Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Knight Rider: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Part Man. Part Machine. All Knight Rider.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 5, 2016

The 1950s may have been television's "Golden Age," but there's something about the 1980s that seemed to redefine television watching from "fun diversion" to "experience." The 80s, in many ways, ushered in the modern medium era. Shows got bigger, bolder, and pushed boundaries in narrative and technical structures and laid the groundwork for the groundswell of entertainment that so many enjoy today, in what some are calling television's second "Golden Age." It's hard to look at the 80s without giving it serious consideration as the true second "Golden Age." TV expanded in choices and spawned any number of fond-memory classics that remain today bonafide landmarks in the industry. Star Trek: The Next Generation reinvented a favorite from the 1960s and became, arguably, the quintessential Sci-Fi show of all time. Cheers dominated the ratings and redefined the Sitcom. Action saw a boom with programs like The A-Team and Magnum, P.I. Married with Children, Family Ties, and The Wonder Years tickled the funny bone and reflected then-contemporary society. The innovative MacGyver dazzled audiences on Monday Nights (and was often more fun than the football game to follow) while Miami Vice forged the path for the modern Police Procedural and forever changed the way TV audiences look at Florida's most famous city. But Knight Rider...it's just a cool show, and remains so today.

KITT is always the center of attention.

During a dangerous and double-crossed undercover investigation, a man is critically wounded. His agency, FLAG (Foundation for Law and Government), repairs his body, reconfiguring his face to hide his identity and the wounds suffered in the line of duty. He's reborn as Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) and paired with an unusual partner: KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand, voiced by William Daniels), a highly advanced (and nearly) one-of-a-kind Trans-Am that looks like Michael's old car but is anything but. The car boasts not the latest in technology, but a futuristic armoring and artificial intelligence that makes it a formidable driving machine, crimefighter, partner, and even friend. A bullet- and other maladies-resistant body and chassis are just the beginning. The car is dubbed the "fastest, safest, strongest...in the world." With KITT, Michael operates beyond the constraints of law enforcement and traditional crimefighting, working on behalf of "the innocent, the helpless, and the powerless."

For as groundbreaking and very forward-thinking for its time -- perhaps more so than any droid from Star Wars or Forbidden Planet -- as it might have been, Knight Rider doesn't feel...quaint...in 2016 but it certainly seems like a much more plausible scenario and relationship between man and machine. Just think of the interactions between man and machine today that people take for granted. There's Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo, for example. Speak and be spoken to. A world of answers and information and automation at the fingertips or the sound of a voice. Even automobiles are pushing the technological envelope with navigation systems practically all but standard anymore and integration with assistive devices and services like OnStar pretty much the norm. The news seems ever-filled with another story of self-driving cars. No, nothing has yet to reach the level of a KITT. Yet. But it feels really close. That's one of the great things about Knight Rider in retrospect, at least in 2016. It's still cool, it still speaks to its decade, and it's still somewhat futuristic at the same time. But it might actually play better today, perhaps not considering production values or anything like that but narratively, anyway, as the technology feels more comfortable and still just unique and cool enough to provide that raw entertainment rush that 80s TV was so good at delivering.

The show's core is centered not around the technological marvel that is KITT but rather the relationship that's built between KITT and Michael. KITT may not breathe, bear a soul, or exist with a measurable heartbeat, but the character is fully developed in a Data sort of way, certainly a precursor to Star Trek's famed android Lieutenant-Commander who dreamed of being human while demonstrating superhuman abilities. While KITT may not walk and wear a uniform, he's practically autonomous and builds a respect for and trust and friendship with Michael that Michael, in turn, reciprocates. The two operate in harmony -- most of the time, anyway -- and the show is at its best not when they're speeding down their latest target, when Michael is out pounding pavement to work a case, or when KITT's technological advances assist in piecing together a crime scene but rather when the two interact and operate as one, pooling their unique skills while simultaneously using their understanding of one another, and their camaraderie, to save the day. In many ways, the two become one when the situation warrants, which is often in their crimefighting adventures. It's the show's ability to so fully and richly develop them individually and seamlessly transition to that unbreakable bond that's Knight Rider at its best, and at its core.

William Daniels voices KITT with an incredible balance of streamlined delivery, know-how, clarity, and even a bit of snark. The voice is the perfect compliment to the scripted automobile, bringing it a critical lifeblood that all of the gadgets and gizmos inside, and the famous pulsing red bar on the grill, cannot convey. This is essentially a "Buddy Cop" show, just with one of the "buddies" a car with more than the premium package. Daniels gets the show's tone and the car's personality just right. The voice obviously plays with a little filtering to give it an identifiable computer cadence but one that's real and clear enough to allow the more "human" side of the personality come about. Hasselhoff is terrific as Michael as well, even as the second best looking character in the show behind his ride. He's equally adept at action and drama, even a little romance, and the bond he builds with KITT and the rapport that develops between them is, again, the show's best quality. Hasselhoff might take a lot of grief in some circles, but he's a natural in Knight Rider, even with the difficult job of acting against a partner who is (soulfully) more there in spirit than "in the flesh," sorting out not only his character but KITT's and working with the somewhat unique combination of steel, computers, and rubber while still engaging with the personality that exists beyond the machinery.

