'Knight Rider': Michael foils a bank heist

This week we got our first look at the new Knight Rider team working out of their old offices. The first thing we saw them doing? They were fast asleep (technically Sarah wasn't at first, but she quickly passed out). Apparently they'd all had a really hard day working on a very tough case. If it was me, I would have shown the newly slimmed-down group on their first assignment this week. Clearly, it's not my call.

Now, why Michael, who was asleep on the road in KITT, insisted on waking up and getting a cup of coffee in order to stay awake, I don't know. After all, it's not like KITT hadn't been doing the driving for the past four hours and not like KITT couldn't keep driving for hours on end while Michael kept sleeping. Whatever Michael's reasons were, it certainly was un unlucky turn of events for the guys who showed up to rob the bank next to the coffee stand Michael was hitting up. The gunmen had this impenetrable body armor on, which any good television viewer instantly knew meant that they were after something a little bit more serious than money. It also meant that Michael was going to have to get taken hostage by them for at least a little while, and when that happened KITT was off ferrying a kid and a wounded cop to the hospital (he was back pretty quickly though).

The paramilitary-type robbers quickly showed just how serious they were -- they had the husband of one of their hostages turn on his TV and then pretended to let a different hostage go free in order to have hubby-at-home see them shoot a hostage in the back for no reason. Clearly it was all part of their grand plan, but it did mean that they were a little busy and Michael was able to text a message to KITT and company about how many robbers there were and was able to let his chums know that the bank was wired with explosives. After that though, Michael's cell got taken by a robber and he had to trade it for a gun that he found in one of the safety deposit boxes the robbers had him opening.

Eventually, the robbers issued their list of demands, they were of the usual "vans and jets for transportation" variety, which got our folks back at KNIGHT wondering why the gunmen didn't want a flight crew on the jet. They didn't so much have an answer, but they at least had the question, which led them to the idea (somehow, don't ask exactly how, I'm pretty sure the logic is flawed) that one of hostages or robbers was a pilot. It wasn't at all true, but at least the folks at KNIGHT were trying.

That bit, while vaguely important (but not really), was nowhere near as interesting as what was happening with Michael. He took a break from busting into the safety deposit boxes in order to try and take one of them down. Poor Michael, he clearly hasn't watched enough television, because if he had, he would have known that one of the hostages was of course not a hostage but rather a robber. Michael's little takeover failed, and, as the thieves were feeling overly confident, they spilled the beans on their plan to Michael. It involved them getting numbered offshore bank accounts out of the boxes and having the mob/drug lawyer who had stashed them there give the robbers the necessary codenames to access the accounts. The robbers had even thought ahead, bringing the lawyer in with them at the beginning by dressing him as a robber. The robbers had also stashed some acid and gas masks in the vault to help with their escape. Head spinning yet? Yeah, it was what I like to think of as a "Knight Rider moment."

Then, in a "Dark Knight moment" the robbers dressed the hostages as robbers and taped the guns to their hands. KITT got to play the Batman role there, he identified Michael as one of the "gunmen" when the hostages and "gunmen" exited the building. And that, was when that hubby-at-home came into play -- he had the ability to shut down the power grid, which meant that the gunmen could use their stashed acid to make a hole in the floor and access underground tunnels, the sewer system, the flood control system, and the subway. All I can say to that is "wow."

Michael followed underground, quickly taking out a bad guy or two, KITT followed aboveground (he tracked the cell signal), and they converged on the remnants of the robbers at almost exactly the same moment. How fortuitous! Our bad guys folded like a house of cards, all except the girl who was pretending to be hostage, she tried to bribe Michael and then fell off the side of a cliff instead.

And, next week Tiki Barber will be on. Tiki Barber! I wonder if he'll get to be The Joker.

Question of the Knight -- how is it possible that when KITT dropped the police officer and the girl at the hospital none of the hospital staff were bothered that the girl apparently drove the car there and that no one was driving the car when it left? Okay, so that's kind of a foolish question, but it did cause me to wonder.

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we don't have acid, just gas.