Ok, so I Tivo’d the new Knight Rider movie/pilot because I though my boys, who like shows about cars, might enjoy it. Apparently it bored my Eldest, so that they only watched the first few minutes.
I finally watched the teaser and started the first act and while the car was pretty cool (the little I saw) and it was compelling in a vacuous action show kind of way, I decided I had better things to do after 15-ish minutes.
However, I was really displeased by the first time we see “Michael” (whom I assume is the new main character). We first see him in bed sleeping with a (nude?) hot chick (good for him and all that), and he is joined, within a minute or so, by another scantily clad hot chick–the suggestion being that the three of them had a wild night is rather obvious. Ok, so more power to him, his powers of persuasion and his virility, but really, is this necessary in a show that clearly hopes to capture a younger demographic that would include fairly young kids? Further, there is little doubt that the scene was a throw-away one that was not central to plot or character development, unless the new Knight Rider isn’t just about a cool talking car and ’splosions, but is also about the complexities of polyamory.
I am aware that kids often ignore things outside of their experience. When I was six years old, and enthralled with the original Star Trek, the whole “Kirk pulling on his boots” thing did not register. And I had no idea what Fonzie was up to. Regardless, one semi-nude woman in bed with the protagonist might, indeed, inspire questions from my kids, and certainly the two women in bed with hero isn’t the kind of thing that I should have to explain.
This reminds me of the blatant masturbation reference in Transformers. My Middle Son loves Transformers but I am not going to buy the DVD because of that ref and several others unnecessary items that I felt were wholly unneeded in that film.
I know that at some point my kids will learn all number of things, and much of it will be learned earlier than I would prefer that they learn them. Still, why do the producers of these shows/movies include wholly unnecessary items in materials that they are clearly marketing to my kids? To wit: the threesome fantasy suggested in Knight Rider scene may well titillate the twenty somethings who watched the movie, but the KITT toys are going to marketing to my kids (although granted, some of the adults will buy the toys as well).
Ok, enough with the ranting.