A young loner.....really?

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MrSmith
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A young loner.....really?

Post by MrSmith » Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:44 am

The opening narration tell us...... "Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless,..."



Do you really believe that?

Is that really true?


He is always flirting with Bonnie, April, any female within arms length of him,

I would describe a loner someone who avoids contact with people, a quiet, shy person

Michael is anything but shy or modest.



He doesn't even work alone, he works side by side with KITT and a lesser extent with Bonnie and Devon...and even to a lesser extent with the usually females he is helping out.


Do you really consider Michael a loner?

I don't.

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Deveo » Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:35 am

Really strange indeed, he wasn't even a loner before he became Michael Knight. He had a work partner, Montzi. I guess the word 'loner' just sounded better to sell the story.

I personally would have loved to see an episode relating to that partner.
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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by jup » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:14 pm

That's a very good point. Despite the fact that Kitt (William Danials) doesn't get a credit for playing the car, Michael would really be in trouble, if it wasn't for his whole support team. (Kitt/Bonnie/Devon/the whole Foundation/bla, bla, bla.) If you start to analyze it all, it even makes Michael look bad for taking all the credit where others are deserving. Sure. He's out there, doing the field work and interacting with the public. Until RC, he rarely had any 'human' assistance while conducting investigations. But, we all know that KITT isn't just a computer on wheels.

Ending rant, before I start saying that Kitt was way too undersold.

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by MrSmith » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:52 pm

I'm not complaining, its more just an observation and thoughts I've had going on in my head over the last few weeks, wanted to get them out of my head and see what others thought as well.


If you only saw the opening narration and never watched the show itself, you would get the impression the show was quite dark, serious, Michael was this mystical loner, on a crusade, maybe a vengeance mission or something.

The show is in reality quite light hearted, he jokes around, he flirts, he womanizes a bit.

a bit of a lad really.

Michael comes accross as a very easy going, likeable sort of person, the sort of bloke you could go the the pub with and have some beers.

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by KITTfan » Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:10 am

Perhaps it comes from the Pilot episode as Wilton suggested they'd team up to catch Tanya and her gang but as Montzi died, Michael wanted to work alone as he didn't want to be responsible from anyone elses life but his own.
Also, in White Bird Michael wanted to quit from FLAG to be with Stevie but Devon reminded how many enemies Michael may have made so he still was kind of loner as he couldn't get married and have a family etc. until of course A Scent of Roses but look what happened.

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Micaela Knight » Sat Feb 09, 2013 1:16 am

That's what I was going to say, KITTfan. It may have been in the original concept for the show, but the show evolved, as TV shows do. Michael strikes me as someone who's comfortable in his own company, and maybe is a bit of an introvert, but also enjoys the company of other people, especially the ladies. :) He actually reminds me of myself a bit in that way.
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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Matthew » Sat Feb 09, 2013 2:30 am

What you guys have to remember is that Michael's relationship with Devon and Bonnie was strained at best in the early episodes. Hearts of Stone was the first time we saw a difference in his relationship with Devon. Until then, out of the people around him, Michael only really got along with KITT, and even then their relationship wasn't the brotherhood it'd later become.

When it comes to the damsels in distress, I get the sense that a lot of that was him compensating for all he'd lost. After all, the man went from working out of a squad room with (presumably many) friends and colleagues, to living through the nightmare of his own death and spending most of his time alone, save for KITT.

Matt

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Micaela Knight » Sat Feb 09, 2013 12:11 pm

Excellent point, Matthew (and thanks for the welcome!) What I really see in the early part of the show is that Michael is hurting from the loss of his partner, and so really doesn't want to run the risk of getting close to, or becoming dependent upon, anyone again, in any way. His flirting is, IMO, his way of getting up to that line, but not crossing it. Heck, we even see it in his reluctance to let KITT help him. His cockiness in the first few episodes may be his defensive mechanism, so to speak. It also presents the opportunity for some humor, as KITT proceeds to take him down a few notches. Interestingly, though, it's also made quite clear early on that Michael has a big heart and is a genuinely kind man. A fascinating character, right out of the gate.
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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Tzigone » Sun Jun 23, 2013 5:53 pm

MrSmith wrote:The opening narration tell us...... "Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless,..."



Do you really believe that?

Is that really true?
I actually made fun of that when watching the DVDs - hadn't seen the show in a long time and had never previously really thought about the opening narration. No, I definitely do not think Michael is a loner. To me, a loner doesn't have to shy or celibate, but should prefer their own company and not have any deep emotional connections. Michael always seemed a very social person to me, one who liked to be at the party, if you know what I mean. But it sounds cool, and I guess that's what matters.

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Re: A young loner.....really?

Post by Clare82 » Mon Jun 24, 2013 4:14 pm

I always thought that "A young loner" sounded way too cool ;)
But I see both sides to the argument.
In my opinion he can be classed as a loner because his friend was killed, his wife was killed and apart from his work colleagues (even though they were like his family), he really didn't seem to have anyone.
But I think mainly because he didn't have any family attachments...at the time the season intro was written, Michael Knight had only just come into existance so I guess he had nothing.
As the series progressed he obviously did build relationships but when you have an intro that is so well known, you can't just change it can you? That would just seem so wrong to me :)
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