MovieChat Forums > Street Hawk (1985) Discussion > The core problems of this show

The core problems of this show

posted 8 months ago by avortac4 (3751)
4 replies | jump to latest

It's easy to fathom the story of a kid, who grew up with Battlestar Galactica (1978 and 1980) and Knight Rider.

That kind loved all the cool 'lasers' and 'robots' and 'technology' and 'talking cars' and glowing panels of pure future sci-fi tech and 'magical' abilities and so on and so forth.

So when all of that was starting to end, and the kid wants more, and starts looking at all kinds of directions, the horrid realization is - there IS no more. Sad truth of so many things. There will never be more of 'The Matrix' (NONE of the sequels give you actually 'more of this'), just for one example.

This kid doesn't realize this, however, and desperately starts grasping at anything that might seem like a 'replacement', so this kid eventually bumps into MacGyver and Street Hawk.

MacGyver seemed like a downgrade from all the excitement of space blasting robots and indestructible, 'magical', talking cars. He seemed to be just a mundane, non-magical, non-techy, non-futuristic, etc. guy, who just tinkers with normal things and nothing that interesting happens.

It is always the weird and cartoonish 'casino' episode that makes it seem elevated - with the 'bending light tubes' and other weird, but cool hacks, it looks like it could actually be a great show, after all.

Now, Street Hawk promises a lot, but does it deliver?

I mean, after coming from K.I.T.T. and K.A.R.R., you expect this would be 'that, but instead of a car, it would be a motorcycle'. Had it BEEN that, maybe things could have been interesting.

However, this is NOT that.

I don't know if the concept had anything to do with Knight Rider or K.I.T.T., but as a kid watching this after those other shows, you are almost guaranteed to be heavily disappointed. This is way more mundane, less 'magical', the bike is just something R/C (was that his name?) would ride in the sillier episodes of Knight Rider.

The main problems of this 'bike replacement' thing is, that it's not 'big enough'. What I mean is not the physical size (though it factors in), but that the bike just isn't magical, interesting, feature-packed, or different from a regular motorbike ENOUGH.

I don't remember if the helmet has any 'tech HUD', but K.I.T.T. had all kinds of interesting scanning and manipulating abilities, even telekinesis. You could scan anything, you could analyze anything, you would get visuals of molecular level or a large map depicting locations, a blueprint of a factory or office building and so on.

What can this bike 'scan'?

The main problems, the very CORE of the problems are:

- The bike is not 'interesting' enough - it's just a fast bike with some guns or whatnot. It's abilities do not make a kid excited the way K.I.T.T.'s 'magical' ones do

- The bike does not have a 'presence'.

This is a huge one, and hard to explain. First of all, the rider is always on top of the bike, and seems physically bigger, more menacing than the tiny bike itself. The bike doesn't come off as an eerie, ghostly figure, capable of operating by itself, like K.I.T.T. does. I can't imagine this bike doing 5% of the interesting stuff the car has done in the show, like mimicking 'multiple caps arriving', breaking through prison walls, taking gunshots, eluding thieves, escaping facilities, meeting its long-lost brother (sort of), making humorous statements ("I have a strange feeling about this" Michael: "What are you talking about, you have no feelings!" K.I.T.T.: "I know, that's what's strange about it." - as a kid, this is just cool and eerie, as an adult, it's funny as fjord)

The physical size, unfortunately, matters. This kind of a car can have a menacing presence (look at how much K.A.R.R. scares the drunkards and even other people). That car can appear to be a 'ghost', some unexplainable monster to be scared of, it can arrive in a very powerful and impactful way, and when it jumps over or through something, it's explosive and immense.

A very fast motorbike with a couple of guns? Err... I mean, cool, I guess.. maybe?

Even if this bike WAS bulletproof, this feature would not protect the driver/rider. With K.I.T.T. being bulletproof, it's a whole different and more 'omnipotent being is protecting you' feel.

This bike just doesn't have what K.I.T.T. has, and of course the last nail in that coffin (besides so many things I omitted) is that.. the bike has no personality.

The bike is, instead of a cool, magical wizard the protagonist knows, who can summon any kind of amazing and useful magical things, is like a turbo hammer. It's a fine tool, can do more than a regular hammer, but at the end of the day, it just sits there, doing nothing.

