) I went with Justin Bruening rather than the Hoff, so, yes, even then I had a soft spot for his portrayal as Mike Knight, and I think KI3T made me love Mustangs back in High School because to this day I’d love one from ‘08/’09.

But over the years I told myself, ‘no I don’t like it, everyone says it’s bad, it’s gotta be bad’. And I wrote out the series from my fondness for KR. It was bad like KR2000 to me. (Which after watching the KR2000 movie again with @shes-an-oddity, I’ve decided the plotline’s dumb, dumb decisions were made, but sassy KITT makes the thing watchable and we both very much enjoyed him while picking apart the plot to hell)

Rewatching KR 2008 to it’s entirety has been a year long event to be honest. I decided I was going to watch KR 08 all the way through end of last summer I think, because I knew for a fact I hadn’t completed it, and when @merciresolution talked about the lovely famous car discord and they had KI3T rp blogs and headcanons. So, I realized I wanted to know how the story actually went.

It was a bit grueling at first, I already knew I didn’t like the first two episodes. The movie I did have fun with which truly renewed my desire to watch the series proper. 

But that first episode. It’s just, a lot. Maybe I’ll list my personal favorite and least favorite episodes of KR 08 at some point. But I just know the first episode didn’t do much for me. SOOO much is just dumped on you at once and I know they have to do the whole ‘he’s a man that does not exist’. But maybe that should’ve been in the movie, or they didn’t lump so much in at once. Plus since Mike just gets shot and declared dead, but looks the same I’m surprised no one came after him after that. It was a pointless plot and easily they could’ve given him the name of Knight for other reasons. So yeah, first episode don’t like it.

But after that first and second episode, the characters start to flesh out, with little great bits. Mike and Billy having a water gun fight with KI3T and the robots that assist with maintaining KI3T, was when I realized how buried underneath it, there was potential. 

I’ll admit when KARRE got name dropped and even though I knew he was in the show, I knew he showed up. I got excited. I was like ‘Oh cool, they’re actually teasing the fact that KI3T has a prototype that’s kind of a looming threat, I like it!’

Oh, if only they’d done more with KARRE. I don’t dislike the two parter that served as a send off for a lot of the cast since the network realized that the series was being bogged down by its too large cast. But I feel like KARRE needed a two parter of his own. For all the talk and hype he got, he really was only in like a few minutes of the episode and the fight KI3T and Mike had against him was so so rushed. He was criminally under utilized.

But after you get past the episodes leading up to KARRE, after that it’s wonderful. The last 5 episodes of the series are really good. They had KI3T be more sassy and starting to do the shift from computer to fully developed personality. They had more scenes with Mike and KI3T driving around and doing good for the sake of doing good rather than it needing to be a big mission to stop terrorists or stop the theft of military stuff or what not. 

They were starting to get the heart of KR, and it was GLORIOUS. And they BUILT on the previous stuff from the 12 episodes. 

But, sadly it was too little too late I think for a lot of people. The reason it took me a YEAR to finish the series was because after KARRE I stopped watching. I was just, soo disappointed that they under utilized him. I remember finishing the episode with KARRE and being like ‘That’s it?’ It was over WAY too fast, and I was extremely bummed out that all that hype I’d garnered was for naught. 

I was rewarded though when I watched exit light, enter knight. It opens with such a wonderful interaction with KI3T and Mike. It’s not a mission that prompts Mike to act, he’s not acting under orders, he’s acting because he wants to help. He’s Michael Knight Jr. and he’s going to make a difference, and that’s the theme that carries for the remaining five episodes. 

And it’s glorious. 

The series concludes with Mike, Billy, Sarah and Zoe, the gang looking to the future as being the true new FLAG and they break on ‘to making a difference’. 

Man if they’d been given another season I’d have loved it. I’d have loved to see more stories with these characters. The show really wanted to hype up Mike Knight at the beginning as this badass fighter, this real man’s man, tough, cool, suave, great with the ladies, but it eventually dropped trying to push Mike as perfect and the best and he became a lot more fun.

As KI3T became more sassy and outspoken, I was living for it. 

@shes-an-oddity can atest to the amount of times I went and quoted stuff to her. Starting off with ADFADSFAD FAM THIS LINE IT’S GOLD!

I’ll end this with saying. I do feel like KR 08 could’ve been better. They should’ve incorporated Michael Knight Sr. and possibly even KI2T at some point. I would’ve killed for that meet up. 

But I like what I got from KR 08. Thank you Knight Rider 2008 for the enjoyable, if a bit bumpy and brief, ride.