If you grew up in the 80's then you must have felt a pang when you heard they were making this. Yes, the original was cheesy as hell but it was also great fun. This is a pretty poor update but had enough to keep me watching to the end.

Unlike many remakes, they have kept the plot on this simple. Baddies want secret data from scientist, they kill him accidentally (they think) and amazing Mustang races out of garage seemingly impervious to bullets.

It turns out the car is the Knight Industries Three Thousand (KITT) loaded with artificial intelligence and it races to Stanford to collect the scientist's daughter who is clearly going to be in danger too. She is also a scientist and unlike her father, a hottie. KITT also collects loser-dude who is himself in trouble and has some decent kung-fu moves. He turns out to be her ex.

Baddies chase em and we get lots of genuinely well made mountain chase scenes. One of the other reasons I wanted to see this show was because KITT is now the new model Mustang. Just as I loved the Trans Am in the 80's, so I love this car now.

Of course the scientist turns out not to be dead (it was a body double) and he escapes to a cabin inhabited by loser-dude's mom. They all meet up in a Motel but unfortunately a helpful FBI agent (actress still cool from Deathproof) accidentally leaks the info to the baddies.

Quite a good tense scene transpires and loser-dude's mom is shot and killed. Another chase scene ensues with the usual side-swiping and this climaxes in one of the best crashes I think I've seen on mainstream TV. KITT's nano-thingies give him the ability to instantly repair damage so he races ahead of the SUV and stops sideways on the road. The impact leaves KITT unscathed but utterly decimates the SUV. A really surprising stunt that caught me off-guard in an otherwise average tv programme.

At a certain point we find out that loser-due is actually the son of the original Michael Knight. So The Hoff turns up for the funeral and does a passable job, as he always does. Son is recruited to the newly reformed "Foundation" and the final scene sees him reversing out of a moving cargo plane in a nice homage to the 80's truck.

This pilot didn't know what it wanted to be. It mixed an average plot-line with poor acting, some good stunts and very weak humour. I think the problem is that they didn't have a target age-group so they tried to keep everyone happy. The series it reminds me of most is the Bionic Woman remake. It suffered from all the same problems and has been canned. They need to make up their mind whether they are a kids show (in which case it should be all stunts, explosions, kung fu and humour) or an adult show (much darker with a wry sense of irony).

I just heard today that they have got the green-light for a series but that it needs serious surgery. Both aspects are good news. There is a decent re-make trying to break out of a barrel of mediocrity there, let's hope they figure it out.