The show's procedural structure sees Michael and KITT dealing with any number of bad guys in any number of scenarios, from common criminals to a rival supercar named KARR. For the most part, it's relatively simple stuff that serves only to propel action scenes and build the relationship between man and machine. It's very well done, though, from scripting to performances, from visual effects to one-off character construction. It's also ridiculously entertaining, even today, even through what becomes a fairly repetitive cadence in the "mission of the week" parameters. There's enough background and support structure build-up to keep audiences interested in the larger Knight Rider world, and even if most of the one-off wrinkles don't exactly rewrite the TV history books, the sum total of the show, and its much more interesting relationship between man and machine, solidifies it as a bonafide TV classic that's bound to hold up even when cars much like KITT are commonplace.

Knight Rider: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Knight Rider rolls onto Blu-ray with a good, and oftentimes very good, 1080p transfer. The image comes framed at approximately 1.33:1 which, as the screenshots depict, place vertical "black bars" on either side of the now-standard 1.78:1 HD frame, preserving the show's original airing aspect ratio from back in the 1980s. The image enjoys what is generally a very fine grain structure, preserving the texture of its filmed source. Grain can fluctuate, particularly in darker backdrops, where it takes on a more pronounced, aggressive, almost "snowy" appearance. Brighter scenes can be prone to the same, too, but as a general rule grain appears rather refined and pleasantly complimentary to the experience.

Color generally fares well. Some scenes appear rather diffuse and the palette often feels less full-bodied than would be ideal. Saturation could definitely use a boost, but there's fairly good contrast and no shortage of vibrancy, particularly to reds. Nuance and definition are another story; there's not that rich, seamless sense of finer transition points and lifelike definition to every hue, but the core palette, beyond the need for something of a fuller feel, is never much of an issue. Flesh tones gravitate, slightly, to the pasty side of the scale while black levels are probably the single biggest weakness in the transfer, pushing to crush in some spots and struggling to maintain depth in others, and again often punctuated by that snowy, spiky grain.

Fine detailing is by-and-large excellent, aided by that lightly grainy, filmic appearance. Environmental elements are quite well defined, whether rough pavement, sand at a beach, building façades, grasses, or other natural formations and manmade structures. The car looks terrific. The Blu-ray frequently picks up finer imperfections in paint, little bits of wear and scratches in the paint, and accumulated dirt and grime from a chase. The interior is a playground of the brightly lit instrument clusters that, on Blu-ray, do show some of the inherent limitations of the design and some of the more cheaply made materials, but it's a treasure trove of textural excellence that fans will want to absorb in every close-up of KITT's various doodads and readouts. Skin textures present with a healthy clarity and attention to fine detail, ditto clothing. This is a healthy step up from Miami Vice and, for what can only be described as a budget release, a very pleasant surprise.

Knight Rider: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike Miami Vice, which features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack, Knight Rider revs onto Blu-ray with but a Dolby Digital 2.0 offering. The track is unspectacular, but yields decent results that carry the show adequately throughout its run. Obviously surround support and low end compliments are out. Musical clarity is decent, whether the acclaimed title theme or any number of popular tunes spread throughout the series. That said, it doesn't feel especially wide, seeming to settle somewhere between the center and the furtherest reaches of the stage. Imaging isn't a strong suit, then, but dialogue does push toward the center with a fairly natural and grounded presentation and prioritization. Clarity is basic but fine, mostly, beyond a little crunchiness in a few places. Action effects, much like dialogue, are good but slightly muddled and unkempt on occasion. With so little support or oomph, there's not much to engine revs, explosions, fast movement, or other would-be exciting elements. The track certainly doesn't stretch the sound system's limits, but it serves the show well enough in a nostalgic, simplistic sort of way.

Knight Rider: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Knight Rider: The Complete Series contains no supplemental content. The packaging presents all four seasons, in four Blu-ray cases, in a basic slip-box. Each season is comprised of four discs each, and they're placed in the Blu-ray case stacked two per hub, with discs one and two on one side and three and four on the other. Of the packaging (for Miami Vice, which is fundamentally identical), Mill Creek officially had this to say:

Based on customer feedback, we chose to package this product using standard Blu-ray cases inside a slipcase instead of packaging using cardboard sleeves. Unfortunately, we cannot control how our resellers re-package and ship direct-to-consumer, so for any consumers receiving damaged product from shipping, please notify the retailer directly.

Indeed, the packaging is very simplistic and a far cry from the more complex but standout-ish presentation the studio previously used for That '70s Show.

Knight Rider: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Knight Rider is a fantastic show that might look a little dated in the era of touch-screen navigation, Siri, and all of today's sleek modern technology that makes KITT's Lite-Brite-like and somewhat bulky instrument cluster appear hopelessly quaint, but fortunately that was never really the draw. It's the personalities and the friendship that develops between KITT and Michael throughout the series that makes it tick. And, hey, the car still looks rad even if it's a bit lacking in today's more streamlined digital world (and too bad they don't make the Trans-Am anymore). Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Knight Rider: The Complete Series features very good video -- it's not perfect, but it looks amazing all things considered -- and decent two-channel lossy audio. Unfortunately, no extras are included, but for the price, the fun, the nostalgia, and the picture quality, this set is hard to beat. Highly recommended.