It does not start pondering about mysteries of life, existence, Xeno's paradox or anything when it is left alone, its scanner slowly humming while camera pans out. This kind of atmospheric scene with all its philosophical emotional impact would be impossible with this bike.

The bike does not talk. Does it even have a name?

[–] avortac4 (3751) 8 months ago

Everything a kid would love about K.I.T.T., every reason to watch a show like this, is missing from this show and this bike.

The bike is just a boring thing. There is no massive, almost endless 'computer panel' with million glowing buttons, switches, gauges, displays, screens and so on. There is nothing visually interesting to look at - a slightly modified motorbike? Okay, so when can we watch more Knight Rider?

I don't know if the makers of the show aimed it to be any kind of replacement for K.I.T.T., but even Airwolf does better job at 'magical vehicle', except I don't think even that helicopter has 'sentience' you can have conversations with.

It's like the makers of these shows failed to realize how to engage a kid's imagination. Knight Rider was the only show that did it right after the robotic fights in space in Battlestar Galactica.

It looks like they just thought, 'well, a slightly-modified, 'cool' version of a vehicle is enough to make a good show', and they failed to consider how much kids love 'otherworldly' and 'magical' stuff, even if it doesn't make that much sense.

Airwolf was an 'OK' show, but it failed where Knight Rider succeeded - it did not create a 'magical' feel for the helicopter the same way K.I.T.T. almost felt 'omnipotent' at times. It did not elevate (no pun intended) a helicopter enough to make it more interesting, more 'unreal' and 'fantasy-fulfilling'. I mean, Street Hawk's motorcycle and Airwolf's helicopter - both are just 'somewhat, but not enough' enhanced versions of REGULAR helicopter and motorcycle.

K.I.T.T. is not even a car, it's more like a 'robotic entity that happens to exist in a shape of a car' - heck, it might just as well have been of Extra-Terrestrial origin!

'Slightly modified' is just NOT enough - it does NOT deliver. The intro promises more than it delivers, but then, so does Knight Rider's mystical purple desert intro. When you go from that intro to Michael just talking to some farmer on a sunny day..

[–] avortac4 (3751) 8 months ago

..in mundaneville, California, and you have to somehow keep your interest as the show tries to make you care about some ridiculous wealthy farm owner's thug problem, it's not exactly QUITE what a kid with a wild imagination would be inspired to imagine when watching the intro.

This was the problem of many shows, of course, but Knight Rider is salvaged due to K.I.T.T. eventually delivering all kinds of 'magical moments', being such an 'omnipotent friend' instead of just a mundane tool, and goes beyond the mundane and boring in so many ways.

K.I.T.T. is interesting, whereas this plastic moped is boring. So what if it has a few glowy buttons, when all it can do is drive and shoot?

A motorbike jumping over something is never going to be as interesting as a friggin' CAR doing the same. That's why the car succeeds, where a bike fails.

There is a big difference between something that encompasses you, takes care of you, protects you, AND can operate independently and talk with you, and something you simply... sit on.

A motorbike is basically just a moving chair. A car is a slightly reduced room with mobility, it's like a mini-lair, almost. It's a portable base of operations you can do all kinds of amazing things with.

So the core problem is, they underestimated how important it is to have a big PRESENCE, a big personality, and a myriad of faculties, options, features and capabilities. The bike fails to do anything that made those cars so interesting.

With Knight Rider, a kid can wade through the boring romance storyline, because he knows the amazing wizard friend in the shape of a car is waiting, and going to do something cool and amazing sooner or later.

With Street Hawk... not so much. You know the bike is boring, so there's NOTHING to help you wade through the mundane boredom, so as a kid, you can't really enjoy this show or be excited about it, especially after seeing those more interesting shows.

The intro uses oscillator sync way too much, by the way..

[–] cv1cv (515) 8 months ago

BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.

[–] quartz (482) 8 months ago

[yeah, I did]

he is actually a troll, though. the media labels bullies as trolls. all trolls do is post stuff to get a reaction. the dictionary definition of a troll isn't someone who's nasty. "Manchester United are crap" is trolling. he isn't nasty, he just posts......random shoit (and no I don't read most of it)