There may be spoilers. If you are in the U.S. please watch the show first.

I admit it, the Knight Rider movie that came out this past summer was a travesty to the franchise but I just watched the first episode of the series and that made up for it almost totally. In fact, this episode is what that movie should have been. While the series premiere does build upon what we know of Mike Traceur and the rest of the cast from the movie it does not mention much about that movie, which is good. We know that Mike was in the Iraq War and this fact comes back to haunt Mike in this episode.

The episode begins with Mike picking up a “package” from a foreign consulate. Sarah Graiman is back and is also helping Mike. She is getting a special file from the consulate basement. Sarah is ambushed by some armed men. Mike, with the aid of K.I.T.T. must find and save Sarah. They escape but we learn that these guys were not after the “package” but rather some files and they were very interested in Mike Traceur.

Mike and Sarah escape in K.I.T.T., who can now morph into a Ford Truck as well as a mustang, nice. The thing I didn’t like is that they jump into the bed of the truck and K.I.T.T. then converts back to the Mustang, the special effects of Mike and Sarah popping up into the seats was a bit forced. K.I.T.T., however needed to be in car mode so that he could elude an aircraft that shot a missile at him. The missile was aimed not at K.I.T.T. though, it was aimed at Mike, or at least his heat signature. The missile ends up having this new type of Napalm and it begins to cook Mike and Sarah.

Meanwhile back in the K.I.T.T. cave we see Charles Graiman and Carrie Rivai, both from the movie, as well a new guy, Alex Torres, the man in charge of the K.I.T.T. cave. There was also Ben and Zoe whoa re both brilliant people. Ben is a geek that is too good looking to pull of the full on geek, sorry. Zoe is a geeky girl who is a whiz at languages, she teases and flirts with Ben over and over. So that is the primary cast.

The K.I.T.T. cave is somewhere but it is as of yet undisclosed. The cave has living quarters, recreational areas and a diagnostics area for K.I.T.T. It is also a giant command center to watch K.I.T.T. and Michael on their missions.

Here’s what made this show something I’d want to watch. Mike Traceur becomes Michael Knight just like his father Mike Long became Michael Knight before him. I like how they made that plot point happen. In Mike Long’s case he was a criminal who lost his memory he was a good cop who was shot and left for dead. (I loved the episode where he lost his mind and became evil), but in Mike Traceur’s case he has a whole part of his past that he cannot remember. Mike’s past came back to haunt him and he didn’t know anyone from that past. During his 3 year tour in Iraq there are many times when he has gaps in his memory. Someone has taken that memory from him. Mike has a past that he cannot remember and also wants to hide from. Apparently Alex Torres knows of Mike’s past and so does Charles Graiman. So there is a conspiracy aspect and a mystery aspect to the show. This makes it much more about a guy and his A.I. car.

K.I.T.T. is much better in this episode too, the main reason is that he finally has Turbo Boost. Turbo boost was missing from the movie and fans did not like that one bit. The scenes where K.I.T.T. morphs are really cool. The couple parts I wasn’t too keen on were when K.I.T.T. becomes the truck. It wasn’t the truck that was a problem for me but rather how Mike and Sarah end up back int he mustang in the beginning and also when Mike jumps out of the bed of the truck on the subway platform at the end. Both of those scenes did not look that good.

all in all it was a decent show, there are some spots where things are not working so well but I think they will be ironed out as the show goes along.